READER COMMENTS

We haven’t featured reader comments for a while, so today let’s get caught up.

BIG MONEY AT WNYC?

One of the things I like about blogging is seeing the extended life of older posts. A few of my posts continue to get comments months or years after their initial appearance.  This is proves that the “long tail” keeps getting longer.

A case in point is our post [link] from April 14,2015 with the headline Who Makes the Most Money In Noncom Radio? 

James & Ruth Campbell

The answer was James Campbell, founder and President of Radio Training Network, a fast-growing Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) group using the name His Radio. According to information from 2012 on the organization’s IRS 990 filing, Campbell received almost $600,000 that tax year. Plus, his wife made nearly $80,000.

That post also included compensation information for folks at WNYC, NPR, APM, PRI, CPB and several other organizations. One thing I learned from that post was that some people really, really don’t like to have their salaries publicized even though they are a matter of public record. But readers seem to love this kind of information.

We continue to receive comments about salaries at WNYC which were higher than most other public radio organizations. Here are two recent replies:

# 1. FROM AN ANONYMOUS READER

They [WNYC] have fantastic programming, with listeners from every part of the world. Believe me, 300K is not THAT much in NYC where I personally live in a 340-sq-ft studio on a fifth floor of a walk-up building, and pay $1600 a month (utilities not included).

If you don’t pay talent such as Leonard Lopate or Brian Lehrer they won’t stick around. They are stars and have to be properly compensated.

#2. FROM AN ANONYMOUS READER

In response to WNYC is always pleading poverty. In a typical year they do three ten-day pledge-drives plus shorter ones. They expect $100 contributions and push $365 sustaining memberships. In their new building, WNYC is always advertising and hosting events (beer tasting, food tasting, straight singles gatherings, gay singles gatherings, etc.) to raise needed revenue. Meanwhile, the quality of their programing has deteriorated over the years. It’s a bit of an outrage that donor contributions should go to such generous salaries rather than quality programming.

BAD KARMA AT CURRENT?

On July 27. 2017 we posted an article [link] called Current May Disappear Unless More People Subscribe. The post described the challenges faced by Current as they establish a paywall and try to become self-sustaining financially.

I was a bit surprised at the lack of comment about the post.  A couple of friends sent me private messages saying they didn’t care if Current survived because there were lots of other information options. One anonymous reader sent this comment:

Current’s online presence has been free and people have gotten used to it. It is just like listeners who have gotten used to free podcasts of Fresh Air, This American Life, etc, and no longer need to give or even listen to a local public radio station to get what they want. Karma.

KEN SAYS: Of course this is the problem.  People have become accustomed to free everything online.  But, dissing Current’s karma is a bit too harsh. I think they are a good source of public radio system news and I hope it continues.  And, I subscribe and encourage others to subscribe too.

WBAI’S TOXIC WORKPLACE

We are one of the few publications who attempt to report developments at Pacifica and WBAI. I’ve called them “public media’s biggest embarrassment” because they have earned it. I will continue to report on the status of Pacifica but I try to avoid the back-and-forth between factions. An anonymous reader sent this comment:

I was with the station from 1978 to 2013 when they laid off 90+% of the staff because of the usual money short falls. We were months behind paying the Empire State Building even then. Bad management for decades, no vision, a toxic work space and an us-or-them mindset has driven away most listeners and subscribers.

Once there were a handful of creative professionals doing good work despite management’s toxic culture of failure. But those people are gone now also.

KCSN & KSBR PARTNER TO MAKE 88.5 FM A LA MARKET STATION

There were lots of positive comments and re-postings of our September 6^th article [link] about the new partnership between KCSN, Northridge and KSBR, south Orange County to create a full-market Triple A music station at 88.5 FM.  Both stations broadcast on 88.5 meaning neither could cover the entire LA basin.

Spark News Reader Aaron Read sent this comment:

If KSBR was the only thing keeping KCSN from moving to Mount Wilson, they’d be crazy not to make that leap.

The Mt. Wilson "tower farm"

KEN SAYS: Agreed! Mount Wilson is the best transmitter site in South California. Most the markets TV and FM stations transmit from the 5,723’ mountain peak.  Travel tip: If you are traveling to Los Angeles for a vacation don’t miss the Mount Wilson Observatory.

Mt. Wilson Observatory in the 1930s

For the first half of the 20th Century, Mount Wilson was the most famous observatory in the world. Among the many discoveries made on the mountain, a few revolutionized our understanding of our place in the Universe. At Mount Wilson Edwin Hubble proved that the mysterious spiral nebulae, which astronomers had speculated about for decades, were in fact distant galaxies similar to our own. Then Hubble teamed up with Milton Humason and discovered that this immense Universe was expanding. This finding lead to the Big Bang Theory.