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WOUB Member Spotlight: Bob Scott Placier
< < Back toPlacier has been a member of WOUB since 1991
ATHENS, OH – While Bob Scott Placier’s passions, interests, career and hobbies have changed over his years living in southeast Ohio, there’s one thing that’s stayed the same. Bob Scott has always been able to learn and grow in those interests through WOUB Public Media.
“I love music, I love nature, and I value the quality news and information I can get from NPR,” said Placier. “And I can get that all by listening to WOUB FM.”
Placier grew up in Chillicothe, went to college at Ohio University and now lives in Vinton County. He is a retired Hocking College professor and a forest ecologist with a special interest in birds.
“I’m president of the Ohio Bird Banding Association, and I spend a lot of my time in the spring, fall and winter catching birds at my home and putting bands on their legs to track where they go and how long they live in the wild.”
Placier became a member of WOUB in 1991 because he says he knew it was something he needed to do. At the time, he was a fan of Bluegrass and Folk music programming. But, over time, he drifted away from Bluegrass and toward the news, information and entertainment programming on WOUB. Placier enjoyed a program that used to run on WOUB called Below the Salt. He also likes Morning Edition, Fresh Air, Science Friday and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me.
“I still tune in for music, but I rely on WOUB more for news now,” said Placier. “In the beginning, it was music. But I kept discovering more things I liked on WOUB and have continued to be a member.”
Placier is glad that WOUB is a part of the Ohio Valley Resource, a regional journalism collaborative reporting on economic and social change in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia.
“I am an Appalachian. When I worked at Hocking College, I was doing work with Appalachian people to improve their lives. And any attention to issues that people in this region face, I truly appreciate,” said Placier. “I love to read, and I picked up the Ohio Valley Resource book Appalachian Fall at the bookstore. I look forward to reading it.”
Placier has seen several episodes of the WOUB Our Town series. He attended the premiere of Our Town: Athens at Memorial Auditorium in 2018 and looks forward to the premiere of the next one in the series. It’s about his hometown of Chillicothe.
“I’m really excited to be able to go see Our Town: Chillicothe at the Majestic Theatre,” said Placier. “I honestly don’t know what I would do without WOUB. I get international, national and regional news from WOUB. There’s not much else out there in our rural part of Ohio. WOUB is really important.”