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Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff |
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Staff Cuts at Chicago Public Radio
Produced by Adriene Hill on Friday, December 05, 2008
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Chicago Public Radio today laid off 9 percent of its staff. The organization is the parent company of WBEZ, chicagopublicradio.org and vocalo.org.
The layoffs affect every department. The cuts include 11 full-time positions at the organization as well as a number of open positions. Senior staff members have also taken salary cuts.
The layoffs will not change the program schedules for WBEZ or vocalo.org.
Organization management says poor financial conditions forced the decision—it projected a $1.5 million revenue shortfall. That’s caused, in part, by a drop in individual donations and smaller than expected growth in corporate underwriting.
Other Chicago based non-profits and media outlets have announced layoffs in the past months.
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jazzfan, Rogers Park // Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 5:43 PM
Could the drop in individual donations have anything to do with the way you messed up what was, until 2 years ago, a near-perfect programming schedule? Public affairs in daytime, music at night, no same-day rebroadcasts, etc. etc.
I stopped giving for most of the past 2 years until just recently. Being home all day while trying to find a job, I do rely on your station to keep me informed and, well, to keep me company throughout the day. But I still wish we listeners could unwind with some music at night, instead of just rebroadcasts of the world's woes.
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For the Love of Jazz, Lincoln Square // Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 6:26 PM
Right on, jazzfan!
I too stopped giving money after the evening jazz programming was axed. What a shame. What happened to promoting podcasting of these repeats?
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longtimer, Lowell, In // Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 7:03 PM
Had been a member >3o years. I listen to BEZ but my annual $ goes to Wisconsin Public Radio. (They play music up there!)
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Bob, Lakeview // Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 8:29 PM
Rebroadcasting your own programs again in the evening - Worldview, 848, etc. makes a lot of sense (and cents too).
For music, folks can listen to a lot of stations. For Marketplace, Worldview, BBC 848, 91.5 is the place.
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Bob - again, Lakeview // Saturday, December 06, 2008 @ 1:03 AM
For Bach, Monk, Coltrane, check out iTunes. Once you have it, it is the same each play. WBEZ's Worldview, BBC, All Things Considered, are different every time. Worth your (and my) $$ every day.
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Dolla dolla billz y'all, Compton // Saturday, December 06, 2008 @ 10:33 AM
The reason why they took out the music was because it was not cost efficient. The rebroadcasting was a financial decision not because they thought it would boost membership dollars, but because it was a budget decision to avoid layoffs. In the non-profit industry, tough decisions like these need to be made at times. It seems like they had no choice. CPR always says that very few listeners donate, and the foundation world is drying up due to the economy. We listeners should donate more. If folks did that, they would have never had to get rid of jazz in the first place.
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Clayton, Austin (west chicago) // Saturday, December 06, 2008 @ 11:34 AM
I'm still continually enthused every night NOT to hear the jazz. I think it was a strong programming decision and I'm really glad to get a chance to hear more news that I missed during the day and other voices from around the world.
I AM curious about the fact that we've gone from two to two-and-a-half to three pledge drives a year, and it looks like the funding continues to go down. Has the overhead gone up and up?
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hecklavigne, La Grange // Sunday, December 07, 2008 @ 10:49 AM
If you want music try wfmt. I support both for different reasons. I love the news coverage from wbez
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Gene, Englewood // Sunday, December 07, 2008 @ 4:11 PM
I'm surprised that so many folk are blaming mismanagement on these layoffs. Who is among us has been impervious to this economic downturn? Too Few. Besides, if our individual pockets are leaner, why wouldn't individual gifts suffer?
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Clarity, Lakeview // Thursday, December 11, 2008 @ 5:37 PM
Interesting to hear the different perspectives. I imagine, however, that each of these is a bit narrow - simply because we can't see what CPR can. We don't see the larger picture to know what happened. Is it mismanagement? Maybe. More likely it's a combination of many factors including the rapid growth that they undertook a few years ago. That can create dramatic problems not forseen, but potentially devastating. Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to assess what is happening and find ways to resolve the problems.
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pj, lincoln park // Thursday, December 11, 2008 @ 5:41 PM
From what I've read, part of the budget problem is due to WBEZ funding the experimental radio station,Vocalo(89.5),in IN. The situation has been reported by other news media, but WBEZ never seems to mention this drain on funding
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Irving, South Shore Drive // Thursday, December 11, 2008 @ 6:25 PM
I also stopped contributing because the station stopped programming jazz. WBEZ did not claim it was going to so in order to economize. On the contrary, the claim was that it was to make room for a lot of new and exciting programs. Instead, what we got was rebroadcasts of the daytime programs and what was advertized as a string of neighborhood bureaus (which appear to produced hardly anything at all) and a number of outlying stations in various various places. I cannot believe that these bureaus and outlets have not been a financial drain, as anyone could have foreseen. By the way, if one above commentator believes that listening to i-tunes could compare with listening to quality analog recordings (or even well-engineered CDs), he knows nothing about music or audio. Tin is an adequate substitute for gold?
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bring back music, oak park // Thursday, December 11, 2008 @ 8:23 PM
I would like to say that I am also someone who had been a member for many years, but quit contributing to WBEZ when they cut the music. Not only did I miss the music I was very upset about how the situation was handled by management.
I personally would like to see music come back. However, maybe it would be interesting if the music was different every night. Also, I would be happy if the music was only from 10pm to 2 am.
I started listening to WBEZ because of the music and grew to enjoy almost all of the programming and think they could find more contributors by offering a broader range of programming rather than repeating the same news stories of the day and even repeating the same shows! I end up hearing 848 on the way to work and having to listen to a different station on the way home.
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Valerie, Aurora // Friday, December 12, 2008 @ 2:54 PM
I knew that when they cut the jazz at night there would be an outrage. Personally I love hearing the shows I can't hear when my children around. My youngest does not need to hear in detail what is happening is the Sudan or Greece right now. I love the new programming and wish you could find a way to have "Car Talk" on again.
By the way the lack of jazz has increased our donation.
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Long time dollar a day, Oak Park // Tuesday, December 30, 2008 @ 2:41 PM
I am so sorry about the cutback. I wish that my family could have done more this year but we've had our our financial problems. We currently have 2 Dollar a Day members (one is matched in addition by my employer) but my goal is all 3 being dollar a day members. Personally I am delighted not to have the jazz and love the current programming. I hated the programming on Sundays especially with all the Jazz - thanks for replacing it with programming worthwhile of spending all of the weekend with! Be strong in 2009 WBEZ and hopefully we'll be able to all 3 be 3 Dollar a Day members soon!
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