Boston, MA. September 14, 1995. Members of the Committee to Save MusicAmerica have accused WGBH executives of deliberately circumventing their own Community Advisory Board in the course of making recent, significant program changes at WGBH-FM/89.7. Addressing the Board this week, Committee spokesman, Steve Low, stated that the failure of station management to involve the Board in its decision to cancel MusicAmerica raises serious questions about the integrity of the advisory process, and the independence of the Board in pursuing its mission.
Low also charged that the station has lost its leadership and creativity and is becoming just a copycat programmer. He questioned the appropriateness of using public and private contributions to simulcast news programming already available on WBUR/90.9, and to change the style of its morning classical; program to mimic that of WCRB/102.5, a commercial station. "Surely there must be a better use of the station's license than simply looking next door or down the street and doing the same thing as a competitor," Low said.
In its presentation, the Committee to Save MusicAmerica recommended that the current Board be split in two, creating one board to focus on television issues; and a separate one to concentrate on radio matters. This approach would assign clear responsibility for monitoring radio programming to a panel dedicated to improving the community service afforded by WGBH-FM. Since the radio station accounts for only 5% of WGBH's total budget, such a change will prevent it from being overlooked by a board charged with much broader oversight responsibilities.
Citing growing public protest and negative press, the Committee asked the Board to pressure WGBH radio management to accommodate the 100,000 now-disenfranchised listeners who tuned in weekly to hear MusicAmerica. The Committee to Save MusicAmerica estimates that $50,000-$100,000 in funding has already been canceled or withdrawn from the station, and it notes that several thousand dollars of these funds are now being used to finance the campaign to restore the program. In addition, 6,000 listeners-among them Tony Bennett, Keith Lockhart, and virtually every Boston Symphony Orchestra player-have signed the group's petition calling for a restoration of the program. The station, itself, admits to receiving 2,000 phone calls in protest.
According to the Committee, MusicAmerica was Boston's only source for classic American music, and for 18 years it served as a programming hallmark for WGBH. Low told the Board that this program featured "the music that continues to define America because it unites all people, all ages. This music is our heritage; it's both our melting pot and our salad bowl. No other 'GBH program brought so much diversity to so diverse an audience."
John Brady, Chairman of the Committee to Save MusicAmerica, states that the meeting with the CAB was one more step in bringing the issue of the program's cancellation to every one of the parties with an interest in WGBH programming and operations. "It is unconscionable that WGBH management would have deliberately bypassed its own Community Advisory Board in engineering the biggest program changes in years at the radio station. It seems they must have known how the Board would react."
Brady alleges that the station's behavior suggests not only contempt for the Board, but insensitivity to the Board's recommendations offered in last year's Annual Report. While the Board stressed the need for greater program and community diversity, Brady points out that station management ignored this advice by removing the acknowledged centerpiece of its diversity programming. "This program featured music created by members of every minority community that reached our shores; music that was written and performed to entertain every one of us, as Americans. Does this make any sense?" asked Brady.
The Committee to Save MusicAmerica maintains a 24-hour hotline, 617-662-0853. The Committee estimates that its efforts have already cut contributions to WGBH by $50,000 to $100,000. Its goal is to reach the $250,000 mark by December 31, if WGBH refuses to budge.