"The Story" cancelled after abrupt retirement of Dick Gordon

[Banacek]

I'm really surprised there isn't a thread already:

I can't find any news stories or anything to link to. Two weeks ago my local public radio station started broadcasting "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" in place of "The Story" without any prior announcement and finally this past Friday the station manager had to go on-air at the top of the hour and explain that Dick Gordon has retired without any advance notice and "The Story" had been cancelled as a result.

She sounded quite upset and irritated and made it sound as if this had all happened at the last minute with no prior notification to the affiliates and that she basically had to go out and sign a deal with "On Point" with very little warning.

Anyone know what happened behind the scenes? Was Dick Gordon in a scandal, or did UNC-Chapel Hill cut his funding or something?

 

[DougBroda]

It wasn't all that abrupt. It was announced roughly six weeks before the program's end. One would assume the affiliates were notified... maybe the mail got lost?

http://wunc.org/post/award-winning-program-story-end-eight-year-run-due-departure-host-dick-gordon

 

[kc1ih]

Or perhaps the mail was opened by an intern who didn't think it was important and threw it away. Or an e-mail wound up in the trash folder because it was sent to too many recipients.