Posted on 04/13/2002 6:48:33 AM PDT by Pharmboy
National Public Radio, the network that is the country's biggest producer of programming for public radio stations, has announced a major restructuring of its cultural division aimed in part at increasing coverage of popular culture.
The network will lay off 35 members of the culture division, but some can apply for 15 new positions being created by the reorganization, a network spokeswoman said.
In September NPR will open a new West Coast production center in Los Angeles and add staff. Ken Stern, NPR's executive vice president, said one purpose of the reorganization was to enhance NPR's coverage of the business side of entertainment.
In making the changes, which were reported in The Washington Post yesterday, NPR is following public radio stations everywhere that are rethinking their cultural programming in response to audience surveys showing that classical music drives away listeners, who prefer talk and news.
NPR said, however, that it planned in the fall to decrease talk on one of its main classical music programs, "Performance Today," to increase the music and that it hoped to upgrade its classical music shows to attract listeners.
Mr. Stern said NPR would "have more classical music than we usually do."
At the same time, NPR hopes to develop a 24-hour stream of classical music to be distributed to member stations by satellite.
As part of the reorganization, "NPR World of Opera" will be broadcast all year instead of 26 weeks. The program "Jazz Profiles" will consist of rebroadcasts. "SymphonyCast" will continue as is.
NPR's cultural division and the news division's cultural desk will be reorganized into three groups. There will be an arts information unit, of about 16 people, that will develop and distribute talk segments for music and news shows.
A new music unit will develop and distribute music segments for "Performance Today," "SymphonyCast," "NPR World of Opera" and future 24-hour music streams, which may include jazz.
Finally, a new entertainment unit will support existing programs, like "Car Talk" and "Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!," a news quiz show, and develop new broadcasts.
The changes follow a February report by Jay Kernis, NPR's senior vice president for programming, that urged that the organization emphasize popular culture more. In a telephone interview, Mr. Kernis denied that he advocated cutting classical music programming. People say "NPR is going into pop culture," he said. But "we should cover popular culture in the same smart way as when we cover news events."
Larry Josephson, an independent producer of programs for public radio, said he had been consulted about the changes and approved of them. "Jay Kernis is shaking up NPR," he said. He went on: "While I don't agree with everything he is doing, it had become an organization averse to change. It had become semi-ossified."
But Perry van der Meer, a member of the community advisory board of WNYC, the public radio station in New York City that carries NPR and has one of the largest audiences in the public radio system, reacted to the changes with dismay and said they represented less emphasis on classical music, not more. "It's very unfortunate, a turning away from classical and cultural music programming," Mr. van der Meer said. "The trend everywhere is to appeal to younger, mainstream, pop-oriented audiences."
"I think it's a misjudgment," he added. "Younger audiences are much more sophisticated than NPR is giving them credit for."
The changes in public radio, Mr. van der Meer said, "are a reflection of wanting to appeal to corporate sponsors, the way commercial stations want to appeal to advertisers."
And interesting, they didn't define Larry Josephson as either "controversial" or "left-wing" because he is a commie; just the way they would deal with a conservative, r-i-g-h-t.
I RESENT my tax dollars being spent on this lefty bull!
Sure there is. The Hillary! bucket at KFC is fat thighs, small breasts and left wings. (Or so I've been told.)
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
The scuttlebut was that the local fairy population was the core monetary support for KERA and they didn't want that kind of music. So, we get Diane Rheems and LOTS of touchy-feeley leftist drivel. No music. We do have an independent publis radio station, KNON, that still plays wonderful miscellaneous music. The have redneck stuff, Mexican stuff, Reggae, Thai, Indian (dot and feather), rap and other obscure stuff. That's the station I shifted to when KERA changed programming. Sure, there is some OK stuff on NPR but if they drop music, find another little, independent to listen to.
You forgot bluegrass. Nevertheless, I don't want any public money going to this lefty organization. Oh, and would somebody please put Diane Reams(sp) in a nursing home. Thank you.
However, I have lately discovered Radio Swiss Classic, which I can get on streaming audio at work. At home, I listen either to CD's (allows me to choose the music) or to the commercial classical music station here in D.C., which, by playing interesting music -- including a lot of chamber music -- exposes me to music that I am unfamiliar with.
One NPR station here in D.C. that I used to listen to is WAMU, the American University station, which used to have a bluegrass show for the evening rush-hour drive-time. But then they substituted for that the usual NPR talk shows, a decision which made no sense, because the other NPR station in town already played those shows.
It's time to defund all these government/arts thingies, once and for all.
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