Chicagoist: Wait, Wait -- Don't Tell Me!

BR

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 11:28:22 -0600

JBP, what I'm arguing (and I'm sure there'll be plenty of people that disagree) is that public radio and public television are hardly "public" anymore. With cuts in gov funding, they are required more and more to create programming that caters to their listener/viewership rather than create programming that appeals to the public at large. Members pay and subsequently give their approval. Are they subsidized? Absolutely, but does subsidy automatically call for community involvement? Another discussion I suppose. And given time, there will be no subsidy anyway, should current trends in goverment continue.

m

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 11:10:50 -0600

Why they charge $20: 1. They have to fly in and put up the members of the panel. Before they did this, the panel wasn't in the same room together. 2. Because they can.

John Powers

Tue, 08 Nov 2005 10:45:09 -0600

BR, Do I have this clear? It is ok to have community involvement as long as everyone agrees that WBEZ should be controlled by an annointed few, but if one thinks that community involvement means just that, mass input from the general metropolitan, then we should shut up? JBP

RB

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:23:02 -0600

You didn't mention whether anyone shouted out "how do you sleep at night" to smug S.O.B. Mo Rocca?

Dr. Awesome

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:10:42 -0600

STERN is better but karl kassel? christ, what a body!

BR

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 13:48:35 -0600

Public radio is funded far more by donations, grants, and membership than it is by tax funding. To the complainers I say don't listen, don't give, and don't complain. There's so much more waste of your hard-earned tax dollars to get pissy about.

FredN.

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 13:12:16 -0600

I was there for that taping, and it was really funny. $20 w/o minimum drink order for 2 hours of ha-ha's is WELL worth it.

Moon

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 11:55:58 -0600

You forgot to mention Adam West.

carlton the doorman

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 10:43:51 -0600

I was there last week, too. I do think the $20 tab is out of line to watch a radio taping (and you don't even get a coffee mug or a tote bag! but they do sell them in the lobby afterwards). Perhaps public radio is bound by a different set of rules there -- i wonder, though, if you have to apy to watch a WTTW taping, of say 'soundstage' or any of their shows that occassionally have an audience. And if the show is underwritten by Chase, then what are they doing with all those twenties? However, it is a couple hours of great entertainment on a Thursday night. You get to hear all sorts of things that don't make it past the NPR censors (apparently there is such a thing), such as Mo Rocca's Muppet prison rape scenario and Peter Sagal's comment about the ambiguous anchor anderson cooper. It's just like to listening at home -- or at the home of the couple sitting a few seats down from me, who came in late, then could not resist commenting on everything and even playing along with the news quizzes -- OUT LOUD. But ... 20 bucks ... yeah, even a complimentary key chain would have been nice.

e

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 10:35:19 -0600

hey, I'm a big fan of wait wait, and I hate prairie home companion. And I live in the city (in Pilsen). And I like car talk, this american life, morning edition, weekend edition, all things considered, 848, and most of the other news shows. And I'm even under 25. People find different things funny. Accept it and move on.

jd

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 09:24:03 -0600

this show ain't bad. good saturday house cleaning background radio. all these double sawbacks are flooding into chicago public radio now...so why is pledge drive time still so friggin long!? clearly they aren't plowing it back into the set.

s

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 09:13:46 -0600

Uhhhh... You guys seem to be forgetting about the comedic genius of Paul Poundstone!

north shore

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 09:12:02 -0600

Is there any program that is filled with more self-absorbed, bourgeois “blue-state” banality than "This American Life?" Probably not; but I still like it. Oh no! I like white, neo-urban, liberal story time.

Anon

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 08:42:46 -0600

Living on the North Shore of Illinois, I can assure you that the people who actually enjoy the moronic "Wait Wait" are mostly a fiction. No one likes it except Tory Malitia. More importantly, WBEZ directly lifted the show's format and production from Aaron Freeman, who actually was funny. My understanding was that Freeman would not buckle to Tory Malitia softening of his highly charged comedy quiz, prompting WBEZ to fire Freeman, appropriate his intellectual property, and rebadge it as the dummified "Wait Wait". Anon

Anonymous

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 08:23:31 -0600

Wait Wait Don't Tell me is probably worse than the pathetic Odyssey that Chicago Pub. Radio just cancelled. Its white-bread blandness is exceeded only by that of Praire Home Companion and the bounty of banality that passes for NPR's "news" shows, "Morning Edition" and "all things considered." When will NPR and CPR realize that to be a "public" station means more than shoving NOrth Shore-friendly fare down the throats of its listenership. And what the hell are they doing charging $20 bucks to warm the seats? In California, at least, it is against the law to charge for tickets to taping of broadcast programs. i guess this isn't surprising since 90% of the time when NPR isn't lacing the airwaves with soporific drivel they're asking you for money!