Business & Tech

Unhappy WCLK Listener Sends Out an Open Letter Against their New Format

The following is a direct copy of a letter forwarded to Cascade Patch from WCLK listeners that are upset with the new song choices on the Jazz station.  Some listeners, like the one who wrote the letter below, are upset with the more strict, "smooth jazz" format.  Leave your comments, tell us what you think of the station's current format.

Dear WCLK GM,

I have been listening to WCLK since you went on the air in 1974. I have consistently supported the station financially beginning with my $25 student contribution during the station’s first fund raising drive.  Since then there have only been a few years when I did not contribute, and not because I wasn't inclined but mainly because I was not in the city. I felt an obligation to support WCLK as a unique resource in this city.  As you know, I have come to the defense of the station publicly on more than one occasion. After almost 40 years of loyal support for WCLK, I am altering my listening and contribution habits as a result of the programming changes you have adopted.

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I am familiar with what station management has been saying to justify switching to a tightly programmed, smooth jazz/urban contemporary/neo-soul (Erika Badu, Omar) format across much of the day (at least between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. when I usually listen). I think that change lacks imagination and makes assumptions about your current and potential listening audience that probably will not be borne out in your fast approaching and future fund raising drives.

It is clear to me your programming of the “400” songs that you have in rotation (it seems more like 50) lacks imagination and is not very well grounded even in Smooth Jazz. I am hearing music on the station that I listened to 25 – 35 years ago on WCLK. Donald Byrd’s Blackbirds came out in 1973 or so. You play it like it was released last summer. I have cassette tapes that I made from the radio in the 1980’s to take with me when I moved out of the city. Many of the songs that were in the rotation then (Bob James’ Winchester Cathedral) are in the rotation now, being played multiple times during the week.  The same can be said for songs like Grover Washington’s Winelife that you repeat far too much. There are literally thousands of Smooth Jazz songs and hundreds of artists that you could be playing.  Did your survey results really lead you to the conclusion that your listeners only want to hear a few songs over and over?

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That repetitive mindset impacts in other ways. By the time your fund raising concerts arrive you have played the feature artists so much (Incognito, Chaka Kahn, Gregory Porter) that I don’t have any interest in attending the shows. I appreciate Incognito and Gregory Porter but I don’t want to hear them a half dozen times a day, day in and day out, including Saturdays. I like Jamal’s show, as well, but I also found his self-programmed shows to be too repetitive.  I just don’t understand how repetition, monotony and a very narrow range of music can be seen as forward looking programming steps.

I like other Jazz genres and I am not one of those purists who don’t want to hear anything but Straight Ahead Jazz, although that is the music that I prefer. I find that even within those 900 songs that you have identified, there is a tremendous amount of Jazz music that you failed to play. One of the pieces I read says that you saw an opportunity to grow audience by embracing the Smooth Jazz sub-genre.  It seems that even your commitment to Smooth Jazz looks tenuous. If, as you say, the survey respondents reacted favorably to Sade, Kem, Anita Baker and others like them, then your programming shift will veer even further towards Urban Contemporary music. How will you be able to call yourselves the Jazz of the City without playing Jazz? Or, is that shoe about to drop as well?

I am not encouraged by what I have read about the survey you conducted. I would like to see the survey methodology.   It just does not seem that you approached things in the right way. After all, it is not that you don’t have listeners (100,000 is not a bad base) it is that your listeners don’t provide sufficient financial support. It may be that you were not asking the right questions, or, you may not have been putting the questions to the right people. Did you ask the respondents if they would be willing to support the station financially? Did you bother to survey the people who actually do support the station to find out why they do so and what they think might be useful ways to generate further financial support? 

There are two separate issues here that you seem to be conflating or confusing:  1) insufficient financial support from radio listeners and 2) the need for consistently high quality and unique music programming.  At present, you have neither, and it is not clear that the increasingly narrow and repetitive music rotation will result in a higher giving rate.  In fact, if you alienate your loyal listeners, as you imagine poaching listeners who are accustomed to an ad-based radio reality (with no inclination to  make a donation to a radio station), where will that leave WCLK? 

For years I have lamented what I see as your very sterile approach to fundraising and your failure to gather and use data effectively.  Take my case. Since the beginning, I have always made my contributions during the on-air fund drives. I shake my head, then, when I receive mail solicitations from you and ask “Why is WCLK writing to me when they should know my giving habits by now?” It is as if I am just a name on a mailing list. Do you even have a record of my giving history? I suspect that a major part of your problem is fundraising techniques that leave a lot to be desired. Perhaps what WCLK needs are new techniques and fresh thinking in that department and not watered down programming to lust after a fickle audience?

I am saddened by the lack of vision, commitment and leadership displayed in this change. The decision to make WCLK a Jazz station was taken with a sense of history and appreciation for a uniquely African-American music. Dr. Elias Blake is probably turning over in his grave at the damage being done to the institution that he imagined and built. In solidarity with Dr. Blake’s vision, my check will not be in the mail.

A disappointed former listener,

EP


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