As a regular donor to WUWM, I must say the NPR station’s decision to drop Alternative Radio is a sad one, indeed. I’ve been told the hour long program which has been on WUWM at 8 p.m. Sunday nights was dropped as of last Sunday, May 2.
Alternative Radio has been one of the few bright lights on the radio dial, offering well-thought-out opinions and commentary. Virtually all of the programming, while admittedly of a progressive nature, offered intelligent discussions of matters often overlooked by the mainstream media and certainly missing on the radio waves, being so currently loaded with Conservative talk shows.
I feel public radio has an obligation to continue diverse programming, including comments by such notables as Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, et al. Guess I’ll have to turn to I-net at http://alternativeradio.org.
I’m wondering: Is it just me being paranoid, or is NPR is trending more and more to the right. During my morning shave when I listen to WUWM here, I seem to find NPR spotlighting the Republicans and conservatives more and more. To make matters worse, the newscasts from NPR are treating the Tea Party nuttiness as being truly almost mainstream. What’s going on here?
REPLY from WUWM:
Kenneth –
Thanks for your note regarding our decision to cancel ALTERNATIVE RADIO. Putting together a schedule for our listeners is rather difficult because everyone likes different programs. We made the decision to use the Sunday evening time slot to showcase a wide variety of special public radio programs and documentaries including THE MOTH, RADIO LAB and others that are in development. While I know you may not agree, we were frequently criticized for airing ALTERNATIVE RADIO as it was seen as an ultra liberal/progressive program that provided no balance in the public radio journalistic traditions.
Dave Edwards, Director / General Manager, WUWM MILWAUKEE PUBLIC RADIO, 111 E. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 700, Milwaukee, WI 53202
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