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E-mail to a friendDeanna Isaacs reports:
Chicago Public Radio has announced its plans for its fiscal year beginning July 1, and they involve some cuts. Hello Beautiful, the Sunday morning arts program launched by former staffer Edward Lifson, is to be "suspended," and Right Now, a new afternoon talk show hosted by Richard Steele, has been shelved. Daniel Ash, executive vice president of strategic communications, said today that personnel associated with those programs will be reassigned and in addition that programming vice president Ron Jones announced this week that he's leaving the station "to look for a new adventure." Jones will be replaced by former Eight Forty-Eight host Steve Edwards, returning from a ten-month leave of absence. Edwards will have the lesser title of acting program director. Ash added that an essentially flat budget will be presented for the approval of the board of directors when it meets tomorrow; this year's budget was just over $20 million. He maintains that fundraising, including the current pledge drive, is coming along "as expected," but the station is looking to "manage risk" and has to "be conservative moving forward." He says Chicago Public Radio remains committed to vocalo.org, its experimental service now broadcasting to Northern Indiana. Vocalo has a new tower under construction and is expected to extend its broadcast reach to Chicago around Labor Day.
Discuss...
-- SCAM
so-called "Austin Mayor"
http://austinmayor.blogspot.com
"...personnel associated with those programs will be reassigned..."
If they're not dropping anyone from the payroll, how is that cutbacks??
Got it... thanks for clarifying.
But regardless, how do these cuts save money?
I GIVE HIM 1 YEAR AT MOST, SINCE IF OTHER MEMBERS LIKE US KNEW HOW MILLIONS OF THEIR PLEDGE DOLLARS HAD BEEN THROWN AWAY ON "MC HAMMER'S MANSION" (I.E. VOCALO, THE WORLD'S WORST COLLEGE RADIO STATION) THEY WOULD REVOLT.
WHY HAS VOCALO BEEN ALLOWED TO DRAIN RESOURCES FROM 91.5?
WHY DO THEY NOT EVEN TELL THE LISTENERS THAT THEY'VE BEEN WASTING THEIR MONEY?
SOMEONE (PREFERABLY WHO HAS GIVEN A BUNCH OF MONEY TO THE STATION) NEEDS TO TELL THE BOARD THAT TOREY NEEDS TO GO.
Even if I share your reservations about Vocalo (and part of the reason that Vocalo's not mentioned on WBEZ is because they don't want the station/web site/whatever to be labeled as "public radio"), that "MC Hammer's Mansion" comment proves that you are a flaming racist. What's your opinion of Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, Jews, women, gays and lesbians--and why are you even listening to public radio instead of your idol Rush Vicodin?
even at WBEZ anymore. Terrible amount of
waste and lack of ideas going on over there for $20,000,000.00? -From Alex, Chicago
They cancel Hello Beautiful, they cancel Richard Steel, they cancel Shadenfreude, they cancel jazz, they cancel Michael Feldman, they add the story and weekend america (can you believe they pay money for that??). Worst of all, they steal listener pledges to go to an "experimental" station that is a website? What an expensive experiment!
No wonder Steve Edwards and Gretchen Helfrich and even Ira Glass left.
What is going on? Does anyone on the board of directors or members have any control over Tori Malatia? And he is the one firing the vice president?
Why don't you read the item? (I thought public radio listeners were supposed to be great intellectuals.) Steve Edwards is back as interim program director. And Feder reported that Richard Steele is going to be Monday-Thursday host of "848."
And "Schadenfreude" was Malatia's pet project, which was constantly criticized by the senile old fart elitist snob patrol who hate all comedy. The station board made the decision to take the show off because it didn't have an underwriter. If it was Malatia's choice, "Schadenfruede" would still be on the air.
And once again, the post states that Ron Jones is leaving of his own accord. Why can't you read, alleged intellectual?
I've never really listened to Vocalo so I can't comment on it directly but I've never understood the rationale for it. Would it have been that difficult to make it a jazz station at least part-time?
He's typical of the people they hire there. Mediocre.
Since you asked what we think of the station I'll tell you. It is childish. I know that anyone who has talent leaves the place - because of Malatia. He is to blame for why the station is so amateurish all the time. That's what I think.
I agree, the board needs to rethink the whole place. Can Malatia, adn until you can do one good intelligent and creative public radio station for Chicago, don't spend a lot of money on Vocalo. It should be a low-cost website at most. Currently it is a tragedy.
I wonder what other people think.
Here, here, NPR Activist. That's the subtext of so much of the push-back against changes at WBEZ, as well as the new station, in its embryonic stages. & to qualify my statement, I think that this element of racism is mostly unconscious -- but it's there just the same...
I don't think that *anybody* could possibly be happy with *everything* that's going on with WBEZ, but I think that a very vocal but not very large contingent of naysaying "longtime listeners" have demonstrated that their complaints lack credibility precisely because they seem to balk at the idea of *any* changes taking place. Such an attitude is just plain silly & moreover, it's self-centered. If WBEZ *must* start reaching new audiences: younger generations (including me, by the way, & I'm 30 yrs old), a broader range of income levels, & the spectrum of racial & cultural backgrounds that *actually exist* in Chicago area. Were Chicago Public Radio to ignore these things, it would *really* lose its credibility as a public radio station.
The entire point of public radio is that it serves the *public*. Therefore, people who say: "I've been contributing to WBEZ for 30 years but will stop now because my favorite show is no longer no the air," are revealing that they either lack respect for or fail to comprehend this concept in the first place. It's not commercial radio; we don't listen to it as 'customers' (despite the unfortunate & misleading 'subscription' rhetoric of WBEZ fundraising). Public radio, as opposed to commercial radio, shouldn't fundamentally be about keeping previous and existing listeners happy. It should serve as a resource to the largest public it can. In restricting itself from people who sound and think the same way, it not only fails to serve people who don't fit the 'NPR-audience' profile, but it also fails to serve the people who *do* fit it, by cutting them off increasingly from understanding who and what characterizes the community in which they actually live. Malatia obviously doesn't get everything right, but my hat's off to him for actually recognizing this and taking steps to do something about it.
Finally, with respect to the programming changes: obviously not all of them are great. For instance, I personally can't stand Sound Opinions; I think it's pseudo-intellectual, brash, embarrassing schlock. & it is a shame that that the Richard Steele afternoon program didn't get off the ground, and yes, The Story is terrible.
But I can list a handful of things that represent, in my opinion, serious *improvements* to BEZ's programming, that have me listening much more frequently than I did a year ago:
- The cancellation of Odyssey: the show was a good idea, but its spirit & energy was long-gone, the topics had become hopelessly pretentious and the scholars they were getting were just not very good.
- The cancellation of "What D'You Know?": did anyone *seriously* love this show enough to be sad it's gone? It peaked a long time ago; it's pace has become hopelessly slow; Feldman just isn't funny at all at this point. I think the vast majoity of people feel the way I do about this.
- Hello Beautiful was frankly pretty patchy and often simply redundant topically (848 usually covers the same ground.)
- Getting rid of all night jazz: I, along with everybody I know and his or her mother, were happy about this. I'm a huge jazz listener, but the format had gotten tired, repetitive and conservative stylistically.
- Adding the BBC broadcasts in the morning and at night. This was indispensible. What's an NPR station without a nightly BBC feed?
- Last, and most importantly: Worldview, which had previously been a good idea hamfistedly executed has become a REALLY GOOD show. Has anyone else noticed this? Jerome McDonald has gotten much better at interviews; the topics are very responsive to current events; the discussions have become much more thorough and informative. If Malatia had anything to do with the improvements in this program, he deserves some respect, because this show has become an exciting, locally produced resource.
Anyone truly interested in the idea of public radio should balance its capacity to fulfill one's individual programming interests against those of other parts of the audience and potential audiences that are not yet being catered to. I feel that a lot of good has been done over the past year.
Paragraph 3, 6th line from the top:
The word "If" should be removed.
Paragraph 3, 7th line from the bottom should read:
"In restricting itself to..."
rather than:
"In restricting itself from..."
Last but not least, I apologize in advance for all the annoying asterisks...
"Why can't you read, alleged intellectual?"
Good lord, Mark Jeffries now is using a pseudonym?