Some WFCR responses to listeners

from Helen Barrington ( Programming Director)
from Martin Miller (General Manager)
another from Martin Miller, 2/12/07

Typical response from Helen Barrington:

Thank you for your e-mail and calls. I understand that you are upset.

We are sorry to lose Susan Forbes Hansen, and we know how deeply people feel about Valley Folk, Afropop and The Thistle and Shamrock. We respect the hosts of all of these programs and their work. We are also greatly indebted to them for decades of service to and great programming at WFCR.

You can still hear Susan Forbes Hansen hosting folk music on WHUS, 91.7 FM, in Storrs, Connecticut on her program. There she hosts a program called Sunday Night Folk Festival, Sunday nights from 7-10 PM and online at www.whus.org. However, at the present time, we are under budget pressure, due to an increase in programming fees from NPR and other national program providers, increased employee benefits charges from the State, and the ever present prospect of reduced federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). These factors mean that the station must now allocate its resources in a different way.

WFCR is also now more than just 88.5FM. It is a media organization operating on multiple platforms. It will continue to serve all of the constituents it currently serves across its platforms: 88.5FM WFCR; 88.5FM WFCR HD2; 1430AM WPNI; and wfcr.org where there will be multiple links and where 88.5FM and HD2 are also streamed. This is the direction that all media organizations are headed in. We are able to do things we haven't been able to do before. Yet cuts on one broadcast platform are required as we pursue the station's core mission and meet its strategic goals on multiple platforms.

We are also committed to expanding the programming on 1430 AM to Springfield, which is vitally important to serving listeners. If such an expansion becomes possible, it would lead to additional operating expenses. In addition, the demography of WFCR's listening area has changed, so we are hiring a reporter who can speak Spanish. We are committed to better serving WFCR's audience by bringing more, diverse voices to the airwaves.

This increases WFCR's ability to stay in touch with the region at large, with more reporting in English on emerging and established communities of color. Part of the rationale behind these changes, is to make the programming we offer more consistent, which is key to audience growth and to the financial health of the station. Jazz can now be heard 6 nights a week from 8-11 PM: Jazz a la Mode, Monday-Friday from 8-11 PM and Jazz Safari on Saturdays from 8-11 PM. As you may know, The Thistle and Shamrock and Afropop can be heard Sunday nights on WAMC, 90.3 FM, between 7 & 9 pm. Afropop also maintains a list of stations on its website, afropop.org, where you can stream the program live.

WAMC also airs folk music at several times in its program schedule. The Hudson River Sampler airs on Saturdays from 8-10:30 PM. Mountain Stage features some folk groups (Mountain Stage is a two-hour radio show recorded before a live audience in Charleston, West Virginia. Now in its 20th year, the show has established a long tradition of featuring national and international acts in almost every style of music). Mountain Stage is on Monday nights from 9-11 PM. WRSI, 93.9 FM, also airs folk music Saturdays from 9 AM to noon on their program, “The Backporch.” In addition, WFCR is adding a link on our website, www.wfcr.org, to our sister station, WUMB-FM, at UMass Boston, which has 5 on-demand folk streams available.

Thanks so much for writing. I'd be happy to talk with you in further depth about this if you'd like to call me.

Helen Barrington
Program Director, WFCR
413 577 0541

from Martin Miller:

Thank you for all of your letters and emails of concern. We do appreciate everyone's feedback about our recent program decisions.

I understand that people are in effect "in mourning" over the loss of folk music programming on WFCR.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything new to add from the previous responses we've sent to you.

I truly believe WFCR has made a very democratic decision. WFCR is using its limited resources to expand its public service mission to its largest audience, which is for news and information programming. Despite a $50,000 operating deficit that we still must deal with before June 30th of this year, we plan to invest in our news programs and specifically the addition of a Spanish-English speaking reporter. This meets one of the primary objectives of our mission and our strategic plan, which is to bring more diverse voices from the community, in this case from communities of color, to a significant audience. Folk music is important to our society, to our culture and to the Valley. We understand this. However, we've had to make difficult choices. We simply can't do everything we used to do in the same way.

Technology is changing. That plus the availability of folk music on a variety of different stations and a variety of different delivery systems are factorss in our decision as well.

I would hope that listeners, especially listeners like yourself, could understand and appreciate having a more diverse staff at WFCR and more diverse programming from communities of color.

I would also hope that listeners to WFCR, will take the long view of what we do for our community of listeners every day, and continue to support WFCR.

Over the last decade, using multiple platforms, including HD2 - digital radio, WFCR now provides more hours of both classical and jazz listening, more regional news and more national news programs, including 1430AM WPNI, expanded coverage to Berkshire County via translators, expanded use of technology platforms through wfcr.org with podcasts and more program streams - which will include 5 folk streams through wumb.org. WFCR has assisted WMUA in bringing "Democracy Now!" to a wider audience, offered support to Valley Free Radio, continued its commitment to Spanish language programming, with "Tertulia" and the addition of the new national program "Epicentro Politico", and continued its commitment to Pan African music on Jazz Safari. We also support almost every cultural organization in the Valley and Connecticut, by offering non-profit organizations discounted underwriting, co-sponsoring over 150 events every year, presenting our own performances and trips, and announcing events and playing music of artists coming through our region. The coverage of the arts is a mainstay of our regional news department.

We have many more plans on the drawing board, including a weekly or daily locally produced news and cultural program, which many of our listeners have been asking WFCR to do for many years.

All of these things mean taking the long view, and it means allocating limit resources in different ways.

Our region is blessed by the fact that WFCR provides as much service as is found in many major cities in the U.S. And in fact, some major cities don't have the amount of service WFCR provides this region. Listeners are also blessed by the number of additional choice they have, including WAMC, and many college and community run radio stations.

I would hope that by taking the long view, you and other listeners, would embrace all of these stations for what they offer, including WFCR, which taken as a whole all deserve support.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Martin Miller
General Manager
88.5FM WFCR

From miller@wfcr.org Tue Feb 13 00:45:06 2007