>>The reason why WGBH (and most NPR members stations that used to program mainly music) has dropped music programs in the last few years is dollars and cents:
That's it though of course some people who want certain types of music or talk shows get bent out of shape when their fave stuff is dropped. Yes it can be a shame...it was a shame in Pittsburgh when WDUQ went from 100 hours of jazz per week to 6 (partly due to a sale by Duqesne U.) and it's now WESA, "Pittsburgh's NPR News Station" though I think they have jazz on an HD2 etc. WGBH's folk and jazz shows disappeared, though Brendan Hogan who had taken over for Mai Cramer's blues show re-emerged on WUMB (that
Sat night show is now done by Holly Harris). Blues shows continued on weaker-powered stations like WBRS (Greg Sarni), WMWM (me/Pete/Lisa), and down on the south shore WATD (Peter Black) etc. WUMB has folk and Americana though it may not be to everyone's taste.
The big money in public radio was in doing news and talk--big money from corporate funding, private donations, business donorships, etc. (As I've said before, a list posted online of corporations who donated to NPR included movie studios, car manufactures, and those far right wingers at "Fox Broadcasting Company"). I remember once listening to Whad Ya Know on WBUR and they did a pledge break and the announcer said the show was one of their most popular. Then they took it off. So much for being popular. I guess it was costly for them to run. Money, money
changes everything.
There has been talk of "revenue" on public radio. They may not be "commercial" but they need to bring in money, be it for
humble organizations or WGBH with its Taj Mahal state of the art studios. Yes even with public radio that line in the first WKRP
episode rings true: Young man this radio station is a business. It is not here for your personal listening pleasure. "Non-commercial"
so to speak but the books must be balanced.
Yes some of us would like to hear folk or blues on a 100,000 watt station; some would love Stephanie Miller, Jeff Santos, or
Ed Schultz back on Boston radio. Some want FM talk like what WTKK used to do, or a certain type of R&B, or smooth jazz,
or a revival of WODS 103.3 as the greatest hits of 60s/70s/80s. But it's all dollars and cents, and unless you win the lottery and buy your own station then program it your own way you may be out of luck. Other options exist like HD radio, sat radio, webcasting et al. Heck I used to have people sent me airchecks as a "tape trader" (I still get some) so I could hear things like Jim Blum's folk show from WKSU at Kent State; a classic country show from WEVL in Memphis; or classic country from a station in Seattle that later
went progressive talk and is now CBS Sports I think...there are other options.
Some people got upset recently at the fact that WGBH has a benefactor, David Koch, who gives them lots of money but, shock, horror,
doesn't believe in global warming/climate change and they want him kicked off their board. Rev Small of Cambridge:
"Yet you tolerate a man who has spent millions subverting democracy and disseminating lies about climate change in order to protect the profits from his own polluting industries.”
http://itsgoodtoliveinatwodailytown.com/2013/10/10/wgbh-herald-hostage-day-3/
Yup the folks who love 'GBH do NOT like David Koch. But GBH has no intention of kicking him off, they say.
>>According to the Herald, WGBH board chairman “Amos Hostetter defended Koch, telling the protesters there’s no ‘political litmus test’ for board members. ” *
Koch gives them lots of money.
*--Joan Vennochi in the Globe: "“Koch helps fund Nova, the acclaimed PBS science show — but, according to the activists, has also worked to defund PBS.”
