Firm withdraws it's bid for Monitor Radio

[LJNF40D@prodigy.com (BUMP MARTIN)]

(From Tuesday's Globe...in case you missed it...Submitted for discussion
...)


FIRM WITHDRAWS IT'S BID FOR MONITOR RADIO

News service will be closed; 87 Workers to be laid off

by Jerry Ackerman,  Globe Staff

The Christian Science church's radio news service, Monitor Radio, will
close at the end of the month, following an announcement yesterday by
World Times, Inc. of Boston that it has withdrawn it's bid to take over
production of the service.

Monitor Radio said it's last broadcast day will be June 27, closing the
13 year attempt be the First Church of Christ, Scientist, to be a strong
force in US broadcast media.  The church also publishes the Christian
Science Monitor Newspaper.  

World times said it backed off after failing to recruit enough stations
to carry the broadcast it planned.  

World Times publishes the WorldPaper, a monthly newspaper distributed in
 21 countries outside the United States with a claimed circulation of 1.
1 million.  It's first US edition is due to appear in July, distributed
to a limited mailing list.

The Christian Science Publishing Society, an affiliate of the church,
was losing $8 million a year on radio, including shortwave and religious
broadcasting, and said in April it would close Monitor Radio on June 30
if a buyer was not found.  

World Times was the only bidder but didn't make it's offer until May -
Too late to line up stations to continue carrying a successor news
schedule.  "Too many of the key affiliate stations that we needed had
already made other plans," said Crocker Snow Jr., founder and editor in
chief of WorldPaper.  

Those stations included outlets in Washington and Los Angeles, which
potential corporate underwriters consider essential for their support. 
Axel LeBlois, chairman of World Times, said the possible underwriters
included AT&T Corp., Volvo, United Parcel Service, and Burson-Marsteller
, a public relations agency.  

Monitor Radio now produces three, one-hour in-depth broadcasts each
weekday plus five minute newscasts on the hour around the clock.  It's
programs are carried by about 200 stations in the United States,
including WBUR-FM in Boston.  

World Times has planned to cut back most of this schedule and produce
only one weekday program, to be broadcast from Noon to 3PM.,  a schedule
that it believed would deliver a strong listener base at a relatively
low cost.  

Most stations now carrying Monitor Radio are expected to replace those
programs with offerings from National Public Radio of the British
Broadcasting Corp.  Both are preparing to add one-hour, early morning
news broadcasts to air at 5, a period only Monitor Radio now fills with
news.  

A spokeswoman for WBUR said that station as of yesterday had not decided
which of those it would carry, or how to replace the one-hour Monitor
Radio broadcast it now carries at noon.  

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