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Changes coming to WQXR

Kemosabe

Kemosabe

This is the final weekend in which to hear Clayelle Dalferes's mellifluous voice on WQXR. She retires after a fifty-year career in radio. A few changes to the programming schedule accompany her departure. Annie Bergen's weekday shift will change from middays (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) to Ms. Dalferes's weekend hours. Jeff Spurgeon, Elliott Forrest, and Terrance McKnight will extend their weekday shifts as follows: Mr. Spurgeon will be heard from 5:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., Elliott Forrest from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Terrance McKnight from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Further reading:
Elliott Forrest Celebrates Clayelle Dalferes
New WQXR schedule
 
I wonder if the weekday staff will do those extra hours live? Or likely they will each do some hours using voice-tracking. I believe the overnight hosts prerecord the entire program, especially now that it will run 8.5 hours from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. (or 6 on weekends).
 
Gregg. said:
I wonder if the weekday staff will do those extra hours live? Or likely they will each do some hours using voice-tracking. I believe the overnight hosts prerecord the entire program, especially now that it will run 8.5 hours from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. (or 6 on weekends).
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The only live hosting occurs mornings with Jeff Spurgeon. All other shifts have been voice-tracked since the pandemic.
 
Kemosabe said:
All other shifts have been voice-tracked since the pandemic.
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Classical is probably the easiest format to voicetrack. In fact, my first radio job, in 1973, consisted of "producing" a nightly Classical format where the station owner "hosted" via voicetracking on tape.
 
As another sign of its financial struggles, WQXR has eliminated all newscasts as of this morning. Furthermore, starting 28 September, overnight music will play as "a continuous flow," to wit, without a host. Finally, longtime overnighter Nimet Habachy "will be saying farewell as the weekend host of New York at Night."
 
TheBigA said:
My take is that the classical audience isn't stepping up to the plate.
[...]
Also all 6 of the WQXR podcasts are being cancelled. Obviously they've identified what's causing the shortfall, and it's WQXR.
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I think WQXR is a symptom and not the root cause. I think NYPR believed that the money tree was never going to stop yielding dollars, and all they needed to do was to keep asking for more and then find new ways to spend what showed up in the mailbox. Sooner or later the economy was going to turn some of that fruit rotten, or some black swan event (pandemic, anyone?) was going to crimp the money flow, and they got caught flatfooted, without a plan.

It's a story that's been repeated around the country. (KQED's had a similar problem in my current home market, and next door in Sacramento and environs, the economic situation's even worse for Capital Public Radio, as Mike Hagerty's documented quite well. Plus some financial shenanigans from former manglement.) The money came in, they hired additional staff and then tried to find work for them, and eventually the merry-go-round stopped.
 
Weiserguy said:
The money came in, they hired additional staff and then tried to find work for them, and eventually the merry-go-round stopped.
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That's an oversimplification of the situation, and ignores that the exact same thing is happening at commercial radio, satellite radio, and even streaming services.
 
TheBigA said:
That's an oversimplification of the situation, and ignores that the exact same thing is happening at commercial radio, satellite radio, and even streaming services.
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>>>Weiserguy said:
The money came in, they hired additional staff and then tried to find work for them, and eventually the merry-go-round stopped.<<<

Both statements are true. When times were good, public radio and TV stations saw the money flowing in. As a non-profit, they had to do something with it. They couldn't give it to shareholders as a dividend since there are no shareholders. So they hired more staff.

Now all broadcasting services, commercial and non-commercial, are competing with so many other sources of music and information. WNYC and WQXR listeners are not being less charitable or generous. They are just listening less so therefore they are contributing less.

It was noted WQXR will no longer have morning newscasts. That's too bad. But I'm not sure why it had somebody doing two minute newscasts at 6, 7, 8 and 9 a.m. She never used audio sound, it was just a straight read of headlines. She had no other role as far as I know. Couldn't someone from WNYC record these simple news headlines and not do them live? Michael Hill does news during "Morning Edition" on WNYC. I'm sure he's busy preparing those newscasts. But somewhere, couldn't he record two newscasts of two minutes each and they could alternate on WQXR, A at 6 and 8 a.m., B at 7 and 9 a.m.?

So is the glass half empty or half full? Scores of people at public radio stations probably wouldn't have their jobs if they were run as a commercial operation. But now, as the money gets tighter, they are being laid off. Better to have had the job for a few years and lose it? Or never had it at all?
 
Gregg. said:
Couldn't someone from WNYC record these simple news headlines and not do them live?
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There's a quote in the article I posted from SAG-AFTRA, bemoaning the cuts to their members. As a former AFTRA member, I know they have rules about what members can and can't do, about using personnel from one station on another, and pre-recording content. When people talk about excessive staffing or "featherbedding," the reason for it usually has something to do with the union contract. It's much easier to drop new duties on someone when they're not in the union.
 
↑ To bypass union restrictions, would it be feasible for AI to gather news from WNYC and Gothamist, and generate a voiced report for WQXR?
 
Kemosabe said:
↑ To bypass union restrictions, would it be feasible for AI to gather news from WNYC and Gothamist, and generate a voiced report for WQXR?
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Once again, the union has work rules that are specific regarding what their people can do. This is the same union that went on strike against Hollywood studios specifically over AI. So don't play games with SAG-AFTRA. They will make you pay at a time when you can least afford it. If the rules allow you to lay off staff, then that's what you do. But don't try to replace that laid off staff with AI or using staff from other areas of the company if the rules don't allow.

Someone asked why a WQXR newsperson didn't use audio. Perhaps the union rules say they have to use a union technician when incorporating audio in a voice report. Union rules are why I left NYC. The union I was in made it impossible for me to do my job the way I wanted. So I moved to another city with the same unions but different rules that were more to my liking. New York is a tough place to work if you're a broadcaster.
 
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