The article forwarded to me below concerns NPR, one of the last radio
bastions for classical music, cutting Performance Today in favor of a
more pop-culture approach, as if pop culture doesn't already get enough.

   If you want to write to NPR about cutting classical and jazz
   programming, here are a couple of ways to do it:

   Ken Stern,  Executive Vice President
   Jay Kernis, Senior Vice President for Programming
   National Public Radio
   635 Massachusetts Avenue NW
   Washington, DC 20001

   or send an email to [log in to unmask] and put "attention Ken Stern,
   Jay Kernis" in the subject line

   Do it today, before it is too late.  Please forward this message to
   everyone in your address book.  Please don't hesitate!

   U.S. National Public Radio Cuts 47 Jobs in Reorganization, Gutting
   "Performance Today"

   Philip Kennicott

   The Washington Post - 12 April 2002

   National Public Radio is cutting jobs in its cultural programming
   division, gutting its classical music program "Performance Today"
   and shifting some of its emphasis to the West Coast entertainment
   industry.

   Once a bastion of the traditional high arts, NPR is working to reshape
   itself to appeal to an audience it perceives as more interested in
   news and talk shows than in classical music and jazz.

   Forty-seven cultural staffers will be let go but they can reapply
   for 31 new jobs within the reorganized network, some of which will
   be shifted to Los Angeles, NPR announced yesterday.  Most of the cuts
   will come from "Performance Today," which mixes interviews, live and
   taped performance, news and commentary.

   NPR Executive Vice President Ken Stern said that despite the cuts,
   the new organization will offer more rather than less cultural
   programming.  "It means NPR is refocusing its cultural programming
   to better serve our stations and our audiences.  One of the things
   coming out of this is that NPR will be distributing more hours of
   cultural programming than it currently does."

   Some programs, like NPR's "World of Opera," will expand, to 52
   installments a year from the current 26.  And Stern says that none
   of the programs produced by NPR - which include "SymphonyCast," the
   quiz show "Wait, Wait . . .  Don't Tell Me" and "Jazz Profiles" - will
   be cut entirely, though there may be changes to programs distributed
   by the network.

   But "Performance Today" will continue in name only.  And "Jazz
   Profiles" will consist only of reruns.  The interviews and commentary
   segments that distinguished "Performance Today" will be cut; the new
   program will consist mostly of recorded performances culled from
   around the country.  It will be carried as part of a new 24-hour
   classical music feed that NPR will develop with an outside producer.

   "Performance Today," a hybrid music and interview show, didn't appeal
   to many larger NPR affiliates.  "We'll focus more on the unique asset
   of the show, which is NPR's ability to acquire quality music," Stern
   said.

   Because the program will also no longer be offered to stations live,
   five engineering positions will be cut in addition to the other 47
   staff jobs.

   Cultural staffers at NPR, who had expected some kind of change since
   an internal review critical of its cultural programming became public
   in February, took issue with Stern's statement that there would be
   more rather than less cultural programming.

   "The word is Orwellian," said one producer who asked not to be
   identified.  "We're all pretty stunned.  They're dumping people
   but calling it an initiative to strengthen cultural programming."

   The internal report that led to yesterday's announcement was written
   by Jay Kernis, NPR's senior vice president for programming.  In an
   interview Thursday, he strongly denied there would be a shift away
   from high culture to pop culture.

   "People unfairly say I am changing the course of public radio," Kernis
   said.  "If only I could do that.  All I can do is ask what can we
   provide for our stations that they want to air."

   Kernis considers himself an advocate for the arts within NPR.
   "I'm an avid theatergoer, an avid reader, I've done many arts and
   entertainment pieces, so much so that I am suspicious to plenty of
   people in the news division," he said.

   Kernis said the network would focus "on its strength, which is
   storytelling," without making strong distinctions about whether
   those stories are considered high culture or pop culture.

   At issue is the definition of cultural programming.  Under the current
   structure, NPR includes a news division and a cultural programming
   division.  The cultural division produces or acquires shows as diverse
   as the popular "Car Talk" and a host of smaller jazz and classical
   music programs.

   Under the new structure, the news division will survive and will be
   responsible for mainstays such as "All Things Considered" and "Morning
   Edition." The cultural programming will be divided into three units:
   Arts Information, Music and Entertainment.

   "Car Talk" and programs like "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me" will
   fall under the Entertainment unit, music programs will be produced
   by the Music unit, and feature stories, interviews, commentaries and
   news segments about the arts will be produced by Arts Information.

   The new Arts unit will have 16 positions.  That is about twice the
   size of the current cultural desk, which created arts and culture
   segments for the network's news programs.

   In addition, according to Stern, the network will develop a new
   afternoon newsmagazine, probably lasting an hour, that will have a
   substantial amount of cultural programming.  That program should
   debut in the second half of this year.

   The network has already developed new job descriptions for its arts
   unit, which suggest a shift toward a more populist cultural news
   focus.  New to the mix will be a cultural trends reporter and an arts
   and entertainment business correspondent, both working out of a new
   Los Angeles production office.  The cultural trends reporter will be
   responsible for "ideas about merging trends in culture, the arts,
   entertainment, new media and new music," according to an internal
   NPR memo.

   Independent observers attributed the cultural programming changes to
   an overall trend within NPR to focus more on news and less on music,
   and to the poor quality of some of the existing cultural programs.

   "There's been a real vacuum in their cultural programming strategy
   and that has made it vulnerable," said Robert Goldfarb, of the Beverly
   Hills based ArtsMedia LLC, an independent music and radio consulting
   company.

   Kernis said the new approach would break down barriers between arts
   staffers and the news division - a barrier that cultural staffers
   acknowledge existed within the NPR offices on Massachusetts Avenue.
   The new approach will also be more eclectic.

   "Very few people cover pop culture well," Kernis said.  "We want to
   tell stories about jazz artists, and actors and poets and writers
   and musicians.  If we turn our ear to popular culture and do it well,
   that's not hurting anything."

Jocelyn Wang
Culver Chamber Music Series