An Independent at Last

Friday January 30 was my last day as a seriously undervalued and underpaid employee of a place that I loved. I feel absolutely liberated, although the tears flowed quite freely as I played the soprano aria from Brahms' A German Requiem, one of my all-time favorites on my last on-air shift.

On January 19 I uploaded my Chinese New Year show on a website for independent radio producers to share their work and get paid a little for it. Here's the link for it. Three days later it was licensed by WGBH in Boston, and there's proof that it aired. See this comment:

Thank you

This was a fantastic program. I listened on WGBH in Boston and was transfixed for the whole hour. Thank God I found this copy online, or I would have gone insane. I've been listening to some of the musical pieces over and over again for the past few days. Thank you.

The next day it was licensed by KUOW, Seattle's NPR station. It's nice to have this kind of validation, which was completely lacking in my former place of work.

The Truth, please?

Look at what I found on a page that was complaining about how bad pledge programming is on WABE.

From an anonymous WABE insider:

After Morning Edition goes off the air and we start broadcasting classical music, our listenership numbers go into the toilet. But, ironically, it is these loyal few listeners who support the station. And in a BIG way. Unfortunately, until people start being more vocal with their demand for more news/current affairs programming, and making sure the management realizes the money attached, things will not change. Not supporting the station is the wrong thing to do. When pledge comes up, call in and donate–but donate a SMALL amount, even if just a few dollars. Be sure to say that if your voice was heard, and there was more news (local and NPR), you would gladly give more. Believe me, if even just a handful of people do this, the highers-up will take note.

First of all, this insider is simply wrong. Radio listening habits across all formats experience a dip after 9am (which is the end of drive time) because the primary use of radio is in the car during morning and afternoon commutes. Of course this means that listening picks back up once people are commuting home in the afternoons. What I know from many years of looking at our radio ratings is that listening to classical music on WABE is on the rise. I have, in the last three plus years as host of Afternoon Classics, nearly doubled audience share from Noon-3pm, and the increase in arts coverage, thanks to my interviewing and editing skills, has been tremendous. I really hate to pat my own back, but I've simply had it with misinformation.

This is a curious quote, since our GM quoted this nearly verbatim once while talking to my boss, LR, saying that "listening goes in the toilet" at 9am. In addition, it is disheartening to know that there is someone inside this place that is spreading untruth as gospel and advocating for listeners to petition for a format change. We've been there, done that. Studies made by experts in the business concluded years ago that WABE was a healthy station, and changing the format to all news and talk could jeopardize our status. Also, the gains we have steadily made over the last few years in audience size has been due to increased listening in all hours from 5am-7pm, not due to the news programs alone.

Idiocy and betrayal make me so mad!