WJCT/89.9 FM in Jacksonville, Fla., is dropping A Prairie Home Companion along with two other shows due to the loss of state funding, according to the St. Augustine Record. It’s the station’s most expensive weekly show, at $26,682 for 2011, station President Michael Boylan told the paper. As of Oct. 1, the show will be replaced with Bob Edwards Weekend at a cost of $1,871 a year.
Also on Oct. 1, the BBC’s World Have Your Say will sub for Tell Me More and locally produced music shows will run instead of World of Opera.
Boylan said that the dual licensee is facing a $500,000 shortfall on its planned $5.7 million budget, after Gov. Rick Scott cut off state funding to all stations in May.
Boylan said those three shows don’t draw large audiences: APHC averaged 2,300 listeners live at 6 p.m. Saturdays, and 4,000 during its repeat at 2 p.m. Sundays. Also, Tell Me More’s cost to the station is rising from about $8,000 a year to $16,500.