WAMU going under?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a game now where I turn the car radio to 88.5 and see how long it takes for race, gender, or trans issues to come up (always in an in-your-face, non-nuanced way). It's usually less than a minute. It's very clear that the agenda simply became DEI stuff all the time about 5 years ago. We used to give money, listen avidly, etc. It's not not listenable anymore. They obviously just ignored the disappearing audience and chose to ride this into the ground. It stinks because we desperately need a smart local news station.

I agree. And I’m not opposed to those issues but at the exclusion of other news? It was so so biased it was a joke.

[Anonymous]

I'll shed no tears over the shut down of DCist.

I only sporadically looked at it in its hipster days, but I gave it more attention when I saw that WAMU took it over. That was a mistake. Whatever coverage there was of local events, it always seemed to be about some random person who just always happened to be oppressed and a person of color. I would have turned away sooner, but the comments were always more informative than the actual "articles," even if layered in sarcasm and gifs. I'm looking at you Monkeyerotica. Then they took the comments away and I never went back.

I guess they assumed the Zenials that they were targeting would carry through the digital mire. They were wrong.

40-65 year olds listen to radio, not 20-38 year olds. Dial it back to things were done 10+ years ago, when NPR was lightly liberal instead of meandering like a bizarro fox and you might be able to straighten your ship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How hilarious that WAMU survived the Trump presidency but the wheels came off under Biden. That’s LMAO material.

I'm not sure how else to point out that WAMU is fine and is in fact staffing up. They are shutting down DCist which has only been under their leadership since 2018, and only because they rescued it from its previous demise.

It is sad for the print journalists at DCists who lost their jobs, and always sad to lose another local news source, no matter your opinion of it.

But WAMU is fine. It's very well supported by donors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1A is like the Today show most of the time - fluffy fluffy fluffy or too liberal. Very frustrating.

Liberal or leftist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I stopped listening long ago when they couldn't ease up on their "angle"

I love WAMU local news coverage, politics hour, etc. but the agenda that the replacements for Kojo and Diane Rehm had was just too much. Everything had to talk about trans or race or social justice. I’m fine with insightful discussions of those topics, even if I disagree with the views discussed - but it was constant and to the exclusion of other interesting topics that used to only be covered (well) by WAMU and then didn’t get covered at all. I was so happy when they restarted dcist but they didn’t pull much of that work through to be on the air.

I agree with you 1000%. I'm a Democrat, I consider myself reasonably liberal, so I'm not someone who's gonna switch over to hate radio (the Rush Limbaugh style crazies). But WAMU "agenda" really started to wear on me. I listen to WTOP to get news. And I can still listen to the NPR shows that I love, like the Daily.

Imagine just how far to the left WAMU had to be to get run of the mill liberals to complain about their leftist agenda.

That’s just mind blowing.

If only the DNC imagined this as well. We're losing a lot of voters trying to convince people they don't know what a woman is, that CRT is only taught in law school, or that plumbers should pay higher taxes to pay off grievance studies college debts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People here are so ridiculous. We live in an incredibly diverse region. Yes, coverage can be about race. WAMU has struggled for YEARS! Also, every single black show has always been cancelled on WAMU so give me a break so diversity has not been the culprit of its demise.

Black shows are great. Shows that spew lies like "CRT is only taught in law school" aren't. See the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a game now where I turn the car radio to 88.5 and see how long it takes for race, gender, or trans issues to come up (always in an in-your-face, non-nuanced way). It's usually less than a minute. It's very clear that the agenda simply became DEI stuff all the time about 5 years ago. We used to give money, listen avidly, etc. It's not not listenable anymore. They obviously just ignored the disappearing audience and chose to ride this into the ground. It stinks because we desperately need a smart local news station.

Whoa! I do this too. Hilarious. I assume you're a classical liberal like me (not a prog)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To what degree is this connected to financial difficulties at American University?

I talked to someone today who worked for another NPR affiliate. WAMU is considered the gold standard for affiliates, and the knock-on effect of this is going to be dramatic. It could also affect NPR mothership since NPR gets a fair amount of its revenue from its affiliate stations.

AU is not doing great financially, so that may be part of it.

I believe WAMU has the biggest DC news audience, but since terrestrial radio is a sinking ship, that may not be saying much.

Can. you say more about that AU? Why do you think it's not doing well? What's happening with enrollment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCist had a sizable core audience that would gather in the comments, but then they eliminated comments and I'm going to guess those readers had zero reason to click on DCist anymore. It certainly wasn't for the journalism, which -- for all the hosannas it's getting from the terminally online right now -- was pretty amateurish.

I will say that local news is extremely important, but also that it's an extremely tough sell because its audience is capped by geography. And even in DC, which on its face should be a prime audience for local news, we have an *extremely* apathetic population when it comes to local matters, which is why we get the same mediocre politicians elected over and over again. Just look at voter turnout, which is laughably bad here.

The problem with DC local news is that DC only has 700k residents. That isn't enough to support local news. MD and VA suburbs have far more, but they are lucky to get a fraction of the stories that DC proper does from most outlets

+1. I wish they would have expanded Kojo's staff/show to include a full show on VA and MD and have it on three times a week. Maybe I'm naive, but I think people would have listened to that.

Oh well, I got my claim to fame - the Kojo show put me through and I got to vent my spleen once. Thanks Kojo and Tom!

I love me some Kojo and Tom, but no, I most certainly would not listen three times a week! Once on Fridays, is enough.

[Anonymous]

Lots of changes over the years/decades, from broadcasters to topics. Agree there seems to be a lot more lgbtq+ items covered, and that's not my cup of tea, but everyone should see themselves in the coverage, right? I could live with it. But Ayesha Rascoe finally did me in (had to look up how to spell her name). Every time she says "git" instead of "get," "wif" instead of "with," etc. When I heard her on the air, I turned WAMU off.

Now I listen to podcasts in the car, instead of the radio

long time WAMU supporter, now a former WAMU supporter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of changes over the years/decades, from broadcasters to topics. Agree there seems to be a lot more lgbtq+ items covered, and that's not my cup of tea, but everyone should see themselves in the coverage, right? I could live with it. But Ayesha Rascoe finally did me in (had to look up how to spell her name). Every time she says "git" instead of "get," "wif" instead of "with," etc. When I heard her on the air, I turned WAMU off.

Now I listen to podcasts in the car, instead of the radio

long time WAMU supporter, now a former WAMU supporter

Totally agree. And no I don’t care about dialect this or colloquial that. A good radio voice has excellent diction full stop.

[Anonymous]

I used to love WAMU. During Covid, it became the 24/7 shut down school forever/DEI channel. I stopped donating and listening and have gravitated towards podcasts like Commentary instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of changes over the years/decades, from broadcasters to topics. Agree there seems to be a lot more lgbtq+ items covered, and that's not my cup of tea, but everyone should see themselves in the coverage, right? I could live with it. But Ayesha Rascoe finally did me in (had to look up how to spell her name). Every time she says "git" instead of "get," "wif" instead of "with," etc. When I heard her on the air, I turned WAMU off.

Now I listen to podcasts in the car, instead of the radio

long time WAMU supporter, now a former WAMU supporter

I'm going to disagree with you there - I like Ayesha Rascoe a lot. (She's NPR, not specific to WAMU.) I think she was a good WH reporter and I like her as a host now, too. I always enjoy when she shows up on Pop Culture Happy Hour, as well.

[Anonymous]

Ayesha never missed an opportunity to ‘black girl bond’ with any other black female. Just imagine a white dude trying to get away with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WAMU has not struggled for years. It’s one of the best funded NPR local affiliates in the country. It’s also the most listened-to radio station in DC. They routinely end their funding drives early because they hit their goals.

I’m sorry to see DCist go, but WAMU listeners (myself included) pay to support their programming. DCist users don’t, and unfortunately, that’s the way media is moving.

I agree. I listen to WAMU way more than I read DCist. DC could certainly use another independent newspaper but DCist did not add much. Let WAMU focus on radio programming. I actually really like 1A - yes it has that sometimes annoyingly progressive homogeneity but consistently also gets good guests for in depth stories. I think Jenn White and 1A actually better successors to Terry Gross and Fresh Air than the new Fresh Air host.

Is Dave Davies the new Fresh Air host?

No, it’s Tonya Mosley. And it’s turning into a more fluffy culture-wars show. She’s fine, but totally lacks Terry’s sort of persistence & intelligence as an interviewer. I like Jenn White much better- much closer vibe. Not that I think anything needs to be replicated, but what I appreciated about Fresh Air was that she doesn’t pander and the content is deeper than most shows. Are they still going to do long-form interviews with authors about their recent important but obscure books?