Dan Polletta, Longtime Jazz DJ, Cleveland

Too often, I have seen Jazz placed in less-than desirable hours, but given high fundraising goals, (how much money do you think “Whadya Know would have raised up against “Seinfeld”, or the multitude of streaming options people use at night,  instead of its’ cozy Saturday morning slot?), then be told, since it isn’t “making as much as news/information/quiz shows it needs to be replaced. ” A year after jazz is replaced, the station then stops fundraising in the evening, “because isn’t worth the manpower to fundraise, since we don’t make that much after 6:00 PM.”

Funny, now that news et al has taken those jazz spots, now fundraising isn’t important.  We’re told “jazz has to earn the right on the air,” but when the question is raised about poorly performing news/information/entertainment shows, the response is “All Things Considered listeners also like those shows.” Oh really? Prove it.

Stations lazily slap in whatever the network sends, with no regard to daypart.  I can’t tell you how many beautiful sunny, Sunday afternoons I punch over to public radio to hear yet another storytelling show as someone recounts some horrific incident in his or her life, that is simply a poor programmatic fit for the time period.

My personal favorite, was turning on the radio on a Friday night to hear a discussion about “Jane Austen as Game Theory.”

I’ll never be convinced that listeners were more interesting in hearing that discussion on Friday night, rather than Muddy Waters, Miles or John Scofield.

Stations now super-serve news talk junkies, who somehow feel that hearing that Indiana has more stringent abortion regulations than California for the 1657^th time, somehow makes them better informed citizens. Do we really need a show like “Here and Now” which regurgitates what we just heard on “Morning Edition?”  Knowing that 100 more people were killed in Ukraine than died yesterday, adds nothing to my understanding of the situation.  I’m in no way making light of these serious issues, I’m only stating that repetition of the same topics over and over is in no way serving listeners. 

(via Jazz Programmers List)