glbradiologo275155 Phillip Zonkel’s hour of interrogation by GreaterLongBeach.com publisher Dave Wielenga on the August 2 episode of Greater Long Beach Radio has been posted on KBEACH.org, where it can be accessed from the station archives as well as downloaded as a podcast. [CLICK HERE TO LISTEN]

Zonkel’s appearance generated a discussion that ranged from the specifics of terminology to the principles of journalism to the benefits and potential pitfalls of  a blog that determines newsworthyness by its appeal to a specific community. 

Zonkel is a Press-Telegram reporter whose two-year-old blog, “Out In The 562,” is the most journalistically rooted and topically diverse source of news and information for the local lesbian / gay / bisexual / transgendered community.

A collaboration of GreaterLongBeach.com and Cal State Long Beach’s online radio station KBEACH.org, Greater Long Beach Radio goes live every Thursday at 6 p.m. from studios located on the bottom floor of the University Student Union. All shows can also be heard 24/7 by accessing the KBEACH.org archives or by downloading a podcast.

Zonkel, a longtime general assignment reporter for the Press-Telegram, debuted “Out In The 562″ on June 10, 2010, with a post about Mexican pop singer Christian Chavez, who had just performed at the Long Beach Gay Pride festival.

“Over and over I had noticed various stories and events that deserved to be reported but were not being covered, for whatever reason—usually because there simply wasn’t enough room in the paper,” Zonkel recounts. “Putting them in a blog solved the space problem. But I also wondered whether there were enough of those stories to sustain a 24-hour-a-day blog.”

 ”Out In The 562″ recently posted its 1,200th entry.

“I think the blog has really given a voice to the gay and lesbian population,”says Zonkel.

But what qualifies a story, event or issue to appear in “Out In The 562?” Does the meaning of a topic change when it is categorized as gay? What extra opportunities are presented? What about the dangers of reducing the exploration of an issue by pandering to a specific audience?

 And speaking of things L and B and G and T, the executive director of The Center Long Beach—Porter Gilberg—was the featured guest on the March 7, 2012, edition of Greater Long Beach Radio. Feel free to give it listen.

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