In Detroit, a group of listeners angry at recent programming changes at the local affiliate of National Public Radio (NPR) have gone to court, charging WDET-FM with fraud. The listeners claim they were tricked into contributing money to the station during a pledge drive while station operators were secretly planning to replace locally produced programming with national talk and public affairs shows.
Kevin Ernst, the lawyer representing the listeners, said “People contributed for those local programmes, not national programmes.” He said the listeners want the return of the eclectic, daytime music programmes the station cancelled on 13 December. And if they can’t get that, they want the money back that they gave in the fall pledge drive. “This is outright fraud,” Ernst added.
Supporters of the lawsuit say they are planning protests against the station and Wayne State University, which owns it, during the upcoming Detroit Auto Show and the Super Bowl, which will be held in Detroit on 5 February.
(Source: Chicago Tribune)
on Dec 29th, 2005 at 00:47
I wonder if they know how expense local programming is. We have at least 4 NPR stations covering our community (Santa Barbara, CA) but not one of those is actually a local station. This is despite it being a comparatively wealthy community.