Re: WBUR promotes WSJ (a good thing)

[Scott Saloway <saloway@bu.edu>]

Short answer - no, the WSJ does not pay/trade/market etc the interviews on
WBUR's Morning Edition. The agreement between the WSJ and WBUR is a purely
journalistic one - they let the station see some of the stories in advance
and the station decides whether or not they warrant an interview.

In part, that's probably because the WSJ's bureau chief used to be a
reporter at WBUR - and I assume still has some respect for the people
there.

There have been many Wednesdays - (and I speak from personal experience,
having spent the better part of 6 months working on Morning Edition) -
that WBUR has not done a WSJ interview, simply because the stories were
not particularly interesting/newsworthy/etc.

It's no different from WBZ-TV's agreement with the Boston Globe to promote
the next day's paper on the 11 O'Clock news, or WBUR's own agreement with
the Globe and WBZ-TV during the 1994 campaign.

--Scott--

ps - As a side note, it's interesting that you mention Dolores Handy as
one of the people who conduct the interviews. Last week was her first time
ever hosting Morning Edition. Ted O'Brien is the standard fill-in for Bob
when he's away. (Just goes to show the effect a talented host can have on
her listening audience).

Scott J. Saloway      
Assistant Producer/On-Air Promotions and Fundraising
WBUR Radio, Boston    
saloway@bu.edu        
*************************************************************************
I do not represent Boston University or any other entity.             
My opinions are mine and mine alone.                                 

On Wed, 9 Aug 2000 lglavin@lycosmail.com wrote:

> There have been a few comments lately about the 
> "near-commercials" one encounters on Public radio 
> and TV.  The underwriting messages on "The Newshour
> with Jim Lehrer", "Wall $treet Week" and some other
> PBS shows greatly resemble portions of the companies'
> TV commercials.  The underwriting messages on WBUR
> FM&AM by comparison are closer to the spirit of 
> FCC rules: short, mention the sponsor and maybe just the
> address, 800# or URL, etc.  The one for Nina's of
> Wellesley does not inflict the guy with the whiny voice
> on us like their commercials!  All of this leads up to
> my observation concerning the equivalent of a 
> commercial for the Wall Street Journal's New England
> insert that airs on WBUR FM&AM Wednesday mornings.
> Every Wednesday, the WSJ carries a few pages of 
> business news focusing on New England;  and nearly 
> every Wednesday, Bob Oaks, Ted O'Brien or Dolores
> Handy does a five-minute interview with the reporter 
> who wrote the story that day.  It's a good and useful
> feature for WBUR FM&AM and it alerts listeners to
> the station that the WSJ has this section.  I
> find no fault with the arrangement but I wonder if
> the station annotates its program log in any way.
> (And yes, I write "WBUR FM&AM" in response to a thread 
> from a few days ago.)
> 
> Laurence from Methuen
> 
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