PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

WYEP's new studio debuted on Indy Media - A follow up
by Chris Holm Thursday, Nov. 04, 2004 at 1:32 PM
chris@indypgh.org (email address validated)

Yes you read it here first November 03, and the Post Gazette got around to it roughly 10 days later.

For those of you just tuning in...

This is a follow up to the following stories.

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/05/6612.php

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/8827.php

http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/9049.php

Currently I barely follow WYEP, had given up worrying about the debacle due to public apathy you don't find in the cities that put Pacifica back on track.

Occasionally I check their set lists.

The times I turn them on it's some unbareable love song, or lost love song, and the classic rock for the art rock generation stuff.

There was a potentially significant bit of information since my last story, for a brief time their name was taken off Michele Clark's webpage and then later put back on, so something seems to be a foot.

The new station, as I debuted 10 days before the Post Gazette, turned out to cost only for 2.8 million not 3.5.

Yet the sleaze continues.

They state on their webpage,

"Scan typical commercial radio stations anywhere in the country today: it's the same story. Formulaic programming. Less music and more advertising. Little connection to local communities, as station ownership becomes consolidated under remote corporations. In short, it is radio that could come from anywhere.

But WYEP is a very different kind of radio station, thanks to its independence and membership support. WYEP has a personality that comes from a strong sense of place. It clearly originates from and is about Pittsburgh."

Yet all that's in my stories still apllies, and I witnessed top 30 lists when I visited to inspect their files.

They still give you same songs you can hear piped over the muzak at many of your local grocery or hardware stores, and the same songs as most other AAA and public stations, coupled with redundancy with Classic, Lite, and Alternative Rock stations.

As far as remote corporations go, the biggest nasty of course being Clear Channel, they ask their listeners to support.

An article they have linked on their webpage even contradict the previous mission statement.

"Others, such as WYEP, become a more stable operation with consistent programming. "Public radio has evolved into something much more homogenous," Rubin said, "and much less risk averse."

http://postgazette.com/pg/04235/365080.stm

The article also paints a distorted picture, giving examples of hardships 25 years ago and the state today, leaving out the big boom in their format in the nineties with artists like Tori Amos and the gross overpopularity of once artistic bands like U2 and REM hitting the main stream.

"He said he is nostalgic for the old days because "we all had our heart in it, we really, really loved it." But the creative programming without boundaries that stretched the rules from time to time could not survive,

Like anything else, WYEP is a business, he acknowledged. "According to the rules, I don't think that type of radio could continue to be supported," he said. "We had to grow up, and become part of the system."

But 3 years ago they had roughly 6,000 members, and the latest I heard was 7,500.

Hardly a survival difference when building a 2.8 million dollar new studio, more of a comfort level provided by the exploitation and termination of careers by this and other nation's best and brightest.

Others have stated that there is viability for a truly community based radio station, yet the staff and a board consisting of a large percentage of lawyers have chosen a differnt path.

The only truth left is that they've become an audio HBO for the airwaves, no commercials, plenty of commercial music, only on the honor system payment wise. In actuality their FCC license allows them their noncomm status for being educational, yet only a small minority of the station is in any way. I'm sure the new station with 75 seats for in house concerts will help educate more people though.

The big problem is they claim otherwise, and use false or misleading statements to raise funds, and skew the perception of the music community.

To this day WYEP has never responded to accusations of neo-payola only a refusal to answer questions about their programming.

www.cardinalpoints.net

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