WCPN Promos Roldo Online Archive

"Cleveland gadfly or Cleveland's conscience? 90.3 wants you to decide," says the WCPN on-air promo. It directs attention to the online archive of Roldo Bartimole's life's work, on ClevelandMemory.org. This is yet another sterling initiative organized by the fearless Bill Barrow, who's also head of the Cleveland Press archives, deposited in the CSU Library. This presumably wasn't the kind of thing that legislative-strongman-turned-superlobbyist Pat Sweeney had in mind when he ramrodded a bill through the Ohio Legislature some years ago forcing a shotgun marriage between Cleveland State and the local public radio station. It's that same legislation you can thank for those endlessly inane radio spots hailing the most obscure boasts of this most mediocre of urban universities--the fact that some department was judged third best on some obscure academic ranking. But this on-air spot, on the other hand, which began airing last week, seems worth them all. But in case Roldo's feeling too good about that, we thought we'd send along this cause for mild heartburn, a photo of his longtime foil, PD publisher Alex Machaskee, playing his beloved ethnic instruments. A real keeper, we'd say.