In a post on his website, actor Harry Shearer describes how he learned about the cancellation of his long-running show on KCRW in Santa Monica, Calif.
On Monday, KCRW General Manager Jennifer Ferro told Shearer that “Le Show was being cancelled from the airwaves.” Shearer had suspected that Ferro was preparing to end the weekly program’s run on KCRW, but he was surprised by the timing, which was “‘effective immediately,’” he wrote, quoting Ferro.
“Thus does public radio, in one more small way, come to resemble ever more closely commercial radio’s way of doing business,” Shearer commented.
The station announced the cancellation April 15 as part of an overhaul of its weekend schedule. In addition to Le Show, KCRW is dropping NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered and a music program hosted by Tom Schnabel, a longtime KCRW dj and former music director. It will continue to distribute Schnabel’s weekly program, which features jazz and world music, on its Web stream, and will offer Shearer’s Le Show as a podcast and in national syndication.
Le Show airs on more than 80 public radio stations around the country, including New York’s WNYC-AM. Shearer wrote that he’s “seeking an alternative broadcast outlet in Los Angeles.”
I contribute money to public radio regularly, but actions like these make me think twice.