When The Music Stops: Is Public Radio Feeding Our News Junkie Habit?
Hail the ``well-behaved revolution!"
The cadre of Washington radio listeners protesting NPR affiliate WETA-FMs recent curtailment of its classical music has reached 2,500, with a piddling 20 calling or writing the station in support.
Our burgeoning movement has generated some silver-tongued letters to the editor blasting WETA for stiffing the arts and for cluttering the citys dial with the same feed of NPR s `Morning Edition already available on neighboring WAMU.
Yet there's more to this story than just a clash of high-brow audio styles.
On a practical level, there is evidence that the raw ambition of todays public radio executives threatens to turn all within their transmitters range into stressed-out news junkies. To preserve my sanity--and do my part for the revolution--I slashed my way into the jungles of radio economics to learn why.
WETAs decision to end more than two decades of classical broadcasting during the popular 6:00-9:00 morning slot was justified on three grounds, I was told by station publicist Michelle Kirkwood.
Because NPRs ``All Things Considered and ``Morning Edition are the most popular public radio shows, WETA felt it could best serve the community by offering one of each during the two drive-time slots, exploiting what in the business are called the ``tentpoles of the public radio schedule.
Secondly, WETA hopes to use the ``magnet news show to grow regionally as it inaugurates new signal-relay equipment in Frederick and Leonardtown, Md.
Third, the station promises to try to leverage the drive-time news shows to lure listeners into sticking around for the classical music it is continuing between 9:00 and 3:00.
But something here doesnt sit right.
Why should Washingtonians care more about giving the good citizens of Leonardtown more news than about our own morning Mozart?
Isnt the broadcast of a redundant signal a waste of a precious resource?
The fact that ``Morning Edition is duplicative, it turns out, doesn't bother public radioheads in the least. (Yes, they admit, overlapping broadcasts were cited by the enemies of public broadcasting back when Congress was considering eliminating its federal subsidy, but that was mostly for television.)
Indeed, conventional wisdom in the radio industry views duplication as a smart way to widen the audience.
It is done routinely at public stations in Seattle, Boston and New York, and selectively at Minnesota Public Radio, where a simulcast of Garrison Kelliors ``Prairie Home Companion on the stations news and music frequencies has added thousands to his audience.
``WETAs decision was based on the principle of how people use radio, that they watch TV programs but choose radio stations, says Arthur Cohen, WETAs general manager for the past 18 months.
The reluctance of listeners to switch stations during the day, he says, is what prompted him to go after news-hungry Washingtonians with a national morning showcase to boost long-term listener loyalty, membership contributions and underwriter funding.
Then why can't WETA and WAMU -- friendly competitors in the public radio family whose staffs know each other -- get together and work out schedules that offer listeners the most variety? (Indeed, there has been talk over the years of the two joining forces administratively, according to Craig Curtis, former program director of WETA, now with Minnesota Public Radio.) But WETAs Cohen says that radio licensees are bound to make own programming decisions.
And what of WAMU? Might it respond to WETAs decision by altering its news, talk and bluegrass fare to provide some classical strains in the morning?
Not a chance, I was told by WAMU General Manager F. Kim Hodgson, who sent out a letter to that effect to his listener-members.
Nor was he encouraging about the well-behaved revolution and its 2,500 letters of protest. WAMU received 3,000 letters after it canceled Lee Michael Dempseys folk music show a few years back, and the show is still dead.
The only suggestion I got from these watts-hungry radio execs is that we classical lovers switch to WGMS.
Now, I personally consider WGMS to be an outstanding Washington institution. But it plays too many commercials for funeral parlors and hair restorers for my taste.
I have similar respect for the existence of ``Morning Edition. Its just that at 7:00 AM, I like to relax with my morning newspaper without Bob Edwards whispering in my ear about the economy of northern Sumatra.
We classical music fans deserve our say in the programming calculus.
By consulting research from the Derwood, Md.-based Audience Research Analysis, I can report to my comrades that classical music, while ranking only fifth in popularity on a list topped by NPR News, still accounts for a respectable 22 percent of listeners nationwide, and 20 percent of listener contributions.
Many of us rely on classical as a de-stressor in this hectic nations capital.
Thats why we feel that WETAs prototypical target listener, this junkie who likes six hours of radio news a day on top of his print and television intake, perhaps this guy should get a life.
Charlie Clark is a Washington writer who likes a dollop of Vivaldi with his news.