IBEW Says Buy Local, Watch Local, Listen Local

By Melissa Meinzer on Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 11:31 am

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Have you seen that billboard on I-64 West from IBEW Local 4 with the picture of the traffic light, pointing out that locally-produced radio and television stations have the union's green light for you to check out?

"All the local newscasts in St. Louis are produced with IBEW Local 4," Michael Pendergast, the union's business manager, tells Daily RFT. "We're trying to help our stations because they're in competition with cable television."

The billboard, which went up this week, goes up every few years as a gentle reminder that shopping local extends to where you get your news.

"It goes from 'buy American' to 'buy local' to 'buy union,'" Pendergast says. "We'd rather have people watch our local news than out-of-town."

What do you think? Is it more important to support local journos -- or is it better to hear what Nancy Grace, Don Imus and Anderson Cooper have to say?