WBUR lashes out at WGBH

[Martin Waters]

--- On Sat, 4/16/11, Dan.Strassberg <dan.strassberg@att.net> wrote:
> If you read the article on which this thread is allegedly based, I >think you will find that WBUR's new GM (what's his name--Kravitz?) >didn't say (at least, didn't say to the reporter) what the posters >here are saying he said.

    Whatever the WBUR manager said, precisely, the fact is that saying "WGBH stole our format" is about as controversial as declaring that the sky is blue. But, another question is, Is the WBUR manager taking the best approach? IMO, he should take his free media opportunities to talk positively about WBUR -- decades of commitment, vast experience, etc. Criticize your competitor indirectly by talking up your product -- especially when it's a good one. Work with your strength. It's just PR 101. 

    Instead, he sounds somewhat desperate -- which is not the real situation. It remains to be seen if WGBH keeps making gains -- or plateaus sooner rather than later. The numbers the Globe gives show that WBUR's weekly cume is 80 percent higher than WGBH's. The top-line Arbitron numbers, with holiday, January and February averaged together, give WBUR a 3.6 share and WGBH, a 1.5. Anyway, as the Globe article notes, without other research, there's no way to tell how many individual listeners have switched from one station to the other. Meanwhile, FWIW, the two stations' combined cume was down by 3 percent in January from a year earlier.