This is a confusing world on so many levels. People clearly want media content about their community and yet the corporately owned media across the country doesn’t seem to understand that simple fact.

The latest case in point is the dismissal of Adam Wright and Bo Sullivan from WHYN, an iHeartMedia station, formerly known as Clear Channel Communications.

Their morning show, the only local programming on the heritage radio station, will be replaced by Jim Polito’s morning show he does for WTAG in Worcester.

WHYN will carry a simulcast and Polito will apparently do a show that can satisfy both markets.

Full disclosure: I’ve know all three gentlemen named so far in this column for years and am privileged to count them as friends.

I think this move was a lousy thing to do to Sullivan and Wright and will put Polito in a tough programming position.  Let’s face it: Worcester and Springfield have relatively little in common and listeners in both communities will undoubtedly feel a bit cheated.

It’s a no win situation.

Springfield and Hartford have economic and historic links, but Springfield and Worcester do not.

I would venture to say the populations of the two markets care little about what is happening in the other.

This is the latest sad chapter in the station’s history.  WHYN was founded in 1941 as a business partnership between the owners of the Holyoke Transcript and the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Later the company established the first FM station licensed in Springfield and founded WHYN television in 1953.

It was a powerhouse AM/FM station, which when I was growing up was one of the dominant Top 40 music stations in the area.

Later it, as many other AM stations did, transitioned to a news/talk format. Its owners shed established and popular personalities on both the AM and FM sides and brought in syndicated programming that removed its local identity even more.

Radio, as far as I’m concerned, is still a medium with much potential, just as newspapers remain. The strategic challenge is to present compelling local content on multiple platforms to reach an audience in the manner that is most convenient to their lifestyle. 

A non-issue

While people debate about the need for transgender public facilities I would like to pose a question to you: if you see a person come into a lavatory, go into a stall, shut the door and do their business, how do you know whether or not they are transgender?

If the person in question looks like a man or a woman and carries himself or herself accordingly, how do you really know? Why would you care?

By the way, a standard estimate based on surveys conducted in 2011 – and it is an estimate – for the size of the transgender population in the United States is 0.3 percent or about 700,000 people.

This is a smoke screen, a diversion, and a non-issue. While people are being distracted other more pressing issues are not receiving your attention.

Look up Donald Trump’s views on the national debt and how it could affect your retirement plan, for instance.

That’s a more pressing issue in my opinion.  

It’s interesting to note that Connecticut has a law in place since 2011 prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations, while Maine has had a similar law since 2005. Don’t you think we would have heard of assaults in restrooms, if they had happened in these neighboring states?

I know there is a lot of pressing issues with which to keep up with, especially during this election year, but this is not one of them.

This column is the opinion of its author and does not necessarily reflect the position of the owners or advertisers of this newspaper. Got a comment about this story? Go to http://speakout.thereminder.com and let us know.