WFCR questioned about work of committees
(Letter to the Gazette editor, 6/7/06)

To the editor: In his guest column (Gazette, May 25) WFCR's general manager, Martin Miller, responding to recent criticism of the station, mentions two committees which advise the station: the WFCR Foundation and the WFCR Advisory Committee. The question is: What kind of advice do they provide, is WFCR obligated to act on the advice or is it non-binding.

Some years ago I attended a meeting of what was then the Five-College Radio Committee; I was told by the chairman that the committee had no enforcement powers. There used to be an occasional open forum at which the public could express itself about WFCR; this forum has been eliminated.

The key to WFCR is its budget. To my knowledge there is no evidence that there is any meaningful oversight of the station's budget. WFCR has never, so far as I know, made its budget public. The station collects large amounts of money without ever informing its listeners where this money goes. All year long, day in day out, relentlessly and aggressively WFCR asks for financial support without accounting for any of it.

Listeners are not told how much the national news programs and the other regular shows cost; they are not told what its operations and personnel cost are. They are simply asked to keep on giving without being informed of any financial specifics. Is this the kind of advice WFCR is getting from the two committees? I urge listeners to ask the station to provide specific information on its budget.

I've listened to WFCR since its inception in 1961 and value it for its truly outstanding classical music program. But there is something basically amiss with an organization that routinely expects the public to underwrite its operations without giving any public accounting of its finances.

Henry A. Lea
Hadley