Oh, you can hear Morning Edition and All Things Considered and Garrison Keillor in Yakima on 90.3 FM. But KNWY isn’t a local station. It’s just one transmitter owned by Northwest Public Radio, a network based at Washington State University, and every sound you hear on it arrives via satellite from Pullman, Washington.

Northwest Public Radio is a big operation, if you judge size by number of stations, but it’s really just two Pullman radio stations writ large. I’m happy they’re there, but I long for them to do a better job, or to decentralize.

By occupying the only FM non-commercial channel Yakima has, NWPR deprives this and at least another dozen Washington towns of locally-produced community radio. What would Yakima public radio be like? Hard to know, since radio hasn’t tried to develop unique local sounds for generations. And local people have been taught not to try to play in the broadcasting sandbox and to expect little from hometown radio.

Only newspapers have remained authentically local. Actually, newspapers have a better chance to break new local ground than radio, because they must convert to digital distribution, and they’re learning fast. Radio is totally networked and, frankly, the owners aren’t very smart. Radio people think “local” means the weather report. They think local life is a tune-out.

Maybe I’ll try to brainstorm some ideas to move Yakima radio into the digital century; to take advantage of the massive opportunity I believe exists. You can join me, by commenting here, or on Facebook.

Disclaimer: You can argue there are notable exceptions to my judgments of radio. I can’t be bothered.

Disclosure: I worked in and around the U.S. radio business most of my life. I love radio — what it was, what it could be, and, occasionally, what it has become.

Definitions: When I say “radio” I mean the patterns and streams of sound that have come out of the speaker for almost a hundred years. Not the wires and waves. Although the physics and mechanics of radio are a fascinating world all their own — the original exploitation of the electromagnetic pulse of the Universe, capital U. Sometimes when I say “radio” I mean the American radio broadcasting business — the industry. You’ll be able to tell which I mean from my context.