HD radio is failed technology that doesn't even cover the suburbs. I have an HD radio and can't pick up WDUQ in the South Hills. I don't have HD in my vehicle, and those sets are not cheap, but don't work any better than the limitations of this sham technology. The IBOC garbage in the spectrum also makes it more difficult to receive standard analog transmissions of suburban stations that were readily available before HD came to be.
Additionally, if HD were the answer, there would have been no need to make the change, since the cookie-cutter generic talk shows from the NPR machine, as well as the BBC World Service, were already broadcast on WDUQ HD subchannels.
Much of the discontent, though, stems from the completely underhanded way in which this deal went down. No one seems to be particularly interested in the truth of the matter, so there's no sense in beating that dead horse again.
To each their own. I am using Sirius, not out of spite, but because I prefer the offerings available there. For local radio, I am listening to local stations, and Essential Public Radio is anything but local from my perspective.
As far as I can tell, no one has ever attacked anyone's listeners, YEP's, DUQ's or any other station's.
The vast majority of the former DUQ airstaff is still working at 90.5. The entire news department, sans Alexandria Chaklos, is the news department at the new station, so it's the same "awful reporting and worse production" you can't support.
There is no venture the former DUQ staff is trying to create, save The Pittsburgh Jazz Channel, which is an online service using a VERY small handful of former DUQ types.
The only YEP staffer attacked in any way, is the General Manager, although stating the facts that he has never been involved in a news operation isn't exactly an attack.
As for the Chairman of the Board, he, backed by the omniscient Charlie Humphrey, who has lied repeatedly throughout this process, and the foundation folks who were looking to shove an all-news/talk NPR regurgitator down our throats regardless of public demand for it, has killed the station the largest number of listeners used, and the largest number of listeners supported, because he and they know best what Pittsburgh wants. I beg to differ.
Time will tell. They've made their bed, and now they will lie in it as it becomes the deathbed of public radio in Pittsburgh as we've known it.
It's not about the people making the radio. It's about the people listening to it. And the radio they give us to listen to.
Even after the talk show and the sound collage show debut, we'll get six hours of local programming per week, augmented by the six hours of jazz on Saturday nights, and Music from India.
This station might as well be from Peoria, Toledo, or some community college in Utah. There is nothing Pittsburgh about it whatsoever.
YEP also went down in the ratings. It remains lower-rated than 90.5.
One month gives us no real basis for conclusions, but there's NO WAY the audience for the new 90.5 will double. I doubt it will grow at all. The in-depth news audience was already tuned to 90.5.
Will more of them give now? Maybe (although I'm far from convinced of that likelihood), but because these morons handled the transition so poorly from a PR and customer-service standpoint (yeah, Charlie, distort the ratings truth and piss off the station's biggest contributors, then expect people to flock to the next fundraiser), they will have a very difficult time raising pledge dollars for the foreseeable future. That will put pressure on to make things up through underwriting sales, especially since this new incarnation will likely cost more than twice as much to operate as the old DUQ.
Tammy Terwelp came from WBEZ, yes, but she was totally a non-decision maker there. Pretty much a flunky. Hope she has some success at 90.5, but there's nothing in her background that suggests she's ready to be running this station.
So they've finally figured out that people who work don't listen to talk radio during the work day? Oh, and they also don't listen at night? Hmmmm, maybe the midday, evening and overnight music made a little sense? It certainly made money, while the news offerings never paid for themselves.
The bottom line? Jazz programming paid the bills that DUQ had to pay to carry the news programming. Now, when they no longer ask for pledges at night during fund drives, and find out that they don't get any pledges in midday, perhaps they'll regret having not only disenfranchised, but antagonized, the station's staunchest group of supporters.
Of course, Charlie's such an experienced broadcaster, and Marco and Lee have such a great track record running a news operation "where the music matters" (as long as they think it's hipper than thou). Grant Oliphant and his cronies have such a long and storied history as broadcasters, too. That and their savant-like qualities in terms of knowing what the public will support.
They had better be prepared to pay for this white elephant for at least five years. I doubt very strongly, though, that it will ever be able to sustain itself.
So much for the local emphasis, too. There is nothing Pittsburgh about this lame regurgitator of banal, generic NPR pabulum that bores even the most buttoned-down policy wonks.
Eventually, when the foundations get tired of footing the bill to dictate to the public what it gets to hear, they'll sell the thing to some religious outfit, and we won't even have All Things Considered and Morning Edition any more, unless we go to an app, on-line, satellite or WV Public Radio.
Feh. They'll find out. And Schadenfreude won't really replace the profound sadness felt by those who know this never had to happen in the first place.
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Additionally, if HD were the answer, there would have been no need to make the change, since the cookie-cutter generic talk shows from the NPR machine, as well as the BBC World Service, were already broadcast on WDUQ HD subchannels.
Much of the discontent, though, stems from the completely underhanded way in which this deal went down. No one seems to be particularly interested in the truth of the matter, so there's no sense in beating that dead horse again.
To each their own. I am using Sirius, not out of spite, but because I prefer the offerings available there. For local radio, I am listening to local stations, and Essential Public Radio is anything but local from my perspective.
The vast majority of the former DUQ airstaff is still working at 90.5. The entire news department, sans Alexandria Chaklos, is the news department at the new station, so it's the same "awful reporting and worse production" you can't support.
There is no venture the former DUQ staff is trying to create, save The Pittsburgh Jazz Channel, which is an online service using a VERY small handful of former DUQ types.
The only YEP staffer attacked in any way, is the General Manager, although stating the facts that he has never been involved in a news operation isn't exactly an attack.
As for the Chairman of the Board, he, backed by the omniscient Charlie Humphrey, who has lied repeatedly throughout this process, and the foundation folks who were looking to shove an all-news/talk NPR regurgitator down our throats regardless of public demand for it, has killed the station the largest number of listeners used, and the largest number of listeners supported, because he and they know best what Pittsburgh wants. I beg to differ.
Time will tell. They've made their bed, and now they will lie in it as it becomes the deathbed of public radio in Pittsburgh as we've known it.
It's not about the people making the radio. It's about the people listening to it. And the radio they give us to listen to.
Even after the talk show and the sound collage show debut, we'll get six hours of local programming per week, augmented by the six hours of jazz on Saturday nights, and Music from India.
This station might as well be from Peoria, Toledo, or some community college in Utah. There is nothing Pittsburgh about it whatsoever.
One month gives us no real basis for conclusions, but there's NO WAY the audience for the new 90.5 will double. I doubt it will grow at all. The in-depth news audience was already tuned to 90.5.
Will more of them give now? Maybe (although I'm far from convinced of that likelihood), but because these morons handled the transition so poorly from a PR and customer-service standpoint (yeah, Charlie, distort the ratings truth and piss off the station's biggest contributors, then expect people to flock to the next fundraiser), they will have a very difficult time raising pledge dollars for the foreseeable future. That will put pressure on to make things up through underwriting sales, especially since this new incarnation will likely cost more than twice as much to operate as the old DUQ.
Tammy Terwelp came from WBEZ, yes, but she was totally a non-decision maker there. Pretty much a flunky. Hope she has some success at 90.5, but there's nothing in her background that suggests she's ready to be running this station.
So they've finally figured out that people who work don't listen to talk radio during the work day? Oh, and they also don't listen at night? Hmmmm, maybe the midday, evening and overnight music made a little sense? It certainly made money, while the news offerings never paid for themselves.
The bottom line? Jazz programming paid the bills that DUQ had to pay to carry the news programming. Now, when they no longer ask for pledges at night during fund drives, and find out that they don't get any pledges in midday, perhaps they'll regret having not only disenfranchised, but antagonized, the station's staunchest group of supporters.
Of course, Charlie's such an experienced broadcaster, and Marco and Lee have such a great track record running a news operation "where the music matters" (as long as they think it's hipper than thou). Grant Oliphant and his cronies have such a long and storied history as broadcasters, too. That and their savant-like qualities in terms of knowing what the public will support.
They had better be prepared to pay for this white elephant for at least five years. I doubt very strongly, though, that it will ever be able to sustain itself.
So much for the local emphasis, too. There is nothing Pittsburgh about this lame regurgitator of banal, generic NPR pabulum that bores even the most buttoned-down policy wonks.
Eventually, when the foundations get tired of footing the bill to dictate to the public what it gets to hear, they'll sell the thing to some religious outfit, and we won't even have All Things Considered and Morning Edition any more, unless we go to an app, on-line, satellite or WV Public Radio.
Feh. They'll find out. And Schadenfreude won't really replace the profound sadness felt by those who know this never had to happen in the first place.