From The Buffalo News website: http://buffalo.com/2015/01/27/news/music/anita-west-out-at-wbfo/
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Lady Sings The Blues
- Thread starter Rusty Bridges
- Start date
Rumor has it that you're not allowed to have an ego if you work for the egos at WNYPB.
It's been my experience, as one who's worked in public radio, that there's a difference between working a state-owned educational operation vs. an independent non-profit institution. There's a routine, and a dependability in a state operation. And sometimes, that difference can be hard for some to reconcile.
But the one thing I know: Things won't be going back to the way they were before. No matter how many petitions are created, no matter how many protests take place. And if this ownership can't make this station work, they'll sell it to whomever offers the most money, regardless of who that is. And it won't be UB. So that's the reality.
But the one thing I know: Things won't be going back to the way they were before. No matter how many petitions are created, no matter how many protests take place. And if this ownership can't make this station work, they'll sell it to whomever offers the most money, regardless of who that is. And it won't be UB. So that's the reality.
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dand5780
Guest
LOL non-profit...
Compensation % of Expenses Paid to Title
$284,675 1.80% Donald K. Boswell President And CEO
They just sell commercials that put you asleep, and call them "support" instead of advertising.
So the guy doing Saturday Blues is now adding on Sunday Blues. Interesting. Woman loses her job and the guy, who is newer, keeps his and gets hers.
Not a fan of the Buffalo Snooze, but the comments are pleasantly surprising, for a change.
Compensation % of Expenses Paid to Title
$284,675 1.80% Donald K. Boswell President And CEO
They just sell commercials that put you asleep, and call them "support" instead of advertising.
So the guy doing Saturday Blues is now adding on Sunday Blues. Interesting. Woman loses her job and the guy, who is newer, keeps his and gets hers.
Not a fan of the Buffalo Snooze, but the comments are pleasantly surprising, for a change.
As I've said many times, in all the years I worked in non-profit, I never took an oath of poverty. I took a pay cut when I went to the for profit world. Next time you have a minute, review the salaries of all of the heads of the major charities in this country. I challenge you to find one who makes less than six figures.
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dand5780
Guest
I'm not doing that. You proved my point. People hear "public" and "non-profit" and fall in love.
Public=good, private=bad.
You took a pay cut when listeners and advertisers weren't sending in their "support" payments.
Apparently, as one thread is titled, WBFO comes up short. Maybe they are saving a few cents having one person instead of two, while the CEO who doesn't need to take an "oath of poverty" is still making his nice salary. Then again if they only had one 4 hour show a week, you'd think they'd be volunteers.
But it's ok, because it's public and non-profit. The only reason this isn't because apparently the people that listened to this one liked the woman.
One thing had nothing to do with the other. Don't use my life to prove your point. Especially when you're wrong.
I don't see how anyone is saying this is "ok." You obviously read the comments. The readers are pretty ticked.
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dand5780
Guest
I said the salary is ok. The only reason this isn't [this event, the woman being fired] because apparently the people that listened to this one liked the woman.
"Bombastic." Interesting comment. Now that you mention it, she did sound like the show was all about her rather than the listeners and the music. So maybe she'd be better on WBEN. It doesn't matter that the Sunday night blues show will be hosted by Pat Felbau, the guy who does the Saturday night show. He has a longer history in Buffalo than she does. Gender is not an issue. Whether it's making widgets, banking, real estate or media, jobs are at a premium in the public and private sectors. Most employees know that "playing well with others" is part of the job.
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I suspect that is a big part of why she is gone...not ego, not an underhanded plot to remove females form the air, no grand conspiracy by management, etc. I have to say that most of the comments on the BN dot com site, although they appear to be her fans, sound like they were written by a bunch of third graders.
As if WNYPB would re-hire her. That lottery number came up when 97 re-hired Slick Tom and it's not likely to come up again. But stranger things have happened. Still, it's highly unlikely. So the 21+ mostly adoring comments from her coterie of fan boys and girls are nice, but meaningless. Curious to know if this matter came up at today at the WNYPB board of governors meeting that was open to the public.
I'm sure that the folks at WNYPB are aware that they're in a position of "Where else are you going to go?" They've stated in the past that music programming is not their preference, and they came close to dropping the legacy blues show when they bought WBFO. If it dies with the demise of Ms. West, they won't shed a tear. If it thrives under the tutelage of Pat Feldballe, they'll take the cash he raises and continue on. What the listeners want is far down on their list of concerns, unless it unduly impacts income. In this case, the radio station is small potatoes compared to the TV side. Any aggravation will be disposed of quickly.
Hmmm...maybe you meant to say "what the previous owner's listeners want..." That's probably true.
Novel. For the sake of discussion (this isn't a food fight), do you believe new ownership traded in former listeners for a slew of new listeners?
It's hard to believe there would be that much turnover, especially Monday through Friday, when the station line-up during the last six months of UB's ownership is more similar than it is dissimilar.
It's conceivable that there's a turnover, if not a net loss of listeners on weekends, especially during times when the station is dissimilar from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. midnight. It may be fact that fewer people are listening during that time period. We don't have access to this information. (At least I don't.)
It would be interesting to compare shares within the target demo during these hours. More to Public Radio's mindset and goals, it would be instructive to compare pledge dollars during these time periods, especially during the present pledge drive which began today (1/30/15).
These issues considered, there are more quarter hours (and pledge dollars) to be had Monday through Friday, where the station remained consistent. This is particularly relevant as it applies to pledge dollars and membership. This may open the door to an argument that "weekends don't matter," to which I'd completely disagree. Weekends matter, especially Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., which remains one of the highest cume/TSL dayparts for radio across the board, at least in diary markets. Which takes us back to the issue of dollars/memberships pledged during weekend hours.
It's worthy of discussion.
WBFO still has Blues programming. They eliminated one host who may have
been a Prima Donna.
Music is not the main focus on WBFO, maybe because they have the
Classical WNED station.
Many NPR shows on WBFO have great interviews with artists like
Ray Davies, Nick Lowe, Jack Johnson and many others.
There's plenty of music related content.
This type of programming far outclasses anything on the commercial stations...
been a Prima Donna.
Music is not the main focus on WBFO, maybe because they have the
Classical WNED station.
Many NPR shows on WBFO have great interviews with artists like
Ray Davies, Nick Lowe, Jack Johnson and many others.
There's plenty of music related content.
This type of programming far outclasses anything on the commercial stations...
Not in that way, no. I agree with what you say, that m-f is pretty much the same, and that's their bread & butter. So this weekend blues show isn't really core for the station, and the host isn't going to make or break them. I'm sure they HAVE compared pledge dollars, which might explain why this particular host is no longer there. If this WAS a big source of revenue, things might be different.
I also agree with you that weekends DO matter, especially in public radio. My station raised as much money on Saturday & Sunday as it did during all five weekdays combined. We often fundraised in a way to include two weekends for that reason.
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Radio pledge dollars these days seem to mean about as much as ratings do to Clear -er iHeart when it comes to personnel decisions.
It's a people business as much as it is a money business.
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