WPFW Pacifica

[quietboy]

What do people think of WPFW Pacifica in Washington? What are the good things and the bad things about the station's format? What would you do differently?

 

[aaronread]

I don't live in DC so I can't comment first-hand on it, but I've heard various reports that sort-of paint a picture of people wondering why WPFW is part of the Pacifica Network in the first place. It's programming style (and most of its content) is quite different from the rest of the network, and allegedly there's a lot of distrust of the left-wing/left-coast crowd out in Berkeley.

Ratings-wise WPFW isn't so hot but compared to the rest of the network they put up good 6+ numbers, for whatever that's worth. I don't know how they're doing financially, but usually when you hear about Pacifica stations that are bleeding cash, it's not WPFW. Although apparently they have plenty of internal staff issues just like you hear about with WBAI and KPFA.

Speaking for myself, from a largely UNinformed position, I do respect WPFW for mostly sticking with jazz & blues instead of trying to be more "news-y". Of course, that undoubtedly has a lot to do with the insane number of news and/or talk stations on the dial in the DC metro (nine, I think) and the cautionary tale of what happened in WETA's relatively recent attempt to go all-news before re-claiming classical.