Revenge of the Oldsters
(Nov. 12, 2009) Editor:
The scariest prospect about Marcy Burstiner’s Nov. 5th piece (“Media Maven”) is that the KHSU staff might take her recommendation “to rip up the programming” seriously.
KHSU depends in large part on listener contributions and underwriters (and I suspect the NPR stations that I have supported from Kent, Ohio to Albany, N.Y. do as well). If NPR and KHSU did not air programs that their listeners want, contributions (including mine) would vanish.
I’m really struggling with the notion that “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” or “Thistle and Shamrock” appeal only to the over-50 set. Or that “any show that has been reaching the same audience for the past 40 years” should be jettisoned, as Burstiner suggests. On the other hand, I continue to turn the dial when “A Prairie Home Companion” airs, just as I did 25 years ago. The common — and defining — characteristic of programming on KHSU and NPR is and should continue to be quality rather than the question of “does it appeal to the under-35 audience?”.
So KHSU, keep up the rich diversity of programming. Put the best of the Facebook set to work honing their local news-gathering and news-reporting skills, as Burstiner recommends. But do not “let young people take over [your] airwaves.” Burstiner may be right: “We probably won’t like what we hear.” Hard to believe that folks who don’t like what they hear would continue to donate to or underwrite the station.
Duncan B. MacLaren, Fieldbrook
Editor:
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