Warren olney, radio host, kcrw “which way, l.a.?” and “to the point”
Slate.com
We started doing “Which Way, L.A.?” in 1992, and it seems to me that I started using the Internet right around the time we began that show. We do two shows a day now and I really think the Internet is one of the principal reasons it is possible for us to do that.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Internet allows us to do our national program, “To the Point,” which is competitive with the programs that come out of the political capitals, like Washington, D.C. and New York, because we have access to all the same information they have.
One of the sites I use all the time for our national show is Slate.com because it has a great summary of the day’s news from all the major papers in the nation the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. It gives me a good sense of what other people are doing and what the hot news story of the day is. We get a lot of show ideas out of it, then the producers and I will go through and read the articles. I also the use the Web sites for all those papers that are included on Slate.com to get story ideas, background information and other material.
Other Destinations
rtumble.com For state issues and news, I use rtumble.com. It’s focused on California, but it’s very extensive and useful. It has stories from all the major papers in the state, and many of the minor papers, which are great for finding story ideas. It’s also great for research because it has the leads and summaries of all the articles and direct links to the full text of those articles. It’s really a great site.
CNN.com This site is also useful to keep up with whatever the big story of the day is. Msnbc.com is also really good for that and I also use hotline.com because it’s a great source of national news for political insiders. NationalJournal.com is another really good site because it always has great stories and breaking national political news.
jpl.nasa.gov I love the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Web site. That’s a really good one. I’ve been interested in astronomy ever since I was a little kid, so when I have time I’ll check it out just to see what’s going on and what kind of news stories are breaking.
spaceflightnow.com This is another site I access a lot because it has amazing stories, pictures and all kinds of information and news. I also use astronomynow.com, which is very similar. I wouldn’t call myself an astronomy buff, because I’m not really that informed about it, but it is one of those things that the Internet has made me more aware of.
