WBEZ Backstab
We are shocked to read stories in Chicagoist and Chicago Tribune this evening, that WBEZ is dropping all of it's music programming as of 2007. This move was conveniently announced just after their long pledge drive. After contributing we feel betrayed. Keeping in mind that this is a public radio station that drones on and on in their painful pledge drives that they cannot run the station without its listeners; to completely drop programs that are institutions like 'Jazz with Dick Buckley', 'Comin' Home', and 'Blues Before Sunrise' is criminal. Inga commented after reading these stories 'Radio in Chicago is bad enough. Now this!'.
The quotes at the end of the Tribune article are very poignant:
"I call on all those who love great Chicago music not to stand by and let our public radio abandon our great music heritage," wrote Freeman in a dispatch that has been circulating widely. "Let WBEZ, the City of Chicago and the FCC hear your voice."
Wrote pianist Dan Cray in his own, mass-distributed e-mail, "Anyone who loves jazz in Chicago should be outraged."
The new philosophies at Chicago Public Radio are "a feeble excuse for giving up music," adds legendary deejay Buckley, who says he's bitter about the way the station has turned its back on his show and others. "Passport" host Heim, who also served as WBEZ's music director but recently left the station, did not return phone calls.
Says Lauren Deutsch, executive director of the non-profit Jazz Institute of Chicago, "I think this is really a misread on their part of what the mission of a public radio station is.
"To discontinue music programming really shows a lack of commitment to serving the community."
I hope WBEZ made plenty of money on their pledge drive, because if this household is any indication, they won't be getting nearly as much in the future.
Technorati Tags: WBEZ, Music programming, Jazz, Dick Buckley, Comin' Home, WDCB
