Amherst, MA, Tuesday, March 6, 2007 – In January of this year, the Western New England NPR station, WFCR, announced sweeping changes in its program schedule. These changes, included the elimination of TERTULIA, the locally produced, 4-hour, Sunday evening Spanish language program. On January 12th, a group of concerned members of the Latino community, under the name Amigos de Tertulia, met on campus with University of Massachusetts administrator, Ms. Sharon Fross, with WFCR General Manager, Martin Miller and with Helen Barrington, the new Program Director at WFCR. Amigos de Tertulia communicated their strong disapproval of the actions taken by the station.

Following this meeting, WFCR unilaterally chose to restore two hours of TERTULIA's air time, followed by Epicentro Político, one hour of Spanish-language news programming produced in Washington, DC. WFCR claims that the reduction in TERTULIA's airtime is a result of financial constraints.

TERTULIA is a unique forum and source of entertainment for Spanish-speaking communities in the Connecticut River Valley. In addition to the diverse and vibrant musical selection, TERTULIA keeps the Latino communities in Western New England informed about local news, events and issues of importance. The existence of TERTULIA makes freedom of expression a reality for a segment of the population all too often silenced and misrepresented by the mainstream media.

WFCR's decisions have a great impact on the Latino community, yet the station did not seek community input in spite of the fact that there are 90,000 Latinos in Western Massachusetts alone.

At present, WFCR devotes only 3 hours to the Latino community out of approximately 504 hours of programming per week – 24 hours on WFCR/88.5 FM, 24 hours on WPNI-AM and 24 hours on WFCR-HD2 on the web. That amounts to a mere ½ % of Spanish language programming in the area's public radio station with a strong signal that is heard across 5 states and the web!

Amigos de Tertulia feels that it is of mutual interest for WFCR and the community to restore TERTULIA to its full 4 hours on the air. Amigos de Tertulia also recommends that an advisory committee be nominated to address the concerns of the local Latino community on local public radio programming at WFCR.

TERTULIA is a also rare space for cultural integration where Latinos and non-Latinos interact and reflect on issues affecting society as a whole. For that reason, Amigos de Tertulia welcomes the support of the wider community on behalf of local Spanish language programming and greater Latino representation in the decision-making process at WFCR.

For more information and to express your opinion about these changes, contact amigosdetertulia@yahoo.com, WFCR and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.