By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 25, 2007

WETA's sudden switch this week from news programming to classical music has prompted a backlash among some of its listeners, who believe the public radio station should have consulted the public about the decision.

The station says reaction to its format change has been mostly positive, but not everyone is pleased. Hundreds of listeners, some of whom donated money to support the station's NPR and BBC news programs, say they feel double-crossed.

"It's a very abrupt change in format without any discussion or warning," said Salli Diakova, a WETA listener from Alexandria. "Until the last moment, they were making fundraising calls and sending out letters saying, 'Support our news programs.' I feel a public station owes the public some sort of discussion before doing this." Diakova said she recently donated $150 to the station -- and she wants her money back.

Other listeners have peppered WETA's Web site with angry comments since the station dropped news shows on Monday night and began playing classical music (its longtime format before switching to news in February 2005). The change back to classical was coordinated between WETA (90.9 FM) and WGMS (103.9 and 104.1 FM), now known as "George 104." WGMS's owner, Bonneville International Corp., agreed to drop classical for a pop-music format, helping WETA become the area's exclusive classical station.

"If I wanted classical music all of the time, I would be relying on my CD collection for the pleasure," wrote one WETA listener in one of more than 1,200 postings on the station's Web site. "I want my pledge money back! You're never getting another dime from me." Although many of the comments welcomed the change, others used words such as "betrayal," "appalled" and "grief-stricken."

WETA's general manager, Dan DeVany, said some 85 percent of the phone and e-mail comments received by the Arlington station since Monday have been positive. The Web site's postings, however, reflect a much higher percentage of negative comments.

DeVany did allow that many of the positive comments are tempered by regret over the loss of the news programs.

Since the change, he said, the station has received about $40,000 in "unsolicited" contributions. DeVany said that WETA will refund contributions to any listener who requests it.

"We would expect people to be disappointed, and we're really sorry about that," he said. "As we said before, we had no intention of changing our format. But events ensued that made us feel it was in the best interest of the station [to switch], and we did."

The key event in question was WGMS's demise as a classical station. When DeVany read newspaper accounts of the station's possible sale last month, he opened discussions with Bonneville about moving WGMS's classical format to WETA.

From that point, the station made no announcement about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Although the executive committee of WETA's board of directors gave management preliminary approval in mid-December for a format change, this meeting and its outcome weren't officially disclosed by the station. WETA and Bonneville agreed to final terms late Sunday night; WETA listeners received their first official notice Monday night, when the station began playing classical music.

DeVany said the station was under no obligation to inform listeners. "We're allowed to do this" under WETA's bylaws, he said. "There are certain circumstances when we have private or closed meetings." One such circumstance, he said, is when changes "could affect employees, and a change in format could affect employees."

By contrast, WETA, which is operated by a nonprofit foundation, held an open meeting in early 2005 when it was contemplating dropping classical music for news. That change was approved by the station's board, despite objections from listeners.

DeVany noted that the new switch could send thousands of WGMS listeners -- and possibly their pledge contributions -- to WETA, which now has no direct competitor in classical broadcasting. He also said the change will have an additional benefit to WETA: It no longer will have to bear the cost of such shows as "A Prairie Home Companion," "Car Talk" and two locally produced programs, "The Intersection" talk show and Mary Cliff's "Traditions" folk music program. (WAMU [88.5 FM] has picked up "Prairie," starting Saturday.) He estimated that not having those shows will save about $1.5 million annually, more than a quarter of the station's $4.2 million budget for its last fiscal year.

All of which doesn't console loyal WETA listeners such as Tim Potter of Frederick.

"I'm pretty disappointed, and I can see how contributors feel betrayed," Potter said by phone. "You expect this sort of thing from a for-profit company, but not from public radio.

"It's a bit like advertising a product and then doing a bait-and-switch."