WBEZ: High Fidelity or High Tail?

I read the report in Crain's Chicago Business yesterday morning with a sense of sadness and a cynical shrug. That WBEZ would announce two of its locally produced programs, local news, art and culture magazine Eight Forty-Eight and Jerome McDonald's long-running global affiars program Worldview, would soon be put on hiatus to determine if they are meeting the stations strategic goals might be disappointing, but it shouldn't be a surprise. A part of me felt gratified that I'm (still) not a member of Chicago Public Radio (Disclosure: my wife is a High Fidelity member, and I make a payroll contribution to National Public Radio) because, while it feels like WBEZ's leadership doesn't give a damn about their audience anymore, what's worse is that they don't seem to be accountable to that audience.

When I was growing up my father instilled in me a love of NPR in general, and WBEZ specifically. Listening to Morning Edition on the way to school in the car, or Dick Buckley's Sunday jazz program, a high value was placed on intellectual curiosity early on. When I was old enough to drive, 91.5 FM held the first preset on my car's radio, and each car after that. In college, when I was too broke to put gas in my car, I would listen to the pledge drives and think to myself, "someday I'll make enough to be a member. I'll pay the station back for all the years that I've listened for free."

Now that I can afford to do so, that feeling is gone.

My first sense that WBEZ isn't the station that was came when I read the Chicago Reader's expose of the Vocalo project. As the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times shed staff and cut features, Chicago Public Radio avoided stepping into the void those outlets left, focusing its resources not on increasing its coverage of local news and events, but rather on a second broadcast frequency aimed at a younger demographic in Northern Indiana that had little to no interest in public radio. At a time when media was on the ropes, leaving Chicagoans with a dearth of hard news reporting in the city, Chicago Public Radio CEO Torey Malatia diverted WBEZ's resources and staff to Vocalo.

The second blow came when WBEZ announced it would cease broadcasting jazz in the evenings. Today WBEZ broadcasts a rerun of Eight Forty-Eight before switching to WHYY's Fresh Air, followed by three hours of Canadian and British public broadcasting programs.

That WBEZ would pay to run Canadian and British programming weeknights, rather than focus on local news or replay Worldview in the evening, makes it hard for me to accept that the station's leadership would consider pulling two popular, long-running locally produced programs. Therein lies my reluctance to become a member of Chicago Public Radio. Almost all of the news that I turn to public radio for is produced outside of Chicago. Why should I fund Malatia's experiments with the broadcast equivalent of Chicago Now or Red Eye, when I could instead pay my dues to NPR and listen to their news online? Certainly the Tribune Co. is happy to hand out Red Eye at no charge, and John Kass doesn't passively aggressively badger me to send Sam Zell and crew a few bucks every quarter.

If WBEZ is going to cut out what's left of its locally produced programming that reports on Chicago, (and in the more abstract sense, programming that puts global issues into context for a major metropolitan area that is impacted by them), maybe listeners should react the same way readers reacted when the Sun-Times and the Tribune stopped publishing content that mattered. By taking their audience, and therefore their dollars, elsewhere.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Kevin Robinson in News on November 2, 2011 8:30 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

llaa72

tiny.cc/qcfnd

remyngtin

good riddance

Navin_Johnson

That WBEZ would pay to run Canadian and British programming weeknights, rather than focus on local news or replay Worldview
in the evening, makes it hard for me to accept that the station's
leadership would consider pulling two popular, long-running locally
produced programs.

I actually like those shows. I listen to 848 in the morning, so I don't really want a rerun at night.

I still haven't forgiven them for axing "Blues Before Sunrise" though.

Eamon Daly

We were Leadership Circle members for several years until we heard Torey Malatia planned to cancel Odyssey. When we sent an email expressing our displeasure, he sent an incredibly flippant response that made us feel small for even bringing it up. That plus the Vocalo insanity is a big part of why I've shifted to podcasts and donate directly: support the program, not the medium.

ChicagoD

Worldview is as bad as 848 is good. However, I also stopped giving to BEZ in large part because I gave in a pledge drive, then turned the station off during a pledge drive three months later. Somehow I just didn't really get around to turning it back on. Podcasts of some of the shows I liked and not driving very often made BEZ seem irrelevant once I turned it off.

Navin_Johnson

Worldview's great, although it's extremely heady listening. It can be hard to listen to some of the misery that they cover.

ChicagoD

See, I think Worldview is brutal and the guy who does it insufferable. When he like totally stumbles around whatever with like questions or whatever he makes me like for instance, want to like, or whatever, thrash him. But that may just be me.

Mimihaha

I stopped giving money years ago. They won't get any more from me until Torey Malatia is gone. And now I guess I'll stop listening, because all I listen to there is Worldview and 848.

Joshua Covell

So what you're saying is that you're justifying being a freeloader all these years. Nicely done.

Speedstr

Woah.....I didn't read it as that. I read it as him appreciating WBEZ in the past. At the same time, he's not liking the new direction the WBEZ is heading towards. (Specifically, shuttering already established programming and departing experienced journalism) While he would like to contribute financially to show his appreciation, he doesn't want his donations to misconstrue as support to the new direction the WBEZ is taking. Since he's not in control of how his donations are spent, he is wisely voicing his position AS A LISTENER, of what is making him reconsider donating.

Joshua Covell

Yeah, I do see that. I'm gonna chalk this up to getting up on the wrong side of the bed coupled with a few OTHER favorite media programs that have been shut down recently due to a lack of support. It would be nice, and wholly democratic, if there was a way to support the individual programs rather than the stations/outlets as a whole. It would be two birds with one stone: moolah and programming feedback, like how podcasts work.

twocee

Yes, that's EXACTLY what Kevin's point was. Good job figuring that out.

Joshua Covell

I don't really disagree with the point at all. But the opinion is framed around the idea that this is why Kevin doesn't contribute, and all I'm thinking is, "No, no, that's not why you don't contribute." This is a reason to STOP contributing, not to convince yourself that you will continue to never contribute. It's a minor issue I have, almost a semantic one, but the bookends to this article smack of self-rationalization.

SteveBWalsh

Northwest Indiana has a Public Radio station. Lakeshore Public Radio WLPR 89.1 FM in Merrillville operates a signal covering all of Northwest Indiana, with news, traffic, local sports and a host of public affairs programming. I have a program at noon that will talk about the problems of finding jobs for local returning war vets and how a local school referendum plays into statewide trend of cash-strapped schools. We'll do at least 2 hours of live election coverage Tuesday.