NY Times is selling its classical radio station, WQXR

[bart]

I think WNYC handles most of the llikey listener questions quite well on its "Listeners Service Blog." (you get there by clicking the "Click Here" near the bottom of the statement that carbro quoted.) It seems candid as to the realities. It is balanced, too, expressing a commitment to classical music AND to WNYC's own constituency.

[SanderO]

Why does WNYC ask listeners for money to operate its station and then go out and buy one for presumable 10s of millions of dollars? Is it going to also be listener sponsored? More begging interrupted by Chopin?

[carbro]

WNYC, about 13-14 years ago, went out and asked its members for money to buy itself -- from the City of New York -- and they came through. This is why supporting WNYC feels different (and more satisfying) to me than supporting Ch. 13.

Until this past year, it continued to reside in the Municipal building until, with the support of some extremely generous patrons, it was able to buy its own studios.

Having cut out its weekday classical music programming , WNYC had a big karmic debt. I listen to the AM outlet for its news and community affairs programming, but I support the station's decision to save the last of classical music radio in the New York metro market. I will continue to support the organization at least at the level that I have.

Better to interrupt Chopin with pledge breaks three weeks out of the year than to lose Chopin and his ilk altogether, don't you think?

[SanderO]

Laura Walker pays herself more than $500,000 a year. Let her well heeled rich friends buy up all the culture of NYC because that's what it's come to.

here it is:

Yesterday, WNYC’s spokeswoman said she needed time to get us an answer when we first reported her outsized salary, but then never responded. In the meantime, Herb Scannell, the chairman of the nonprofit station’s board of trustees, gave a a statement to the Chronicle of Philanthropy today:

Laura Walker’s leadership over the last 13 years has been exemplary, as she transformed the station from a municipal-run station into an independent, multi-platform journalistic organization. WNYC is now the most-listened-to public-radio station in the country, serving listeners in New York and beyond with 350 hours per week of original content on air and online. It’s a record that speaks for itself.

Scannell also told the Chronicle that Walker has actually gotten a raise since June 2007—the last timeframe for which public records indicated her salary—when she was making $486,000. She now makes $508,520, according to the station.

But if that’s the WNYC board’s position, it misses the point. At an annual salary of $500,000, Walker is paid $200,000 more than her next highest-paid employee and more than the CEO of the far larger National Public Radio, which makes her salary excessive by her own industry’s standards.

[SanderO]

Considering that there is only WBAI and WQXR for "arts" programming and NYC has a huge arts community where would they turn?

WBAI has the best arts programming on radio such as:

Through the Opera Glass

Lenny Lopate ( a great interviwer, but his food focus is way too bourgeois) from WNYC came from WBAI as do many of their staff.

DO NOT GIVE FINANCIAL SUPPORT to WNYC, but rather to WBAI which is truly a listen sponsored non commercial station.

WNYC is to radio as the NYT is to journalism - both are targeted to yuppies who weekend in the Hamptons, and have a corporate agenda... something their listeners and readership are very comfortable with.

Corporations are ruining the world and will succeed in time with your help.