If you believe the problem with WBEZ is that experts talking and you lapping up their wisdom is the wrong way to program a radio station, the good news is that the WBEZ’s managers agree with you. The news that’s not so good is that this epiphany is driven by falling revenues.
“The traditional WBEZ format is that lots of highly educated people talked about their specialties. That’s over. That was my understanding of the meeting.”
As promising as this strategic shift in programming sounds, there’s nothing about it that can’t coexist with dueling theater critics and WBEZ’s other talented freelancers. The reason so many of them are out the door is that the money’s dried up.
The WBEZ blog force has its roots in Vocalo, which was Malatia’s failed attempt in 2008 to launch a separate public radio station for a younger audience. I didn’t have many kind words for Vocalo, but the blog network Kaufmann put together there was an exception. I called it “small but formidable” and “composed of experienced journalists with followings and reputations.”
Not that the station left well enough alone. When Kaufmann got to WBEZ he asked them to blog, each posting once a week independently of the other. Abarbanel says they were told that, on the air, instead of simply reviewing shows, they should use those shows to explore big issues in Chicago theater. And they should tie their blogs to whatever it was they were saying on the air. But their on-air appearances, originally every Friday, became more infrequent.
They say you’d been paying them each $600 a month, I tell Kaufmann.
