Today we have one of our
most popular posts of all time.
Since it was originally published on December
12, 2014, it has been viewed over 3,000 times.
In May 1987, new
management at KUNM, Albuquerque [link] decided to make major programming
changes. At that time, KUNM was airing eclectic freeform music between Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Volunteers did most of the air shifts. The proposed programming changes called for
cancelling the hours of freeform and replacing them with jazz and news
programming.
The freeform hosts did not
want the changes to happen
and
called for “drastic action.” The
management of KUNM made the mistake of letting freeform hosts do final shows,
knowing they were about to become toast.
On
May 14, 1987, one freeform host took his
complaints directly to KUNM’s listeners prompting then-PD Patrick Conley to
take the volunteer off the air. When Conley entered the booth, the volunteer
turned on the studio microphone. Listeners
heard the verbal and physical altercation.
Someone was taping KUNM at the time.
Craig Oliver, who had
recently become president of the Public Radio Program Directors (PRPD)
interviewed Conley for an in-house feed.
You can hear what happened in today’s video:
Freeform music wasn’t cancelled. In fact you can hear it today – 30 years
later – from 1:00pm to 4:00pm every weekday and during overnights on KUNM. The image on the right comes from the current KUNM schedule.
So, a lesson is, once you
tell a host their show is being cancelled, don’t let them go back on the air.
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