‘S Perilous
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Don’t confuse WFMT Radio Network with Network Chicago, the misguided recent attempt to brand and expand the local media conglomerate made up of WTTW Channel 11, WFMT, a Web site, and a short-lived weekly publication, CityTalk. The radio network is the syndication and production arm of WFMT 98.7 FM, Chicago’s esteemed classical music station, an odd duck that has the advantage of being both commercial and nonprofit, running ads right along with its pledge drives. The WFMT Network was created in 1976 to increase the reach of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera by recording and distributing their performances to radio stations in other parts of the country. It now produces and syndicates classical music and jazz programs for nearly 700 mostly public stations in the U.S. and throughout the world.
But in 2000, when Robinson was hired away from Nebraska public radio to run 98.7, the network was a financial drag, he says, racking up an annual loss of more than $250,000. Not long after his arrival Robinson was put in charge of the network and instructed to turn it around. That proved to be a bigger challenge than anyone had anticipated: within two years both the CSO and the Lyric lost their broadcast sponsors and went off the air.
Robinson says the network, which shares facilities and some employees with the station, “just turned the corner” financially; it’s expected to show a $200,000 surplus in fiscal 2005, which ended June 30. The network budget for the year was about $1.6 million; the total budget for the network and the radio station was just over $7 million (including more than $2 million from memberships and donations). A fund-raising drive that ended last week raised more than $400,000. According to numbers provided by Window to the World Communications (the parent company’s name since the mid-80s)–which doesn’t usually separate WFMT’s finances from the rest of its holdings–WFMT finished the year with an estimated $377,000 surplus, despite spending nearly 50 percent of donations on fund-raising and membership expenses and more than a third of its advertising revenue on advertising sales expenses.
Another pairing: Art critics Dave Hickey and David Pagel will share the juror’s job for next year’s Navy Pier Walk sculpture exhibit.
