Re: WSRO sold

[ASchinella <ASchinella@aol.com>]

I think you should re-check your figures on what WBUR takes in individual
contributions. I think the last time I heard their corporate donations were up
over 50% of all donations; a level unseen in the history of the station. I
will note that I am getting that secondhand, but from a pretty good source who
knows the inside of WBUR, so it could be less or more in reality. 

As for ratings, I know they are good. I don't know why they aren't included in
the regular ratings with everyone else. 

In a message dated 4/18/98 5:22:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
mwaters@wesleyan.edu writes:

<<         This once was very true of public radio, but the reputation lives
 on while the reality has changed. The NPR local stations get a decent
 percentage of their funding from contributions from listeners, so they are
 very oriented toward putting on shows that will attract an audience. In
 fact, that's a complaint from a different direction that one hears about
 public radio -- that they won't put on some shows that they might have
 years back because they think the audience will be too small or the show is
 too controversial for the audience and/or the corporations that make gifts.
 And when they, and NPR nationally, ask for foundation and corporate grants,
 they want to show that people are listening.
         You see public radio getting away from the traditional variety
 programming formats and a move in the direction of narrower formats, like
 commercial stations. Instead of two hours of jazz followed by two hours of
 classical followed by two hours of news and talk, you're getting the
 news/talk public radio stations and the music public radio stations, like
 WBUR and WGBH.
         Another issue with the perception of public radio, even here in the
 geek community and among people in the business, to some extent, is that
 Arbitron does not show the public stations in the basic 12+, Mon-Sun
 ratings that are the ones usually available to non-subscribers. For
 example, doesn't WBUR actually have decent ratings in Boston, but when you
 look up the list on the Radio & Records website, it isn't there? >>

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