With questions about its choice of AT&T as a carrier, along with usual 1st generation jitters, who the heck wants to stand in line for the new iPhone? Not us! (Well, maybe some of us.) However we are totally down with getting one as long as it's free, and not free in that "annoying banner ad that's been on MySpace to get a "free" "iPhone" since its existence was announced earlier this year" kind of way.

Luckily for us, tomorrow Chicago Public Radio is giving away one 4 GB Apple iPhone every hour from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. Anyone who pledges is automatically entered all day long in the drawing.

Now THAT sounds like a good way to grab an iPhone! We'll gladly suffer any bugs or blips as long as the price is free.

We want to like Vocalo, we really do. But we’re finding it hard to put their broadcast stream ahead of WBEZ podcasts, our iTunes playlist, and Radio David Byrne.

Vocalo's grass-rootsy approach to public radio pairs the decentralized model of Internet communities with a younger, more diverse broadcasting staff. Drawing a more diverse audience was one of their stated goals and, to their credit, they're doing so by treating diversity as a fact of life in Chicago. There's no hand wringing, no fiery rhetoric, not even the tired old signposts of Important Minority Programming brought to you by A Concerned Local Foundation.

The best features we heard were nuanced, thoughtful and fun. A reporter shifts the focus of her scheduled interview with a Cabrini Green resident when she learns the community is still reeling from last night’s shooting; they discuss how hard it is to trust people the morning after. Hitting the local scene in search of comic relief, the hosts talked to performers with Drinking and Writing and Jokes and Notes. Teens and younger adults discussed dating adventures and volunteering in Uganda. And the staff connected with the locals in Chesterton, Indiana.

Vocalo's content isn't sponsored, allowing hosts and programmers to address their audience more directly. Think of it as less mediated media. One host even compared the station to small-scale communism, to each according to their own ability. But both that philosophy and the new station are messier in practice. Some features don't go anywhere or are barely disguised rants. Station promos occasionally cut into audio features, the hosts too often lose focus, lean on “uhs” and “ums” or dead air, and the live Internet stream bounces around, awkwardly cutting from music to conversation to features. Unless you live in northern Indiana, that stream is your only option.

Still, we see plenty of potential here. Vocalo’s making the effort to reach listeners more inclined to consume radio on their own time and terms. Programs are archived on the website, where registered users can post content and audio to the community blog (and we like online communities). If the wisdom of crowds holds, Vocalo could help guide the future of public radio.

Vocalo (pronounced "vo kuh low") broadcasts on 89.5 FM and streams live on Vocalo.org.

We have several areas of faux expertise. Ones we've gained from many years of watching TV shows on the subjects, reading novels on the subjects, reading news stories on the subjects and just being generally interested in the subjects. These subjects are law, medicine and weather. Needless to say, we've spent many hours with the Weather Channel on in the background. We've even had a favorite Weather Channel meteorologist (Dave Schwartz, anyone?) and we have a particular fondness for Tom Skilling, although everyone in the Chicagoist offices has their own favorite 'caster. We even tried to scientifically determine who was most accurate earlier on this year, but so far results have been inconclusive.

Regardless of who you prefer, the importance of weather forecasting in Chicagoland and its surrounding environs is pretty important, given the fact that the old joke that "if you don't like the weather, stick around five minutes" has actually been proven to be pretty realistic time and time again. It's not that unusual for the temperature to drop 20 degrees on a good cold front and for thunderstorms to rock the scene on a summer afternoon. (We absolutely love that stuff, by the way.)

So, it's pretty bizarre and creepy that weatherpersons in Illinois and Wisconsin spent days checking out phony weather reports this spring. Meterologists use radar and other technology to issue weather warnings, but they also rely on trained weather spotters and sometimes, residents, to call in or submit weather reports of weather incidents to a National Weather Service website. Starting in late April, there were more 50 fake sightings to a National Weather Service Web site used to track severe weather over a six-week period.

The tips were generally tied to severe weather that was already happening, but the specific incidents given ("nickel-sized hail," "downed trees," "a tornado that had caused damage and injuries") were often enough to tip meteorlogists into issuing warnings that they ordinarily wouldn't have. National Weather Service officials became suspicious when reports were coming in regarding incidents from counties all over the place, but they were all coming from the same IP address. They flagged it and are now tracking anything from that address.

Because the Weather Service is a federal agency, being a scamming fuckshaw is a crime and carries penalties of up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sometimes people report inaccurate weather information, but why would you go out of your way to try and fool the National Weather Service? Nerd weather bragging rights? We can't imagine. If someone told us they did that, we'd kick their ass. If this activity continues, they will have to discontinue the online weather reporting capabilities, which sucks. Trained weather reporters and people who are seeing actual weather going down in their town are valuable resources for the meteorlogists. So, we implore whoever is doing this to just stop and turn their hacking attentions to somewhere else -- devising a new game for the Wii or something.

"Thunderstorm Passing" by jdunlevy