I think Big A’s sarcastic comment in the previous post says it all.
I’ve been reading many of the comments here since my post 24 hours ago. A few additional points.
I happened to have coffee with another former WBFO news director this morning. He had an interesting view. Maybe this all doesn’t matter! Give WBFO listeners their NPR content and they’re good! That saddens us. Both of us put in countless hours to make sure we served WBFO listeners with quality local content. But do listeners care? WBFO’s ratings since August are in a narrow 3.4-3.5 range. Tom Calderone is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars by not paying veteran reporters. And WBFO is still earning respectable numbers. That says a lot.
The question is can that be sustained? Another participant in our coffee klatch, a WBFO listener/member, admitted he’s not listening as much to WBFO anymore. He’s now finding podcasts meet his needs. The same holds true for me. Rocky shared anecdotal evidence of an ardent listener who has scaled back her listening and support. I’m no longer connected with anyone in the know at BTPM. I can only hope management is doing some research that will determine what listeners really want.
Big A mentioned that NPR and a couple of major public stations are experiencing financial struggles. Perhaps WBFO is, too. Again, I’m not privy to current conditions. But I was still involved when COVID hit in 2020. We feared fundraising would be a struggle. But the exact opposite happened. People were stuck at home. They were watching TV and listening to the radio. They received stimulus checks. And fundraising goals were busted that year! Yet, two prominent members of the WBFO staff were let go that June. I retired as a part-timer a week later. Now, that’s three-and-a-half years ago. Perhaps the organization is now experiencing more difficult times, resulting in the cutback of local coverage on WBFO.
Big A criticized a poster who talked about the young reporting staff that now dominates as opposed to the many veterans that were once employed at WBFO. I believe the issue is training. Believe me, I dealt with a young staff during my time in charge. But I worked with our interns and young part-timers. I made sure they knew the NPR clocks, so they were aware of the times when it’s appropriate to cut away from NPR coverage. On the few occasions I do listen, a young host in particular cuts away from NPR when he shouldn’t, depriving me of a Scott Simon interview. The person who succeeded Mark Wozniak as local host of All Things Considered has enormous potential. But is anyone working with her? When I did my last fundraising shift at WBFO in October 2022, she was filling in for Mark. I was hearing 24-hour-old news during that shift. When I got home, I learned from TV news that four people were killed that day in a murder-suicide in Clarence. When Brian Meyer and Omar Fetouh were running the newsroom, they would have been all over that story. Perhaps she’s more on top of the news a year later. I no longer listen because I lost faith in the local news product, so I’m really not in a position to assess her performance. But, again, the ratings show that perhaps the listeners don’t care who is hosting local segments. They’re tuning in to hear the latest from Gaza or Washington.
Finally, there’s been discussion about What’s Next, the daily show that airs at 10am. There has been some debate in this thread about whether listeners will spend an hour listening to a particular show. I do think public radio listeners will spend time with an interview as long as the discussion is compelling. Fresh Air is proof of that. But What’s Next is no Fresh Air. The quality of the show has clearly diminished since Dave Debo was fired. Jay Moran does his best. But today’s version of What’s Next, despite Jay’s continued presence, is more akin to the public affairs shows commercial stations bury on Sunday mornings.
