Public Radio

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has a new media partner for its radio broadcast series: WETA-FM in Shirlington, Va.The BSO has been looking for a new producer-distributor for its "Casual Concerts" broadcast series since last fall, when WJHU-FM in Baltimore dropped the vestiges of its classical music programming and became an all news and jazz station.At that time, WJHU agreed to complete its contract to produce the series, but it moved the broadcast to 6 a.m. Sundays. WBJC-FM, which also carries the concerts, will continue to do so next season.

National Public Radio has its critics and continuing crises, including the never-ending battle against funding cuts and concerns about its programming inching toward the commercial mainstream.But to many U.S. record companies, it can do no wrong. For them, the nonprofit network, founded in 1970, provides un-rivaled publicity and air time for nonmainstream acts that translate into exposure and sales.The network (heard locally on WJHU, 88.1 FM) gives its largely upscale, adult listeners big spoonfuls of jazz, folk, roots, classical and world music, accompanied by explanatory chats that run anywhere from a minute to a quarter-hour.

Our theme today is Ira Glass and his radio stories.Act One: A kid from Baltimore whose parents want him to become a doctor instead discovers the healing power of stories.Act Two: Hey, let's put on our own show! I'll ask John D. and Catherine T. for a grant, and we can do the rest for free!Act Three: Nothing is what it seems.And more, on "This American Life." Stay with us.Act One"One story must die," Ira Glass intones in Kevorkian deadpan. "Which story will live, which will die?"It's a common problem for the host of "This American Life": too many stories, not enough time.

In the Today section of yesterday's Sun, a story about a new general manager at WJHU-FM (88.1) incorrectly reported the status of former general manager Dennis Kita. Kita left WJHU in July for a position with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.The Sun regrets the error.Perhaps it's only fair, considering it lost its last general manager to National Public Radio, that Johns Hopkins University's radio station has plucked its new GM from the same operation.Following a six-month search, Raymond G. Dilley, director of NPR's international service, has been named to head operations at WJHU-FM (88.1)

Three weeks into his job as general manager of WJHU-FM (88.1), Ray Dilley is sure of only one thing: He wants more.More listeners -- and more money from them. More locally produced programming. More discussion of issues relevant to Baltimore.Not, he's quick to stress, that he's unhappy with the direction WJHU has chosen, including its hotly debated shift in summer 1995 from classical music to National Public Radio. But when he talks about his plans for the station, he keeps coming back to the same word: potential.

NEW YORK -- First on Larry Josephson's agenda is an introduction to his toys. They spill from shelves and coffee tables and box tops onto the floor just inside the front door of his Radio Foundation offices.One by one, he picks them up to demonstrate: a radio in the form of chattering lips, slippers that make dinosaur noises, and a pig that dances to "La Bamba." Best of all is "The Whipping Boy," a stricken-looking man with his head between his hands. When Josephson flicks the dial in the back, the Whipping Boy wails, "It was all my fault" and "How could I have been so stupid?"

It's been a rough year for WJHU-FM (88.1), the Johns Hopkins University radio station that surprised listeners last June by yanking classical music off the air and replacing it with a news and talk format that leans heavily on syndicated programming.Longtime listeners are complaining, some decrying the loss of classical music, others insisting WJHU relies too much on syndication and not enough on its own resources. The station ran up a $130,000 deficit last year. And, in three short months, it has lost its general manager, program director and one of its best-known on-air personalities.

Baltimore's public radio stations seem to be giving the people what they want -- at least enough to keep the bean counters in Washington happy.That's the news from Tom Thomas of Station Resource Group, a public-radio think tank that helped draw up minimum qualifications for radio stations that receive money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.Public radio stations that don't meet those qualifications in the next two years could have their government funding cut off.But the three here in Baltimore apparently have little to worry about.

During last fall's election, congressional Republicans promised to cut federal money for public broadcasting as part of their taxpayer relief program. Recently, it has become clear that they intend to make good on this promise: the House budget plan calls for complete elimination of all federal appropriations by the year 1998.Inside the world of public broadcasting, the growing sense of jeopardy has led to anguished deliberations over what to do. Of the many passionately debated issues, none has produced more passion or more debate than this one: Should public television, long defined as a noncommercial medium, start to accept commercials?

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, Fiona Ritchie has finally arrived in Baltimore -- on the radio, that is."The Thistle & Shamrock," Ms. Ritchie's weekly dose of lilting Celtic music, began airing last weekend on WJHU-FM (88.1), and can be heard at 8 p.m. Sundays. Tomorrow's edition features the music of Wales.Although on public radio stations across the country for 12 years and ranking as National Public Radio's most popular music offering, the hourlong show could previously be heard in this area only on Washington's WAMU-FM (88.5)

Although not as plentiful as fitness podcasts, there are many health, medicine and food science shows from which to choose. Here's a sample of them. HEALTH & MEDICINE "NIH Research Radio" nih.gov/news/radio/nihpodcast.htm: The good: The National Institutes of Health takes the dry results of studies it produces and jazzes them up for a listening audience. It even manages to make pelvic-floor disorders seem interesting. The bad: The segments sometimes can descend into a public service announcement, which is confusing because they run PSAs between stories.

National Public Radio announced yesterday that it is canceling two programs and eliminating 64 jobs, blaming a "sharp" decline in corporate underwriting and other revenues. The move, part of an overall 7 percent work force reduction, comes as NPR's radio and Web audience has been growing. About 26.4 million people are listening to the NPR programs every week, while its Web site, npr.org, is getting 8 million visitors a month. NPR officials had projected a "manageable" $2 million deficit for fiscal 2009, on a budget of $168 million.

Baltimore's public radio and television stations are seeing little drop-off in their fundraising efforts, suggesting that their audiences' hunger for news and information during this election year is making up for the country's uncertain economic climate. Officials at both WYPR-FM (88.1) and WEAA-FM (88.9), which carried out fall pledge drives during the past week, reported totals that were roughly in line with last year's pledge drives, if not slightly over. The total raised at WYPR, where the February firing of talk-show host Marc Steiner raised a firestorm of protest and threats from many listeners to stop contributing to the station, was up about $5,000, or about 2 percent.

Months of tumult at public radio station WYPR, beginning with the Feb. 1 firing of veteran talk-show host Marc Steiner, have not led to a decline in its audience. In fact, the number of people listening to the station in the first three months of year has increased over the same period last year, from 153,600 to 166,800, ratings from Columbia-based Arbitron Inc. show. But they also show the station has lost a significant portion of its younger listeners. In the noon-2 p.m. time slot, where Sun columnist Dan Rodricks took over for Steiner beginning Feb. 25, the weekly average of listeners ages 25 to 54 declined 44 percent, from 25,300 to 14,100.

One of the main reasons that I joined the board of directors of WYPR-FM was to be part of an organization that has had such a uniformly positive effect on the cultural and educational enrichment of the citizens of this community. The reactions heard in the past month following the cancellation of The Marc Steiner Show have forced a serious re-examination of the responsibilities of a board member and a reflection on the role that WYPR plays in Baltimore and Maryland. WYPR receives 7 percent of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

WYPR's firing of Marc Steiner generated much gnashing of teeth and bemoaning of the state of public radio. I don't have an opinion on Marc Steiner one way or the other; I don't listen to WYPR because its progressive tilt does not appeal to me. However, in nearly all press and opinion accounts, the comparisons of Mr. Steiner's show with conservative talk radio were vapid at best, and at worst a slur upon conservative talk-radio listeners. Baltimore Examiner columnist Michael Olesker described Mr. Steiner's show as a format where "smart, informed people shared the news and the cultural trends of the day. ... It wasn't a chorus line of ditto-heads echoing each other's cheap shots; it was a true marketplace exchange of ideas."

It didn't take long - only to the ninth speaker of the night - for the first obscure reference to come up: something about French soldiers shooting the nose off a sphinx during an Egyptian campaign. Somewhere around the 13th speaker came one of what would be many pointed observations that the "Y" in WYPR stands for "your," and yet none of the yours trulys in attendance were consulted. This is what happens when you anger the articulate and irk the ironic. If ever there was a perfect public radio storm, the firing of Marc Steiner is it. Here's the guy who not only hosted the signature show on WYPR, but played a role in rescuing the public radio station from its financial problems six years ago. That he would be forced out by the people he had turned to for help in saving YPR is exactly the kind of injustice that would outrage your typical public radio listener - and no surprise, it did just that.

Steiner's voice goes silent on public radio I was both surprised and appalled by WYPR's decision to fire Marc Steiner ("Public radio station cancels Steiner show," Feb. 2). Mr. Steiner has been the heart of WYPR for many years, and his program is one of the best of its kind in the nation. As a regular listener to, and an occasional guest on, his program, I have been deeply impressed by the dedication and preparation Mr. Steiner brings to each of his shows. While my politics are to the right of Mr. Steiner's, I have noted that he has been scrupulous about keeping his panels balanced.

Since he led the drive to keep public radio in Baltimore five years ago, Marc Steiner has been the face - the voice - behind the station that became WYPR-FM. Like it or not, like him or not, the gregarious, fast-talking, opinionated Mr. Steiner led his guests, no matter their political, social or intellectual stripes, in lively conversations on the issues of the day. He was the personality most identified with the station's call letters and, more important, its public role. And now, with Mr. Steiner's unceremonious firing late last week (station officials cited falling ratings)

The February pastoral, all soft light and tired fields, stops abruptly at Marc Steiner's doorstep. Whatever sanctuary his home along an actual country lane in Sparks would ordinarily offer, he's missing it, as his phone rings and rings and rings. The longtime talk-show host, whose name to many was nearly synonymous with public radio station WYPR, is freshly fired. He paces the tight living room, taking calls from family members who want to make sure he's OK, from co-workers who point out the support piling up online, from friends and fans who just don't get it. He runs agitated fingers through thick graying hair and removes wire-framed glasses to rub away a trace of tears.