WBEZ general manager Torey Malatia had to face the music last week at a meeting of Chicago Public Radio’s Community Advisory Council at Columbia College. He was scheduled to air his latest programming plans in the flesh for the first time, and an audience of about 70 was waiting to take him on. Last summer he’d announced that CPR would launch a second Chicago-area broadcast stream on 89.5 that would be all music, while ‘BEZ would go all talk. Then while the public was digesting that news, he had a change of heart. In a letter posted a month ago on ‘BEZ’s Web site, he made a drastically different announcement: all music programs would be dropped from both stations. Beginning in 2007, CPR would be nothing but jabber.
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That news prompted entertainment lawyer Hillel Frankel and jazz fan Mike Widell to create a protest Web site, savethemusiconwbez.org, which features a heated blog and a relatively tame online petition demanding that the “proposed programming changes be discussed and debated publicly . . . rather than allow a few individuals to unilaterally effect drastic change.” Frankel says Malatia’s plan will be detrimental to local venues, musicians, and music festivals, all of which “rely on ‘BEZ to get the word out,” a vital function that “only works in the context of a music program.” By last week the petition had drawn 2,600 signatures with what Frankel says was minimal publicity.
Instead, Malatia said, “we decided to be the place that brings people together, to specialize in public service, and to focus our attention and energy on one expertise.” WBEZ will continue to carry national and international coverage while 89.5 will be “entirely local and regional” and will use acquisitions from independent producers. “We think this is the right thing to do with our mission,” he added, quoting a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation statement that had inspired him: “If radio is not a healing and reconciling force…then we have failed.” Then he took off on his own: “We’re building a service that’s going to be a resource for every single member of this community. The course is set, and I say that speaking for all staff, speaking for all board. The task is a noble one.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Robert Drea.
