WMBR is cancelling it's nightly news - protest

["Aaron [Bishop] Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

>WMBR (This combines messages from Mark Weaver and John Grebe):
>
>...The WMBR programming board has recently decided to
>cancel its daily news programming, after more than 10 years of airing
>Pacifica Network News and more recently Free Speech Radio News.
>
>Here are their stated reasons:
>
>  - They say the quality has been steadily declining
>  - They say we are preaching to the choir
>  - They claim the news is redundant with other available news
>    programs in the area
>
>No one warned the news department that this was being considered.  We
>didn't find out until after the decision was already made.
>
>If you would like to let the WMBR program director know what you think
>about this, send your comments to: program-director@wmbr.mit.edu.
>Please also CC news@wmbr.mit.edu, so that we in the news department
>can see what kind of support we are getting.
>
>URGENT APPEAL:
>Stop WMBR Radio from Cancelling the Nightly News
>
>Send a quick note of support (sample below) to keep it on. Bolster the
>WMBR News Directors' appeal to their programming board this Friday, June
>14. Help reverse this unprecedented decision to eliminate this crucial
>exclusive newscast.
>
>The nightly news in Boston glares like a beacon to the listening public
>wearied of super-slick heavily corporate-underwritten and advertised news
>product.
>
>Please forward this note rapidly throughout Greater Boston.
>
>Please email a letter (like the sample below) to WMBR, today.
>
>As listeners to WMBR, let's act on our tremendous respect for the decade
>of volunteer expertise that WMBR's news crew pours into getting the news
>on-air every weekday. For more details, find a longer note below.
>
>Please act now. Email your quick note to the addresses below.
>
>Call 617-253-4000, and press 4 to record a programming comment.
>
>Send postal mail to:
>
>Program Director
>WMBR Radio
>3 Ames St.
>Cambridge, MA 02142
>
>If you like, email the template letter below. This Friday, June 14, a
>decision is made.
>_____________________________________________________
>
>To:  program-director@wmbr.mit.edu
>CC:  news@wmbr.mit.edu, jgrebe@tecschange.org
>
>Dear Program Director at WMBR:
>
>I urge you to keep the entire WMBR 6 p.m. news line-up on the air every
>weeknight.
>
>[I have been a listener to WMBR 88.1 FM for ____ years.]
>
>[I have been a financial contributor to WMBR 88.1 FM for ____ years.]
>
>As a unique and valuable service to the entire Greater Boston listening
>community, WMBR's 6 p.m. long-standing nightly news provides information
>and perspectives crucial to an informed public participating in a
>democracy. There is no other daily source like it in Greater Boston.
>
>Your 6 o'clock news has engendered wide support throughout Greater Boston
>since 1991 as a unique source of daily independent radio news. Your
>underwriters know this. Listeners to "Free Speech Radio News" value its
>unique independence from corporate ownership and its non-commercial
>mission to provide national and international news from journalists around
>the world. Listeners and underwriters have relied on WMBR for over a
>decade. Don't let us down.
>
>"Free Speech Radio News" provides high quality news stories unheard
>anywhere in Boston radio on a daily basis. At a time when commercial
>pressures dilute news content, at a time of national and global crisis,
>WMBR should continue to offer this excellent newscast. WMBR should operate
>with its non-commercial license to broadcast in the public interest by
>keeping FSRN and the public affairs block on the air at 6 p.m. weeknights.
>Especially in Greater Boston; especially in these times.
>
>Yours truly,
>
>[Your name]
>[City or town]
>[Affiliation, if any]
>
>________________________________________________________
>
>[More details about WMBR's move to cancel the nightly news.]
>
>WMBR's programming board last Friday cancelled the 6 p.m. half hour of
>nightly news that its News Dept. broadcast for eleven years. The board
>also cancelled "Black Perspectives" (the only African-American public
>affairs program) and displaced "Democracy Now!" from the evening news.
>Next week, the broadcast ends, unless the listening public supports the
>News Dept. in convincing the programming board otherwise.
>
>Demonstrate the wide public support that WMBR's 6 o'clock news has
>engendered throughout Greater Boston since 1991 as a unique source of
>daily independent radio news. Listeners to "Free Speech Radio News" prize
>its independence from corporate ownership, its thoroughly non-commercial
>and unique enterprise in providing daily national and international news
>from journalists around the world.
>
>Especially amid what President Bush dubbed this "war year," Greater Boston
>needs independent media reporting beyond official spokesmen's sound bites,
>transcending fear- mongering talk radio, linking listeners to citizens'
>perspectives around the country and the world.
>
>Free Speech Radio News on WMBR 88.1 FM in Boston glares like a beacon to
>the listening public wearied of super-slick heavily corporate-underwritten
>and advertised news product.
>--

____________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read     aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels.com Technical Consulting
www.friedbagels.com   AOL-IM: ReadAaron