WUNC's General Manager to leave the station

They had me on The State of Things w/ Frank Stasio live on primary day.  While there were people from across the state (like 6 of us) it was mostly people from around Chapel Hill and the triangle and call-ins from across the state too.  Several people talked about the presidential election, but I also tried to stress the importance of local elections.  Admittedly I focused on the Jim Neal for US Senate campaign (a Chapel Hill businessman who ran for senate) that I was working for at the time as an intern.
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0506a08.mp3  I think that was the first implementation of the public insight network earlier this month so there is still definitely time for refinement.  I like that the station does have a broad appeal, I got hooked on it while living in Raleigh, but a little more local flavor couldn’t hurt either.

She presided over an era of increasing corporatization at WUNC. It is no surprise that she is continuing her career in the business arena.

She and the station were always very protective of Progress and Duke Energy. Many of us had communication with her during the run-up to the Iraq War and in the early months. She was not sympathetic to our concerns that the "news" that they were broadcasting was narrow and often flat-out deceptive. I doubt that anything will change with her move. It is a corporatized entity.

Interesting news. I hope WUNC will take this opportunity to re-evaluate some of their assumptions.    I understand that the station needs money to operate, but (much to my family's amusement)  I charted the pleas for money last year and determined that the station was doing some type of on-air fundraising every 6 weeks, whether a one day "Valentine's" request  or a reminder from the announcer.   Even the recent "shorten the fundraiser" plea did NOT shorten the fundraiser really---even on the days without "live on air" fundraising,(in the middle of the campaign)  the announcers  kept reminding you about the break from the fundraising that you were getting and teling you how to make a donation.   

 It did not help my attitude toward their fundraising efforts when, despite my very clear "change of information" discussion with the organization, not once, but twice,  they sent my tax-deductible contribution receipt to my ex-husband.  :}

Ah, yes, WHYY, WAMU...good large stations where listeners can still get weather and traffic. I do enjoy Laura Leslie, and I know we're lucky to have Rose Hoban's terrific health coverage. But when I listen to WAMU (the station that taught me to love NPR) during WUNC pledge drives, I become jealous of their actual weather and traffic reports -- you know, things that are actually useful to people who live in the listening area right then that very morning! WAMU is a large station that covers an equally broad geographic area, but they somehow manage to be nationally important and locally useful at the same time.

Wouldn't it be great if WUNC took some of the hundreds of thousands of dollars it spends on the Dick Gordon show and invested it in its news room instead?

Also miss the music, especially the jazz; but apparently they decided not to take on WCPE or either of the two jazz stations (from Shaw and NCCentral). And although the BBC is the best source around here for global news, do we really need quite as much as we have -- i.e., all night long? Traffic, weather -- esp. alerts -- would indeed be useful to us hereabouts, too.

However, remember that the station is also 88.9 Manteo and 90.9 Rocky Mount. Much as I love and miss the NPR stations in the metropolises, WUNC isn't quite comparable. It covers a large portion of a relatively rural state -- you can see the map on wunc.org/about (sorry, haven't figured out how to insert a .jpg in a post here). And as an arm of the state's educational system, it has a mandate to attend to local -- as in state -- issues and interests.

Otherwise, I share others' concerns about fundraising -- are audio-thons really the only way they can do this without turning entirely to corporate funding? And share others' concerns about self-censorship -- really wonder where the pressure for some of Rose's decisions actually came from. Anyone know or care to speculate?

And any hint about how/where they'll look for her successor?

I'm perma-hooked on NPR and WUNC "bringing the world home to you."  God knows what they're paying Dick Gordon for The Story which is rarely a story but another hour of his endless loop of repetitive questions.  Yet I stay tuned in every day, all day except Saturday when I move all the dials in the house to WCOM from 8 to 8.  Highly recommended!  103.5 F. 

My take on Joan Siefert-Rose's tenure is that she raised hackles throughout that organization.   Most of the syndicated shows are good, especially Wait Wait Don't Tell Me which makes me laugh out loud every week.  The Puzzler with Will Shortz distracts me briefly from the Sunday NYTimes. The re-run of A Prairie Home Companion on Sunday afternoon is much less depressing than having to slog through it as a Saturday nite consolation prize.  For me, this is prime cooking time.  

 I hope they promote from within and see what happens.  Who are "they" is one big question.  Joan got in the fundraising marathon trenches, to her credit.  On this pass, we need a passionate insider.  Note that the facilities are quite nice -- Friday Center and American Tobacco alike.   Surely somebody wants to fly this plane!