Blog for Democracy

WABE misses an opportunity!

A Lesson in Donor Relations.

I have long been a public radio fan and supporter. And Saturday morning? Fahgetaboutit! Don’t bother me between 8AM and Noon. I am glued to the dial. I follow Scott Simon, Peter Sagal, and WaitWait on Twitter. I’m an addict.

So, the moment I learned Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me was coming to the Cobb Energy Center I plunked down my credit card and bought the “Special Seating with a Meet & Greet” tickets. I can’t even remember when I got the tickets, it seems like months ago!

The live taping was fantastic. Sagal, Carl Kassell, Decatur’s own Roy Blount Jr, Amy Dickinson, and Charlie Pierce were as quick witted and entertaining as any regular listener would expect. It was over 90 minutes of laugh-out-loud fun.

Following the show and the acquisition of the free CSX tote bag off we went to the Meet & Greet reception. I’ve been to many of these types of events over the years – several dozen devoted donors willing to shell out a couple hundred bucks to rub elbows with quasi-celebrities standing around chit-chatting. What was different the other night was the complete lack of any acknowledgment from the WABE staff at the reception.


If anyone from WABE should pass thru these parts, here are some tips.

  1. I’m sure you were worried about unpaid guests trying to bust up the party, but a a big burly bouncer at the rope line checking tickets doesn’t convey a warm welcome.
  2. Bottled water is nice, but when it runs out, a pitcher and plastic cups would suffice.
  3. This was your big chance to lasso donors, but hanging out with the Wait Wait folks (and hogging their time) isn’t the best way to do so.
  4. A friendly smile, or even a “Thank You” for your generous contribution would have probably hooked this donor.

    5. Am I surprised? No. It’s pretty much what I expected. It’s too bad you didn’t suprise me with a little southern hospitality. I guess I’ll continue to support the stations that create the content I adore, instead of my local station.

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Catherine

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15 responses to “WABE misses an opportunity!”

  1. J.M. Prince Avatar
    J.M. Prince

    While I’m not going to put all the onus all on one individual for their subpar performance, (as I think it’s a collective, corporate decision), still we’ve got to wonder. How much does the slowest racing team on the NASCAR circuit make? For how long? And hey even Vandy has other teams that do reasonably well in SEC sports too.

    And yes, she may be an enduring institution here, but things do change a bit in 30 years, right? Literally anything interesting, progressive or ‘forward’ thinking or sounding in Classical music programming you might hear on WABE is bound to be coming from a national NPR network feed. Including the Opera. Which is actually saying quite a bit.

    It’s like walking into a newsroom and hearing the clack of typewriters still. Under performing as ever, but yet somehow responsible for ‘getting the job done’. And apparently just barely of course. Thank goodness for the network shows or we might as well be Missoula.

    JMP

  2. JerryT Avatar
    JerryT

    It reminds me of race car drivers. Now they have to bring their own sponsors to a team. Lois must have some big sponsors.

  3. HomegrownDem Avatar
    HomegrownDem

    Good point on the shout-out for Dennis O’Hayer….

    The multple online streams is a nice idea and effort, but of course if I want to listen online I have many outlets. The sad truth is that I most often listen to NPR in the car, and more often than not find myself listening to NPR on XM Radio than to WABE.

  4. J.M. Prince Avatar
    J.M. Prince

    But guitars is soft Wes! JMP

  5. Wes F in Hapeville Avatar
    Wes F in Hapeville

    You don’t know the half of it, JMP. I’m a composer. It would be nice if I could tell my composition students that “y’know, there’s a show with exciting new music on WABE every (whatever day and time). Check it out.” Instead, we get The Western Canon (But Nothing Too Dissonant), Obscure Pieces That Sound Like Unthreatening Movie Soundtracks, Oh, And About 15 Billion Guitar Quartet Arrangements Of Pieces Never Meant For Guitar Quartet all day, every day.

    WF

    (who has no problem at all with arrangements and transcriptions, but has never heard anything *but* guitar quartet transcriptions on WABE)

  6. J.M. Prince Avatar
    J.M. Prince

    Kerist on a cracker! I thought I was the last bloke in Ga. who cares & complains about the tempo markings. You’ll certainly win this round for liberal elitist whine however. But it’s a fallen world seemingly everywhere Wes.

    And yes, making Classical music seem ever more stultifying predictable & boring is my main beef with the entire ethos down there. For days on end seemingly nothing much moves out of the ‘safer’ precincts of the 18-mid/late 19th century. With the ever popular brief breathless & deathless semi accurate intro’s or ID’s. It’s been & being done better almost everywhere but here. We’ve got to wonder why finally.

    But like most other worthy hopeless causes, I still support ’em. If for nothing else but the perhaps 50% pick up in local news programming around& in ATC/Marketplace that Denis O’Hayer seems to have brought about. Which is a decided improvement. Every little bit helps, especially with busy & ever more fragmented ‘listening’ schedules.

    There, was that hopeful sounding enough?

    JMP

  7. Wes F in Hapeville Avatar
    Wes F in Hapeville

    I’m gonna say it.

    I don’t have a personal beef with Lois Reitzes, though I do have a problem with that much music – and I even teach music for a living.

    I wouldn’t mind if they throttled it back to 4 – 5 hours, especially if they got rid of John Lemley. City Caf√© does the impossible and makes classical music stupid.

    (It’s kind of personal here – Lemley once referred to the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony as “Tchaikovsky in 3/4 time.” Anyone who is responsible for disseminating information about music to the general public should know that the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s 6th is in 5/4. I turned off WABE at that point and will not listen to it during the hours that Lemley is on the air.)

    WF

  8. Paula Avatar
    Paula

    I know at least a dozen people off the top of my head who withhold contributions to WABE to protest the reign of Lois Reitzes. I can only imagine the bucks they could rake in if there was ever a coup d’etat.

  9. J.M. Prince Avatar
    J.M. Prince

    Yep, the more the merrier I say. The financing & especially the licensing could be tricky, but I think it’s still true that we’re one of the most ‘underserved’ major radio markets in the US as far as real diversity in programming is concerned. It really is ‘The Sahara of the Beaux Arts’ as H.L. Mencken would have it.

    We can get WCLK @ our offices, but not at home, really. Frankly @ work we switch between KPLU (Seattle) & WCLK & various locals. But our crew of course all have their own iPods plugged in their cubes etc. At home our ‘default station’ locally is actually WUTC, (Chattanooga) which is also sitting on that 88.1 spot.

    But yeah, if you’re going to be serious about culture & the culture of learning, discovery & history of both & same? You need more & better classical/jazz/music/news stations in any major city. We’ve just been falling behind in that, (along with all the papers) for quite awhile now. But that’s a much bigger issue than the lack of programming success or excellence. Endurance it may be, and that’s something of an achievement. But the starved emaciated minds & souls that depart from such a sustenance are thin, reedy & clueless indeed.

    Thanks for the h/t on WEMU Catherine.

  10. HomegrownDem Avatar
    HomegrownDem

    I take it that there is a longstanding feud between WABE and GPB which I don’t fully understand. It’s a shame that GPB radio isn’t very available in Atlanta; a second NPR broadcast station would make it easier for one station to focus on classical music while the other focused on public affairs. For example, a few years ago I heard Georgia Gazette on GPB. I was impressed with the program, but it isn’t available in metro Atlanta.

    For jazz fans, you’re missing out if you aren’t listening to WCLK at 91.9 They don’t have a great signal outside 285 and their web player is balky, but the programming is great in my view. (But then again, some might say I have no standing to judge….)

    Catherine’s post reminded me that I prefer GPB to WABE but wished I could receive their signal better.

    WABE needs to get their act together, or between the web and podcssts they will be increasinbly irrelevent.

  11. HomegrownDem Avatar
    HomegrownDem

    I take it that there is a longstanding feud between WABE and GPB which I don’t fully understand. It’s a shame that GPB radio isn’t very available in Atlanta; a second NPR broadcast station would make it easier for one station to focus on classical music while the other focused on public affairs. For example, a few years ago I heard Georgia Gazette on GPB. I was impressed with the program, but it isn’t available in metro Atlanta.

    For jazz fans, you’re missing out if you aren’t listening to WCLK at 91.9 They don’t have a great signal outside 285 and their web player is balky, but the programming is great in my view. (But then again, some might say I have no standing to judge….)

    Catherine’s post reminded me that I prefer GPB to WABE but wished I could receive their signal better.

    WABE needs to get their act together, or between the web and podcssts they will be increasinbly irrelevent.

  12. Jen Brock Avatar
    Jen Brock

    http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/11/18/116-black-music-that-black-people-dont-listen-to-anymore/

    Every few a months, a white person will put on some Jazz and pour themselves a glass of wine or scotch and tell themselves how nice it is. Then they will get bored and watch television or write emails to other white people about how nice it was to listen to Jazz at home. “Last night, I poured myself a glass of Shiraz and put Charlie Parker on the Bose. It was so relaxing, I wish I had a fireplace.”

  13. SpaceyG Avatar
    SpaceyG

    You give WABE way too much credit by claiming they were ever even awake in the first place.

  14. CatherineAtlanta Avatar
    CatherineAtlanta

    JMP,

    If you’re a blues & jazz fan you really must check out WEMU, an NPR affiliate from Ypsilanti, Michigan. It is a fantastic station. Weekday afternoons with Michael Jewett, Sunday mornings with Dr Arwulf Arwulf, and Brazilian Sol with Mary Catherine Smith (no relation) on Saturday nights.

    WEMU is a treasure. Listen live anytime:

    http://www.wemu.org/

  15. J.M. Prince Avatar
    J.M. Prince

    A perfectly old time cranky & elitist whine, but no less deliciously so for being true either. Yep. Again, SSDD. You should have got the T-Shirt too. ‘I barely survived 30 years of wondering/drinking over & about Lois Reitzes!’

    Which of course is mean. Even when we’ve got the likes of Scott Simon (her special pal from HS!) & yes even the ever reliable & useful Wynton Marsalis calling in to offer her congratulations on her long endured tenure. We’ve even preferred the didactic wonders of Dr. Karl Haas over her in the past, but then again he’s dead. (But still going in some markets).

    Our list of out of state favs that we’ve steadily acquired over the years are many & varied for Bluegrass/Blues/Americana: WDVX.org (Knoxville) Steady ‘Mainstream’ Jazz & Blues: KPLU.org (Seattle) Modern/updated & seasonal special programming of same: WBGO.org (Jazz 88, Newark) and Classical & Historical programming of same WKCR.org (Columbia Univ, NYC, 1st commercial FM station in the nation).

    WKCR, which I grew up on was simply amazing listening to growing up. Weeks long specials by the ‘monster of the Jazz midway’ Dr. Phil Schaap on everything Bird, Diz or Max played. A week on almost everything that Louie Armstrong ever recorded. Ditto for Duke & Coltrane. With few breaks too. It was like heaven. Schapp was then heard frequently on Newark’s Jazz 88 too, but less so in recent years as they culled their ‘oldies’ from their regular play lists.

    Without a shadow of a doubt, for whatever complex & perverse reason WABE (90.1FM) is singularly successful in being the most miserable NPR Classical affiliate I’ve ever had the misfortune to bear to listen to for any protracted period of time. Ditto for their PBS (PBA 30) affiliate, which just happens to proudly broadcast about half of the public interest news & programming that ‘Bama does too. Just too damn torturously distressing on so many different levels. But Catherine describes only some of the ‘incidental’ idiocies here.

    But hey, all this is so much liberal elitist twaddle. It’s not like anyone has any real alternatives here, right?

    JMP

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