I could barely believe my eyes as I opened my Radio Survivor e-mail today and saw this notice from KALW-FM in San Francisco:
“KALW is considering some significant changes for 2012, and before we move forward, we want to know what you think,” the announcement explains. The station is overseen by San Francisco’s Unified School District.
The questions involve whether to put All Things Considered on an afternoon drive time schedule, moving BBC Newshour and As It Happens to various other times, bringing some new shows like Crosscurrents and Snap Judgment to the schedule, dropping Whad’Ya Know, and several other changes.
But what really surprised me is that KALW management is asking these questions at all. Most public radio stations rarely go through this process. Not a few community stations skip it as well.
So if you’re a KALW listener/subscriber, get in there and give the station your input. But here’s some free advice. You know why stations often don’t go through this process? Because they think they know from the getgo what the answer from listeners will be to their proposed changes:
No, no, no, no, and no.
Thus, if all you do is angrily oppose everything that KALW is suggesting, you are pretty much confirming to the public radio management crowd that exercises like this are pointless, and that the best thing they can do is whatever they want, then tough out the bitter response.
Bottom line: KALW is being thoughtful. You be thoughtful too.
