To: The Trustees of WGBH
I am writing on behalf of the Committee to Save MusicAmerica, the WGBH-FM/89.7 weekday radio program that was canceled effective August 31 after an 18 year run. Two weeks ago, singer Tony Bennett told 4500 fans at Harborlights, "We've got a problem. It's a music emergency!" Now, with the program off the air, though, we have a cultural catastrophe.!
As you know, the cancellation of Ron Della Chiesa's MusicAmerica means the loss of the only radio source for classical American music. In addition to bringing cheer and a musical education to 100,000 loyal listeners weekly (the station's own statistic), this program served the community by encouraging and promoting local artists and by exposing audiences to their talents.
Given the positive impact that this program has had on Boston's culture, and the size and diversity of its audience, it is hard to understand why WGBH would kill such an important show. Word of the change is getting out very slowly, but we know that as of last week, over 5,000 listeners had called or written the station expressing their disappointment, contacted our Hotline, and signed our petitions. This number continues to grow.
In early August, I met for an hour and a half with Marita Rivero, WGBH's Vice President for Radio, and listened to her attempt to explain the reason for canceling MusicAmerica. A week later, I spent an hour discussing the proposed change with Martin Miller, Radio Program Director (who is about to leave the station for another job). As a result of these conversations, I am convinced that this critical decision was made without good data, an insightful analysis, and a full appreciation of its strategic impact.
Significantly, discussions with Ms. Rivero and others at the station reveal that radio management failed to involve the Community Advisory Board in reaching this decision. CAB members were never given an opportunity to discuss and debate the change, and they last met months before the decision was announced.
Additional evidence of the station's indifference to its listeners comes from the Quincy Patriot Ledger on August 19, which quoted Mr. Miller as saying "We understand that people feel a loss, and we feel it, too. At this point, there may be nothing we can do to make them happy, but there's also nothing they can do to make us change our minds." Needless to say, a public radio station, depending on government, foundation, and corporate grants, supplemented by listener contributions, owes the public much more.
The Committee to Save MusicAmerica has organized a campaign to keep classical American music on the air. When we advised Tony Bennett that MusicAmerica had been canceled, he responded by speaking out to an audience of 4500 at his Harborlights concert on August 21, and asked all to contact Henry Becton and to protest that decision. Keith Lockhart signed our petition, and, from Tanglewood, so did over ninety (virtually every one) of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's musicians! These efforts are continuing.
To date, we estimate that $50,000-$100,000 in corporate funding, foundation grants, and listener contributions have either been canceled or will be withheld from the station solely as a result of the decision to cancel MusicAmerica. In this regard, our efforts have now intensified, and we are now calling for refunds of prior contributions and a moratorium on future contributions to WGBH from all sources. Our goal is to achieve a $250,000 impact on WGBH by December 31. It truly grieves us that in redirecting some of these funds to finance our own campaign, they are diverted from the more constructive purpose of funding the show.
Our Committee seeks Trustee support in getting WGBH management to respond in a constructive way to the public outcry over the loss of MusicAmerica. Looking to the longer term, we seek your help in ensuring that decisions of this magnitude are never again made with such limited data, so much prejudice, and circumvention of the bodies and processes intended to put and to keep the public in public radio. As a case study, the decision to cancel an enormously popular and essential program like MusicAmerica, coupled with the insensitivity of radio station management's response to the public outcry, indicates that this valued Boston institution badly needs a restoration of the listener orientation it so actively promotes.
If I can answer additional questions about this matter, or about our Committee's activities, please do not hesitate to call me or to write.
Sincerely,
Stephen R. Low