Group wants WGBH's radio license pulled for ditching music

I know that they are not community radio, but any station playing Third Eye Blind 8 times a day could not do any worse by playing Peter, Paul, & Mary or The Folksmen or whatever fossil audio that this person is looking for in terrestrial radio.

Better yet, I think Jim and Margery serve the community interest of this area a lot better than Tom Ashbrook talking about the situation in East Northwest Kerplakistan, as somehow his talk can solve that "problem" which has nothing to do with Greater Boston.

At a time when the internet has provided multiple platforms for accessing what used to be called radio, the importance of radio stations, particularly public radio stations, having an audience is mission one. Certainly the mission of public radio is not just gaining the most listeners, but sharing and broadening culture.

One can argue that GBH radio had become increasingly stagnant essentially offering much of the same programming decade in, and decade out. I understand that Mr. Marx and other fans of the old music format feel a loss. Yet the fact is that jazz and classical music broadcasts have been loosing audience for many years now. GBH's music supporters are literally dying out, while GBH's potential audience do not have enough of an interest to listen to Eric in the Evening or the classical music programming - they are, so to speak, voting with their feet.

More importantly as private radio (and television) have given up the ghost of providing the news necessary to inform citizens in a democracy, public radio needs to step into the void. I can access classical music easily on the internet (GBH has a great classical music streaming service - which I listen to at work), but it's a small niche in today's culture, not worth the powerful signal that 89.7 has.

arbiters of the public airwaves. There is more than enough free music available streaming online. However there is not enough NPR in the world to battle the onslaught of right wing talk radio, a medium that fully understands what made Goebbels a genius.

You don't like what WGBH is playing, find another station. Like UMB for folk. Get the TuneIn radio app and you have a whole world of stations! Though judging by the Word template webpage these idiots set up, I have a feeling most of them are still on dial-up.

More often than not, I catch the jazz that plays later in the evening on WGBH, and errands on the weekend tend to fall during a Celtic Sojourn. Sooo...there is still music played on that station.

Not only that, but there is a jazz stream on the WGBH website, so you can listen to that if you are near a computer.

I think the splitting of stations to be music-oriented/news-oriented is a trend - up in Vermont there are now two different VPR stations, one that plays more classical music and one that is more like WBUR/WGBH, and I think it's been pretty well accepted.

I've been a fan of public radio since Susan Stamberg was a little girl. The increased competition between WBUR and WGBH has generally been a good thing. Occasionally a local story will receive substantial coverage on either of them, but neither station is a comprehensive source for local news and information.

Many NPR programs are duplicated on both stations, sometimes at exactly the same time. This is convenient during pledge drives because the stations don't always do pledge breaks at the same time. Also, many other NPR (and PRI) programs aren't duplicated; on weekends in particular, there is added variety between the two stations.

The afternoon "Boston Public Radio" program featuring Margery Egan and James Braude is a mixed bag. As a team, I think they work quite well together, and they also sound very pleasant together! Margery tends to be a little wackier, and Jim seems to calm her down a little bit. Sometimes they'll go off on a useless "click bait" type of topic based on the latest "shocking headline", while leaving out key details from the story that explain and/or rationalize what actually happened. (oh, and when Andy Rooney's daughter wanders into the studio with them, forget it!)

However, the show regularly features important local guests; the governor, mayor, MBTA and other government agency managers, elected officials at all levels, and all candidates seeking office. The interviews are cordial and don't throw a lot of hardballs, but no obvious question goes unasked. Because the show is live radio, often the public can call in with questions and concerns.

So, overall, I give them high marks for providing a way for people who (or want to) run the government to speak directly with the community. I don't know of any other media outlet that does that as extensively or as consistently as WGBH.

when I can hear another NPR story on the Afghani sheep farmer losing his pet goat to an american made suv on poorly constructed mountain roadways.

Jacob Appelbaum
Free software for freedom, surveillance and you
http://media.libreplanet.org/

see also
http://gluglug.org.uk/lp2014/
http://b.mtjm.eu/libreplanet-2014.html