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WGBH reduces jazz programming

Now I can change the button on my car to something else. Unless I just want to enjoy listening to them begging for money that I don't plan to send them. Bye Bye WGBH.

Eric Jackson deserves better treatment than this.
 
Kind of like what happened in Pitt. when WDUQ downsized jazz from 100 hrs/wk to 6. "Well we'll still have Little E's," said the pres. of the Pitt. blues society to me while I was visiting and brought it up,
referring to a downtown jazz/blues spot.
 
My guess is that WGBH-89.7 will probably fill the evening (and maybe overnight hours) with:

(1) A rebroadcast of the soundtrack of WGBH-2's "Greater Boston";

(2) Rebroadcasts of the WGBH/BBC "The World" in mid-evening, and a late-evening rebroadcast of the audio portion of the "PBS Newshour",

(3) WGBH picking-up CBC Radio's "As It Happens" and "Q", and,

(4) If the syndicated (by NPR??) overnight jazz show is also eliminated, rebroadcasts of WGBH's Emily Rooney and Callie Crossley shows from the previous day, with perhaps another rebroadcast of "The World" or the previous day's "All Things Considered".

It's no secret that most NPR member stations are eliminating music programming to go 24/7 news and information. They're doing so for one basic reason:

News and information programming brings in big pledge $ to NPR member stations. Music programing generally does not.

That's why statewide public radio networks in New Hampshire and Connecticut have gone 24/7 news and information, and why I think Maine's statewide public radio network will probably do so very soon.

By the way, Vermont Public Radio a few years back wanted to eliminate music programming to go 24/7 news and information. However, VPR decided to launch a 24/7 classical-music network and once that network reached the great majority of Vermont residents (October 1, 2007), classical music was eliminated from VPR.

At the moment, VPR still airs a two-hour nightly jazz block (three hours on Fridays), but as it's host, George Thomas, has announced he's stepping down at month's end, VPR is almost certain to eliminate jazz and expand public radio news/information programming to the 9-11 P.M. period (9-Midnight on Fridays), the last portion of VPR's weekday scehdule that hasn't been converted to news and information.
 
Update, 3 P.M. EDT, June 20th:

Boston.com has the story, which reports that indeed, WGBH-89.7 will expand it's news/information programming (although giving no details) as of the end of August (coinciding, BTW, with the end of WGBH's fiscal year):

http://www.boston.com/culturedesk/2...l-jazz-fans/T78rJxzM3OicIDXyOtRIdN/story.html .

I am not surprised WGBH is doing this. In fact, I am surprise they didn't do it in 2009.

However, I had thought that the reason WGBH hadn't pulled the plug on jazz was that maybe they were looking to buy a station where they could have broadcast 24/7 jazz. Given this announcement follows the sale last month of WFNX-101.7 to Clear Channel, I wonder if WGBH had been interested in 101.7 as a 24/7 jazz outlet.
 
I do know of VPR's classical network...as for poss. elimination of music prog from the main network I hope they
wouldn't cut My Place with Joel Najman.

Those who want news on local radio at night--you may have gotten your wish. Bad news for jazz fans. There's already a Save Eric Jackson Jazz group on Facebook started(local music promoter Christine Vitale may have launched that) and you wonder if GBH will get more donations from news fans to make up for upset music fans.
 
Raccoonradio wrote:

Those who want news on local radio at night--you may have gotten your wish......and you wonder if GBH will get more donations from news fans to make up for upset music fans.


That may well happen.

With Eric Jackson being cut to part-time and Steve Schwartz laid-off, WGBH-89.7 will save a lot of money.

And most, if not all, of the possible ways to expand news/information programming into the evening and overnight hours on 89.7 (as I pointed out earlier in this thread), most of them can be done for the cost of recording network feeds.

And WGBH may get more listener pledge dollars from nighttime listeners with public radio news/information than with jazz. With costs reduced, more money will flow to the bottom line.

As noted earlier, this (dropping music for 24/7 news and information) has been a trend for public radio for a number of years now. In fact, I believe WBUR-90.9 here in Boston was one of the first (or even the first) NPR member station to start the trend. Today, there are few NPR member stations programming music at all....unless they are owned by someone who also owns a 24/7 NPR news/information station in the same market.
 
The Boston.com article has been updated to indicate the changes will take place on July 2nd, but still does not yet list what news/information programming will replace the jazz block.
 
Might we see CBC's "As It Happens" and "Q" between 11 P.M. and 1 A.M., another "World" repeat at 1 A.M., and a delayed broadcast of Diane Rehm from 2 to 4 A.M.??
 
EnterCommunicator said:
and slowly but surely WBGH continues it's quest to be WBUR-lite.

I'm disgusted, Jazz w/ Eric is a tremendous show.
Click to expand...

I never heard a DJ as knowledgeable and talented as Eric Jackson. Tremendous loss.

Glad I still have my computer for music.

Does Boston really need two NPR stations doing basically the same thing?
 
I also wonder if WGBH-2's "Beat The Press
Click to expand...
It would be on one member's mind for an obvious reason. Whether this person will say something...it would likely have to come in the rant segment and that might be a step too far.
 
Bel Mizik iz mainly on weekends. with a moxon pointed at Worcester, you should be in business for WICN on weekdays.

id like to see Steve Schwarz, Al Davis, and Eric in rotation instead of just 3 days of eric - more variety
 
Bottom line is, unfortunately (and I love real jazz) is that jazz doesn't make any money. The only places it hangs on are a few full time or most time jazz stations like WBGO. Even they aren't full time jazz, with lots of blues and r&b on the weekends.

That's why most noncomms are either going in the direction of news/talk or AAA if they want to stay music focused.

What I REALLY don't get is WGBH and WBUR playing a lot of the same NPR shows. What's the point of that?
 
With this change, WBUR and WGBH are actually diversifying their weekday lineups quite a bit. From 6am to 11pm we have:

WBUR
6-9am = Morning Edition
9-10am = BBC
10-12n = On Point
12-1pm = Here & Now
1-2pm = Fresh Air
2-3pm = TOTN
3-4pm = Radio Boston
4-6:30pm = All Things Considered
6:30pm-7pm = Marketplace
7-9pm = On Point
9-10pm = Q
10-11pm = Diane Rehm

WGBH
6-9am = Morning Edition
9-10am = Morning Edition
10-11am = Diane Rehm
11-12n = The Takeaway
12-2pm = Boston Public Radio
2-3pm = Tell Me More
3-4pm = The World
4-6:30pm = All Things Considered
6:30pm-7pm = All Things Considered
7-8pm = PBS Newshour
8-9pm = The World
9-11pm = Boston Public Radio

Unsurprisingly, and disappointingly, WGBH *is* duplicating WBUR to a large degree during the critical morning- and afternoon-drive times. Especially considering that they are a major partner in producing "The Takeaway" and they're no longer airing any of it live...and it's a show driven in no small part by interaction with its audience. OTOH, WBUR covers up a lot of the national Morning Edition stories with locally-produced stuff, and AFAIK WGBH just airs the national feed (which quite a few people might prefer, actually)...so there's more diversity there than you'd think.

But the rest of the day is not only NOT duplicating programs, but often they're not even duplicating the same KIND of programs. Notice how for a lot of the day, one station has a newsmagazine show on when the other is running a call-in talk show.

I notice that Diane Rehm is kinda getting the shaft here...her live carriage reduced to one hour in the Boston market (even the repeats are only airing the first hour). That's a shame. You can take issue with her spasmodic dysphonia, but she gets top-notch guests (especially for political topics) and asks good questions. Personally I prefer On Point, but DR ain't bad.
 
aaronread said:
Unsurprisingly, and disappointingly, WGBH *is* duplicating WBUR to a large degree during the critical morning- and afternoon-drive times. Especially considering that they are a major partner in producing "The Takeaway" and they're no longer airing any of it live...and it's a show driven in no small part by interaction with its audience. OTOH, WBUR covers up a lot of the national Morning Edition stories with locally-produced stuff, and AFAIK WGBH just airs the national feed (which quite a few people might prefer, actually)...so there's more diversity there than you'd think.
Click to expand...

I get the feeling that "The Takeaway" is not long for this world. Fifty-four stations in four years is nowhere near a proper lineup for an expensive show like this. It's still not on in Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas and I believe Houston. Home station WNYC shunted it off to the AM frequency (despite the show's targeting younger demos), they've lost stations in Baltimore and Seattle, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters can't get their member stations to carry the show because their members are still hostile to any national programming beyond "Democracy Now!", and now the downgrade on the other home station. It's obvious that the show is not getting the support. How much longer will PRI and WNYC keep it going?
 
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