i mentioned also the appearance of David Miller on dan rodricks midday- aws dave, who used to appear on mark often, made many cogent points about the violence in baltimore

marc’s show on weaa is hard for me to catch- but i know marc is still doing relevant talk-

the fact that a station like wypr hogs the air waves- or the fact that obama will get the sad helath care plan that he does?

it only calls for revolution in this sad country of capitalism

call me ishmael? no, call me CHE!!

YPR along w WEAA is the only game in town- as far as radio is concerned.

My guess is that a lot of staff (being intelligent people) disapprove of Brandon’s spproach- I sure hope so. I know they can’t do much or they’d lose their jobs (how our society works).

To summarize one tidbit in a recent Corporation for Public Broadcasting audit of WYPR- the station that fired popular talk show host- Marc Steiner, the CPB Inspector General found that WYPR falsified its compliance statements to get Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant money. (See report, pages 4 & 9). Protestors of the station have been pointing this out (to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) since Marc was fired- leaving the station devoid of his probing and pointed coverage of Baltimore and devoid of coverage of or representation by minorities. Even conservative radio WBAL has one black talk show host (even though he’s as conservative as the rest of them!) .

The Marc Steiner firing, as mad as it made his many fans, also pulled back a veil on the doings of a Nixonian management and Board of Directors at this station- showing that the pursuit of money for expansion was the real goal- and, except for Marc, the station has less and less been “Your” or “Public ” as in “Your Public Radio”- YPR. It’s as if the management- not staff- stole money from the government- it certainly got it under false pretenses- maybe like certain defense contractors or pork barreling senators? (Of course Mark knew that also!- altho- before his firing the CAB at least had a well rounded bunch of members- many of whom decamped.)

Now the talk show that replaced Marc’s does not entertain probing questioners as big as Dan Rodricks heart may be, and I’m glad he’s a liberal and I listen a lot.But he does not want to probe or some one told him not to.Liberal is “nice” but even a liberal should do one radical show a month….maybe? (I’m going nice on Dan here becuause he IS a liberal. As a radical I am always trying to figure such people out? How much do they know about how wrong they are- or do they honestly believe it? Liberals are better than “conservatives” or republicans but- if you don’t go far enough- you get what we’ve got. I mean liberals elected Obama and it’s already clear he isn’t going to change much!

There have been times when the Community Advisory Board has met and there were more protestors present than Board members. Meetings of the regular Board have had to go into secret session to avoid scrutiny of budgetary matters. Every thing seems to be treated by management in an adversarial manner when the protestors simple love interesting radio and could actually help YPR, in my opinion. by making it better- for the whole state. And yet one critic- Maria Allwine- of the green party was turned down for even CAB membership!

The whole thing smells and I can only feel for the employees and Board members and few Community Board members of the station, who- although a talented lot- cannot get up on their hind legs to change things.

1) Their article linked below glosses the report; 2) the article only asks WYPR station President Tony Brandon for his opinion, which is one sided; 3) last, the Sun brings up the “ratings” excuse, which they themselves debunked as a lie in Feb. / March 2008. Spurious journalism.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-te.to.wypr08apr08,0,2279035.story