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More Layoffs At WNYC

CTListener said:
Persistent inflation and rising costs of just about everything have taken their toll on all discretionary spending. Donations to nonprofits and charities are the first to bite the dust when folks are being gouged on food, gas, power, rent, etc.
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I don't really think the problem is people being less generous. It is mostly white collar professionals and retirees who listen to WNYC and WQXR. My guess is they are doing OK financially. We don't have a recession. Unemployment is low, the economy is doing well. Yes we had inflation but even that is now below 3%.

The trouble with public radio is that fewer people are listening, just as fewer people are listening to commercial radio. People have podcasts for news and opinion. And there are streaming services for Classical music. You want more piano? More woodwinds? Longer pieces, shorter pieces, chamber music, opera?

When we just had radio, some devoted listeners had WNYC and WQXR on most of the day. Now there are so many other places to go for what these stations once exclusively provided.
 
TheBigA said:
Some were suggesting NY Public Radio might buy 98.7 for WQXR. Not anymore.
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As someone who lives not far from Manhattan, WQXR's signal on 105.9 really is inferior. Places where the other NYC FMs are fine, WQXR is fuzzy or hit by tropo in the summer.

I'm sure if NY Public Radio had the money rolling in they once did, buying 98.7 and selling 105.9 would have been a serious consideration. Now it seems every year, there's another round of lay offs. I guess the 610 watt signal on WQXR-FM 105.9 will have to do.
 
I highly doubt that the cost and logistics of a move from 105.9 to 98.7 would result in sufficient increased underwriting revenue to make it justified. Given WNYC’s reported financial difficulties, we should probably appreciate the fact that WQXR still exists.
 
Gregg. said:
I don't really think the problem is people being less generous. It is mostly white collar professionals and retirees who listen to WNYC and WQXR. My guess is they are doing OK financially. We don't have a recession. Unemployment is low, the economy is doing well. Yes we had inflation but even that is now below 3%.
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I live in a community that is predominantly made up of retirees. The most common comment among us is about the huge cost of living increase and the need to cut unneeded services. And the average price of a home in my city is over $800,000 but still we are seeing restaurants and retail establishments closing and plans for more commercial space cancelled in favor of "controlled cost" housing.

Where we see the affect of "stagflation" or whatever the press calls it is in local radio and TV ad revenue... which is off enormously at every operation where I have friends or contacts.

So I would say that the same thing affects other high cost areas like NYC. People cut back on discretionary expenses, whether it is a public radio donation or one of the lesser used video streaming subscriptions.
Gregg. said:
The trouble with public radio is that fewer people are listening, just as fewer people are listening to commercial radio. People have podcasts for news and opinion. And there are streaming services for Classical music. You want more piano? More woodwinds? Longer pieces, shorter pieces, chamber music, opera?
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And the classical listeners are aging out. I was once owner of a classical station and later manager of another... but that was half a century ago or more. The "fan base" is vastly more limited today no matter what the source of the audio may be.
Gregg. said:
When we just had radio, some devoted listeners had WNYC and WQXR on most of the day. Now there are so many other places to go for what these stations once exclusively provided.
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I'd say that is secondary to the aging out of the classical music audience as a whole. And the reduction or elimination of exposure to the classics in schools has not created new followers.
 
DavidEduardo said:
And the classical listeners are aging out. I was once owner of a classical station and later manager of another... but that was half a century ago or more. The "fan base" is vastly more limited today no matter what the source of the audio may be.

I'd say that is secondary to the aging out of the classical music audience as a whole. And the reduction or elimination of exposure to the classics in schools has not created new followers.
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That's an excellent point. I became interested in classical music in my 50s, but I'd always figured it was because I'd grown up with it at home, as my father loved it. But now that you mention it, classical music was a big part of music education in the public schools I attended, so much so that I and other kids would consider it a treat when the teacher would bring in pop or folk recordings as a way to make music more relevant to us. (One teacher devoted a class to popular music on social issues, using Janis Ian's "Society's Child" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence," among others. I remember being amazed that an adult teacher would be playing songs that I listened to on WRKO and WMEX!) But with music education either eliminated or focused on more modern and/or non-European music, children today have lost that entryway to classical music completely.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Where we see the affect of "stagflation" or whatever the press calls it is in local radio and TV ad revenue... which is off enormously at every operation where I have friends or contacts.
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It's a "vibecession". The stock market is doing well, unemployment is near record lows, inflation is coming back down to normal levels, etc., but yet many people just aren't feeling it -- due in part to the sensationalist news media that thrives on negative headlines -- and think the economy is in a recession, when it's actually not:

 
kevtronics said:
due in part to the sensationalist news media that thrives on negative headlines -- and think the economy is in a recession, when it's actually not:
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I agree with that. The fact is that people are still spending money, still going out for dinner, still going on vacation, and doing all the normal stuff. But when they're asked about it, they get grumpy and say it's all too expensive. Companies aren't spending on advertising because they feel they'll get the business without spending the money.
 
In the comments section of the article in the original post, a "long-time listener" wrote that he no longer supports WNYC owing to what he perceives to be a "significant" decline in the quality of the station's programming. Ouch!
 
TheBigA said:
Among the cuts: Morning newscasts on WQXR.
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"The cuts will include the elimination of newscasts in mornings and hosted overnights on Classical 105.9 WQXR Newark NJ."

That seems to be the trend in public radio, eliminating overnight hosts/board ops/live bodies. The winner there is the BBC World News stream, which seems to be the go-to service until Morning/Weekend Edition fires off. That may be okay 99 out of 100 overnights, but that once-in-a-blue-moon situation where a big story breaks in the middle of the night catches them with their pants down. (Sometimes literally. I've described a significant earthquake which hit the northern Bay Area back in 2016 (IIRC) at ~3am on a Sunday morning, so I won't again. But almost everyone got caught flat-footed when that happened, KCBS doing the least worst.)
 
Weiserguy said:
That seems to be the trend in public radio, eliminating overnight hosts/board ops/live bodies.
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That seems to be the trend in radio in general, don't you think? It's hard to pay staff when the money is drying up.

To clarify that quote, the previously hosted classical music programming on WQXR will be unhosted.

If a big local story breaks in the middle of the night, they pick up the phone and call in staff.
 
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Weiserguy said:
"The cuts will include the elimination of newscasts in mornings and hosted overnights on Classical 105.9 WQXR Newark NJ."

That seems to be the trend in public radio, eliminating overnight hosts/board ops/live bodies. The winner there is the BBC World News stream, which seems to be the go-to service until Morning/Weekend Edition fires off.
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Classical noncomms are more likely to use WFMT's or Minnesota Public Radio's classical music programming for overnights, I've found.
 
Weiserguy said:
"The cuts will include the elimination of newscasts in mornings and hosted overnights on Classical 105.9 WQXR Newark NJ."

That seems to be the trend in public radio, eliminating overnight hosts/board ops/live bodies. The winner there is the BBC World News stream, which seems to be the go-to service until Morning/Weekend Edition fires off. That may be okay 99 out of 100 overnights, but that once-in-a-blue-moon situation where a big story breaks in the middle of the night catches them with their pants down. (Sometimes literally. I've described a significant earthquake which hit the northern Bay Area back in 2016 (IIRC) at ~3am on a Sunday morning, so I won't again. But almost everyone got caught flat-footed when that happened, KCBS doing the least worst.)
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its hard to justify paying for a live body fpor that 1 percent whatif

And now a days thanks to technology, and its happened to me when i was local in WY.. and up here in alaska.. we've responded to things at 10-11pm-12midnight live on the laramie station without ever leaving home. (and yes, ive been live live live on the laramie station with no board op[, phone call or assistance from anyone, from 2500 miles away)
 
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