Petition to Save WUTC Formatting [UPDATE]

Chattanooga has been fortunate to have a great oasis in the dismal world of FM radio, WUTC is is possibly the best public radio station in the country. IF you listen to public stations in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and other more "sophisticated" markets like I have,. you'll find that WUTC just plays better music, with less interruption and clutter. It does an excellent job of providing a great mix of music that doesn't stray too far off in any one direction. The station's last fund drive was the most successful and quickest fund drive ever - Proof that the listeners are quite happy with the station as it is.

You may have heard that changes are afoot at WUTC/ 88.1. For some reason, the station management has planned several changes to the station's format. It's reducing the amount of local music programming, including replacing the 12:00 to 1pm music programming with an hour long news program.. (isn't there enough news around?) Mark Colbert, station programmer, has deemed it unacceptable to play any song with the word "god" in it, which excludes a great many popular secular songs, Christmas music and many blues songs.

Because of these changes Mary Anne Williams, who we've all listened to in the mornings, has resigned her position at the station. And others at the station may be soon to follow.

If you love WUTC as we do, please take part in this exercise of online democracy and sign our online petition to Save WUTC. And please forward this email to as many fellow WUTC listeners and supporters as you know. By sending a loud and clear message to the station, we can hopefully save the station from any further erosion.

CLICK HERE FOR THE PETITION:

http://www.petitiononline.com/881wutc/petition.html

Bobby Stone

Thanks for the link! I have signed the petition.

I think this is a total load of crap!

I am opposed to WUTC dropping A Prairie Home Companion and am not happy with some of the other changes in the programming. The fact that these changes were made without polling the listeners disturbs me. I have donated for about 20 years and volunteered for the last fundraiser. Unless I find the changes better to my liking than I have thus far, I may chose to reduce my donation this fall.

I haven't really waded in to this debate much, but one thing that has to be pointed out is the relation between ratings and revenue.
Under the old jazz format, they had about half the ratings they have had recently, but they had excellent underwriting and pledges. I believe that was because they were appealing to an affluent audience who was willing to open both corporate and personal checkbooks.
With the more recent format, they have seen some strong ratings growth, but the underwriting and pledges have dropped, which is what directly led to the current turmoil. And that, I believe, is because they were trying to appeal to a younger, less affluent audience who did not have the financial wherewithal to support the station. Combine that with state and federal cutbacks in public radio, and you end up with a decent rated station that is "hip" with the "in crowd" but not making enough money to continue in the current incarnation.

(Excerpt taken from a Chattanooga Message board)