When WELD editor Nick Patterson isn't reading and writing for that weekly newspaper, he's listening to WBHM.
Nick Patterson is the editor of the weekly newspaper WELD, and joins WBHM each Thursday during All Things Considered to discuss the week’s news. He’s not just one of the voices you hear on WBHM. He’s also a member and a fan.
“I love the education stories and the in depth news stories,” says Patterson. “I love the fact that WBHM, as an NPR affiliate, really connects you to some of the best journalism you’re going to hear in any broadcast medium.”
When he’s not writing for and reading WELD, he’s listening to the radio.
“I listen to WBHM in my car, sometimes at home, because, really, when you need the news right now, this is the place to get it,” Patterson says.
But there’s also one other reason this print journalist likes WBHM. He doesn’t have to worry about punctuation. Especially the Oxford comma.
“That always comes up as an issue I have to deal with,” says Patterson of the tricky comma.
For the uninitiated, Patterson explains: “The Oxford comma is the comma that you put before the ‘and’ in a series in a sentence. Sometimes you have three things that you mention. At the one just before the ‘and’ you have to make a decision. Do you put a comma before it…or not?”
“When I worked at the Birmingham Post-Herald, we used the Oxford comma quite frequently. Now that I’m working at WELD, we basically decided we wouldn’t,” says Patterson. “It feels weird because I have to take the Oxford comma out, not only of my own writing, but of other peoples’ writing as well. It feels sort of like I’m betraying the Oxford comma.”
One thing he says he’d never betray? The public radio station he loves.
“WBHM: Whether you like the Oxford comma or not, it’s great public radio in Birmingham,” Patterson says.
Dr. Christina Ochsenbauer says, “I’m originally from Germany and now I live in Homewood, for the past 20 years. I discovered WBHM when I came here from Europe, and I like to listen to it because it provides the in-depth coverage of national and world news that I was used to from home. I couldn’t […]
Dr. John Kappes says, “I’m originally from the Cincinnati, Ohio area and I’ve been in Birmingham for 30 years. I used to drive down 280, and there were a lot of choices up and down the radio. And it just came to be that I listened to a radio station, WBHM, supported and based here […]
Ryan Jones grew up in Hoover but he travels the world regularly, and he says, “I work a lot outside of Alabama … I’ve had to go to different places throughout the South and across the country, and really around the world. And one of the things that WBHM gives me is it gives me […]
Catherine Mayo of Birmingham says, “I have three children, six, eight, and nine. I turn WBHM on around seven o’clock in the morning and it’s usually still playing until seven at night. Because WBHM is playing throughout our house all day, a lot of conversations are sparked that we normally would not have. And it […]
“My name is Brent Womble. I support WBHM and I listen to it all day, every day.” “I started listening to WBHM either 2013 or 2014, and I decided to become a member in the fall fund drive of last year.” “You know, something that’s said a lot on the air during the fund drive […]
“My name is Josh Rutsky. I am the coach of the Hoover High School Quiz Bowl team and I have been a member of WBHM for one year now.” “When one of my students on the high school quiz bowl team that I coach asked me, ‘Well how do you study current events? How do […]
