By Ed Otte
Local public radio stations are a valuable part of people’s lives in rural Colorado.
“In isolated mountain communities, public radio stations are vital for them,” said Bente Birkeland, capitol coverage reporter for Rocky Mountain Community Radio.
Bente Birkeland, capitol coverage reporter for Rocky Mountain Community Radio.
“They have information about local events, everything from meetings to fundraisers. Most are NPR members so they have national and international news. And they select their own music playlist. It’s a different vibe, it’s fun.”
Birkeland spoke at the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter Fireside Chat on Jan. 15 at the Denver Press Club.
RMCR stations are in Colorado farm and ranch communities in Ignacio and Westcliffe and the Telluride and Aspen ski towns as well as Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder. Birkeland provides year-round state government news coverage to the 17 non-commercial public stations. Listeners hear more of her audio feeds during the annual legislative session, which began Jan. 8.
Birkeland and her editor, KUNC news director Brian Larson in Greeley, discuss story ideas for the RMCR audience.
“We determine what statewide stories to send them, stories they can’t get anywhere else,” she said. “Some of these stations are a little isolated and small. They don’t have a news director.”
Some stations partner with local newspapers to bolster their news coverage. Birkeland cited KBUT in Crested Butte as an example where Crested Butte News staffers read their stories on air and the weekly paper has a website link to KBUT. The station’s website lists recent stories including Birkeland’s audio reports from the first week of the session.
Not all of her stories occur in the capitol building.
Last November Birkeland interviewed the owner of the historic Sands Theater in Brush for a story about $200,000 in state funds to try and save 13 rural theaters struggling with the cost of conversion to digital equipment. The theaters range from The Ute Theatre in Saguache to the Crow Luther Cultural Events Center in Eads.
“The grant money led to that story outside of the capitol. I like doing those, going out to communities and telling the human impact.”
She also writes stories for RMCR members and her theater story and photos are archived on the KUNC website.
Birkeland began her RMCR work in 2006 and “the coverage has changed. Years ago I did a piece for the next morning. Now, I may do two stories each day and they play them that afternoon or evening. I also tweet when I’m covering events, not a lot but a few. Twitter is good social media but it doesn’t offer a chance for nuance or perspective.”
She has seen other changes in legislative coverage.
“We went through a period, a few years ago, when budgets were cut, the number of reporters really declined. But it’s back up now. Some papers again have reporters there each day, some added a second reporter. I think the capitol coverage is pretty robust now. It’s better when more people cover the legislature.”
Her prediction for this session?
“After all these years, you understand the ebbs and flows of the legislature,” she said. “It’s definitely always interesting but I don’t expect much to happen in an election year in terms of policy. Not much substance compared to last year.”
The outlook is so calm that a capitol pressroom colleague “was talking about Chris Christie and he said why can’t we have something like that.”
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Colorado Pro Chapter -- Society of Professional Journalists 
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