Day 1 of life on air without Marc Steiner at WYPR saw picketing by a group of loyal listeners outside the station's Charles Street studios and strong criticism from members of the station's own community advisory board.
"I think it would have been great if they had gotten our opinion," said board member Larry Kloze, a retired antiques dealer, who wasn't told of Friday's firing until yesterday morning, via e-mail. "Maybe they would have changed their mind."
Outside the studio, 13 people waved signs demanding Steiner's reinstatement. "I'm not happy," said Maria Allwine, 54, a legal secretary who ran for City Council president last year from the Green Party. She had been scheduled to be on Steiner's show yesterday, to discuss the contentious issue of the rates for electricity. "We were supposed to be talking about the most important issue facing Maryland."
If anyone should go, the picketers said, it is station President Anthony Brandon, who Steiner claims has long wanted him out.
To make the public radio station pay for "unceremoniously dumping" Steiner, as one person put it, the group urged the public to give no more money to listener-supported WYPR.
WYPR's future will be discussed today on the station's Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Scheduled guests include Steiner, Brandon and Jason Loviglio, director of media and communication studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
A station official said no one was available to comment on yesterday's protest and that "the official word is `no comment.'" Barbara Bozzuto, WYPR's board chairwoman, has said Steiner's show was canceled after 15 years amid "sad" ratings for his public affairs show, which aired noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
Bozzuto also has said Steiner's show focused too much on Baltimore and not enough on statewide matters, something Steiner and his supporters roundly dispute.
Since Dec. 24, fewer than a dozen of Steiner's shows, as described on WYPR's Web site, had been devoted to Baltimore-specific topics such as the city's murder rate, schools or drug problem. The other 38 or so programs looked at issues affecting Maryland or the U.S. as a whole.
Steiner called the show of support by Allwine's group and others "overwhelming." He said he has received 250 e-mails.
