01/02/07

Astoundingly Bad Public Radio

by jaronh

I came to Chicago recently as an avowed NPR junkie, having honed my listening skills growing up in a very public radio friendly town like Seattle. I've been surprised at how poorly Chicago's WBEZ operates... administratively as well as its program schedule. My sister has endured an ongoing drama of making donations without receiving promised gifts. Both of us endure a ridiculous number of pledge drives, and now we're about to see an overhauled program schedule that removes some of its best programs (KCRW's To The Point and *all* of the Jazz programming) to spend each weekday afternoon listening to verbatim repeats of its morning programs! Is this how you save money? Kudos for 848 and World View, but who the heck is running this incompetent ship? I've resorted to online streams of KCRW, New York Public Radio and Seattle's KUOW to avoid WBEZ's paltry lineup. Every time you ask for more money while delivering an unsound product further alienates your audience. A great city like Chicago deserves better!