Bill Haberman of WPRO radio appeared this week on “Behind the Story” to discuss covering snowstorms and the evolution of talk radio in Rhode Island’s media landscape.
Bill Haberman, a morning host and news aficionado, is a familiar voice in the state. He hosts an early-morning show and delivers news at the top and bottom of the hour each weekday on WPRO.
He spoke about the station’s longtime brand, “Operation Snowball,” and how relaying school closures and cancellations has changed as real-time information has become more accessible.
“It used to be a real undertaking because literally all the staff — the sales staff, the promotion staff, the administrators — would have to come in and answer phones,” Haberman said. “And if you got a surprise snow, nobody was there to answer the phones, so it was a real disaster.”
Haberman is also the public announcer for Brown University athletics. He said he learned about the deadly December attack through an alert system he receives from the school and recalled thinking, “I hope this is a mistake.”
“How many times have you seen people in any of these scenarios say, ‘I can’t imagine it happening here,’ and then you’re saying the same thing?” he said. “It’s terrible.”
Haberman has witnessed the transformation of radio over the past two decades and said that while the medium has contracted alongside other platforms, it remains uniquely effective in Rhode Island.
“It’s relentlessly Rhode Island,” he said of talk radio, which airs local programming throughout the day on WPRO. “It’s steeped in Rhode Island. It’s the world through a Rhode Island lens.”
Later in the show, Kim and Eli talked about the “stories we wish we wrote,” including (not all mentioned on air):
Watch “Behind the Story” Thursdays at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on the WPRI 12+ TV app.
It airs on TV (Sundays at 8 a.m. on FOX Providence and 11 a.m. on The CW Providence), and will be available on demand through the WPRI 12+ app and right here on WPRI.com.
“Behind the Story” is hosted by Eli Sherman and Kim Kalunian of 12 News, along with Dan McGowan of the Boston Globe.