The staff of Chicago Public Media, the parent company of NPR affiliate WBEZ-FM, is attempting to unionize. That’s according to a report in Current, which says a majority of staff signed a petition requesting representation by SAG-AFTRA and submitted it to interim CEO Alison Scholly on September 25. Recall that CPM is looking for a […]
It’s been about three weeks since former Chicago Public Media CEO Torey Malatia abruptly resigned his position, surprising both station staff and listeners. Current and the Chicago Reader’s Michael Miner have both published overviews of Malatia’s tenure as an often-controversial and innovative leader, and the aftermath of his departure. At the same time, sister station […]
On Friday Chicago Public Media CEO Torey Malatia, CEO announced his resignation, after two decades at WBEZ. Public radio listeners from outside Chicago may know Malatia as the man providing “management oversight” for This American Life, to whom Ira Glass always attributes an out-of-context quote from that episode during the program’s end credits. Malatia has […]
Last week Chicago Public Media CEO Torey Malatia published an Op-Ed piece in the public media journal Current, defending his station’s decision to cancel the syndicated Smiley & West program. Malatia’s piece appeared just days after Smiley & West returned to the Chicago airwaves on commercial station WCPT. In his op-ed Malatia lays out his […]
In a firey open letter released Monday, public television and radio host Tavis Smiley issued a series of firm rebukes to Chicago Public Radio CEO Torey Malatia, whose flagship station, WBEZ, cancelled Smiley and West at the end of September. In that letter Smiley says that he was willing to “simply move beyond” the cancellation […]
Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ quietly dropped the syndicated Smiley and West program from its Sunday line-up at the end of September. This stands in contrast to the station’s decision to drop Car Talk reruns from its Saturday line-up, which management communicated in an email to donor members explaining the decision and soliciting feedback (full […]
This past Saturday I attended the Intercollegiate Broadcast System’s Midwest conference in Chicago, hosted by Columbia College. This was my first IBS conference, despite having advised a Chicago-area college station for the last four years. This one-day event was billed for high schools in addition to colleges, and the attendance appeared equally split between secondary […]
Over the summer I was in the Chicago and Urbana-Champaign area for a combined vacation/trip to the Grassroots Radio Conference. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit more radio stations and managed to tour six stations total in both Illinois and Indiana. My stops included three college radio stations, two community radio stations, and one […]
Chicago’s Radio Arte (WRTE 90.5 FM) will be sold to Chicago Public Media as part of a $450,000 deal that includes both cash compensation ($300,000 purchase price, plus $50,000 in additional consideration) and $100,000 worth of underwriting announcements. The National Museum of Mexican Art, which owns the class D FM station WRTE, also stipulated that […]
In a scenario that’s becoming too familiar to Radio Survivor readers, the Chicago-based Latino community radio station Radio Arte is now up for sale by its parent organization, the National Museum of Mexican Art. In fiscal year 2009 the museum reported a deficit of $677,121, and according to President Carlos Tortolero the museum has been […]
