NY Times: Democracy may prove the doom of WBAI

[LiberalElite]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/business/media/democracy-may-prove-the-doom-of-wbai.html?pagewanted=all

WBAI likes to call itself “radio for the 99 percent.” But most of the time the station — a listener-supported and proudly scrappy mainstay of the left since 1960 — is lucky to be heard by 0.1 percent of the New York radio audience.

That disparity, and the teetering finances of the station and its owner, the nonprofit Pacifica Foundation, became apparent on a Friday afternoon this month with a tearful on-air announcement by Summer Reese, Pacifica’s interim executive director, that the station was laying off 19 of its 29 employees just to cover basic expenses like the rent for its transmitter atop the Empire State Building.

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. There are obvious, practical ways to boost listenership.

They can... as the article notes... do *general* interest programming during drive time, for instance. This is not brain surgery. The station did this in the early 70s and had three times the # of paying subscribers it has now. This base made it possible for the station to offer niche and more specialized programming during less heavily listener-trafficked times.

Again... not a complicated undertaking. 1. Get a broad-based audience. 2. Generate income sufficient to operate. 3. Offer minority communities like transgendered and indigenous people slots at less competitive times.