Ralph Moore, another member of WYPR's 13-member community advisory board, said he learned of Steiner's firing from newspaper reports on Saturday. Members were not told of the decision, he said, until they received an e-mail yesterday morning. He said Steiner's firing was a "total surprise," and not anything that had ever been discussed with the board.
"He is the reason why most people probably tune into the station," said Moore, director of the Community Center at St. Frances Academy.
A longtime Baltimore activist, Moore also dismissed concerns that the program dealt too narrowly with issues of concern only within the city.
"You have other hours of the day that you could program for other parts of the state," he said. "Baltimore is a hub. There is a lot of interest in what goes on in this city. In many ways, as Baltimore goes, so goes the region."
Yesterday, the station posted on its Web site a three-paragraph statement from Brandon. Without mentioning Steiner or his show by name, Brandon wrote that the recent "programming changes" were "not made lightly."
Brandon said the station had tried to make "content changes to the former show, but without success in stemming the erosion of listening audience compared to other programs on WYPR." He added: "I can assure you that community discussion of the highest caliber will continue on WYPR."
Loviglio believes Steiner's firing is the final salvo in a longstanding tug-of-war over the station's public face. For many in the community, Steiner, who spearheaded fund-raising efforts to purchase the station when its then-owner, the Johns Hopkins University, put it up for sale, was WYPR, Loviglio said - a perception the station's managers and governing board may not have appreciated.
"This is a struggle for control between the board and the personality who most epitomizes the show," said Loviglio. "The board really wants to run its own show. The ratings are beside the point. Marc mumbles, but that's beside the point. He is WYPR for a lot of us.
"People opened their wallets to Marc," said Loviglio, referring to the station's 2002 purchase from Hopkins. "Ever since then ... they've been moving to marginalize him. First they kicked him off the board, then they got rid of the evening repeat [of his show], then they hired Sheilah Kast. They wanted a name and a voice that wasn't his."
