Bartholomewtown News I: Who is Bill Bartholomew?

Bill Bartholomew

I’m a native Rhode Islander, a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, a member of the band silverteeth, and after a decade in Brooklyn, NY, in 2016, I decided to make my way back to the Ocean State, first via a stint in Newport, and now Providence.

I grew up in a rural area in the southern part of the state, and local media outlets ranging from Channel 10 to The Providence Phoenix served as pipelines to a broader conversation surrounding politics, music and beyond throughout my youth, which took place at the tail end of the analog age.

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Though I maintained an interest in Rhode Island politics during my time in New York, it wasn’t until I returned to the Rhody that I realized how drastic many of the changes in local media actually were, and how those changes were affecting the dissemination of information from the political and artistic spheres to the general public.  The signing-off of WBRU, the termination of the Phoenix and shrinking newsrooms throughout the state’s media ecosystem were all indicators of a broader trend in content consumption.  
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However, there was an upside to this scenario, and one that I believe parallels the shifting nature of the music industry: the rise of independent media.  The Hummel Report, Uprise RI and this very media platform, 990WBOB were digging into many of the problems that the traditional media were simply unable to attack in the current financial climate, and oftentimes doing so in more in-depth and interesting ways than traditional institutions.  

With several independent media platforms filling out a strong complement of outlets in the market, I wanted to launch a project that would allow the people who, in my view, are the major creators and distributors of pivotal information, to express themselves at length so that potential voters, listeners and followers could have a more complete understanding of an individual than if they had only listened to that individual on radio, watched on television or read online or in print.  

With this in mind, I decided to create The Bartholomewtown Podcast, my first full-scale broadcast project, in which I have welcomed to my loft studio for lengthy conversations many office holders and candidates, members of the media that covers them, and members of the artist community who respond to their actions.  The podcast is updated weekly with multiple episodes, and has also spawned a weekly column in Motif Magazine.

Still looking to connect the project to a broader and interactive audience, I wanted to find a talk radio platform to allow the listeners and followers of Bartholomewtown to respond, interact and experience a live format program.  With that…
I’m excited to announce the launch of Bartholomewtown Radio, Tuesday evenings at 7pm on 990wbob.com.  You’ll also be able to find this blog column each Wednesday right here on 990wbob.com!

This weekly blog will address a variety of topics that we discuss on the radio show, ranging from politics to music, and we want to hear from YOU!

LOVE LETTERS AND HATE MAIL:  
Maybe we’ll read your message LIVE! on air or print YOUR message in the blog piece.

SPEAK YOUR MIND:
Bartholomewtown
669 Elmwood Avenue
Suite C-5
Providence, RI 02907
Or email me at: [email protected]
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram: @billbartholomew

MUSICALLY SPEAKING:
Catch you this Friday August 10th… my bahhhhnd silverteeth are at The Columbus Theatre in Providence… Tickets
I’ll also be at The Newport Independent Music Festival this Saturday August 11th w/ Gabriela Rassi for a folk set…
BE ON THE LOOKOUT:
Be sure to catch the Past Cast of this week’s episode of Bartholomewtown Radio… and check out the pod at Bartholomewtown.com

On that note, welcome to Bartholomewtown, kids

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