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Monday, August 10, 2009
KUT, hosts’ fans aren’t on same wavelength
Daryl Slusher was among the Austinites who spoke at a town hall meeting Wednesday about KUT’s decision to cut the shows of two hosts. Cody Duty AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Never let it be said that terrestrial radio is a dead or dying medium.
Based on the levels of passion and sheer energy expended on both sides of the debate about the downsizing of Paul Ray and Larry Monroe at public radio station KUT (FM 90.5), radio, at least in Austin, is vibrantly alive.
A recap: Early last month, KUT announced that three shows — “Paul Ray’s Jazz” (8 to 11 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday) and Larry Monroe’s “Phil Music Program” (8 to 11 p.m. Thursday) — were being replaced by “Music with Matt Reilly,” hosted by KUT’s new assistant music director. In addition, KUT announced it would air “Undercurrents,” a three-hour national music show hosted by Gregg McVicar, at midnight Monday through Thursday to replace overnight programming hosted by Monroe and Ray. The John Aielli podcast “Aielli Unleashed” also was canceled (Aielli’s “Eklektikos” still airs from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday). Ray lost 14 hours of air time a week, Monroe 10. Ray and Monroe will continue to host their popular weekly “Twine Time” (7 to 11 p.m. Saturday) and “Blue Monday” programs, respectively.
The news dropped at the start of the July 4 holiday weekend — probably not the best PR move on KUT’s part.
KUT management has said it made the changes for financial and business reasons, that the programs weren’t increasing the station’s audience and that the $120,000 cut had to be made somewhere. Opponents of the change say it’s another step in what they call the ongoing homogenization of KUT (or, as many online commentators put it, “sounding like KGSR”).
The online comments continued in a steady stream, and a Facebook group, “Support Larry Monroe and Paul Ray at KUT,” was created. (As of Monday, the group was up to 834 members and 158 wall posts.)
KUT began spinning the story, sending out clarifying e-mails to supporters and running on-air bumpers about the changes. Initially, KUT management indicated that the $120,000 saved by these cuts was being redirected in the budget. At the end of last week , program director Hawk Mendenhall said that, in fact, the money was being cut entirely.
KUT’s 2008-09 fiscal year budget was $6.4 million. It’s $5.9 million for fiscal year 2009-10. According to the University of Texas Office of the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the downsizing will put Monroe and Ray well under the minimum number of hours required to retain health insurance.
Cleve Hattersley of Greezy Wheels — who already had sent an angry mass e-mail about the changes — organized a town hall meeting Wednesday to discuss the downsizings and ways to reverse them.
“The one thing that I think we all agree on is the fact that we want Larry Monroe and Paul Ray back on the air,” Hattersley said at the meeting in the beer garden at Threadgill’s South. “We want to hear what we want to hear.”
Mendenhall said he was not surprised by the reaction to the changes.
“When ‘Car Talk’ came on Saturday mornings, I got people telling me Austin didn’t want to hear laughter that early in the morning,” Mendenhall said last week. “I had my life threatened over ‘Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,’ which is a Saturday morning hit and raised $20,000 in one hour of pledge drive.”
KUT management says they initially received only a handful of phone calls about the changes.
“Anytime we make a change, it’s hard for all involved,” KUT general manager Stewart Vanderwilt said Wednesday (before the meeting, which he did not attend). “When you’re looking at fiscal challenges, you have to look at everywhere. Late overnight has a very small audience, and the investment there, unfortunately, just didn’t make sense.”
Mendenhall said he and Stewart looked at 10 years of data in making their decision, which revealed that while the audience for many shows (“Eklektikos,” “Twine Time,” Jay Trachtenberg’s afternoon music shows) has grown with Austin’s population, the draw for the “Paul Ray’s Jazz” and “Phil Music” programs has remained stagnant — about 1,800 in the evenings (before midnight) and 300 overnight.
“One thing that’s kind of keeping KUT going in a really down market is the fact that our audience is growing,” Vanderwilt said. ” ‘Twine Time’ is a force unto itself, and ‘Blue Monday’ has a tradition and a connection to the blues roots of Austin, but the other programs just weren’t moving the station forward.”
And Mendenhall admits that Reilly’s show is a bid for a wider demographic, if not necessarily younger. He added that music director Jeff McCord’s Friday night show “Left of the Dial” was a good model for the sort of music mix he’s aiming for in the overnight slots. McCord’s recent playlist includes artists such as Black Moth Super Rainbow, Jimi Hendrix, the Monahans, Television, Ornette Coleman and Wilco.
At least 100 people attended Hattersley’s town hall meeting, where suggestions for action included cutting off donations to KUT , a position not endorsed by everyone.
“I personally will not withhold my support of KUT financially,” said Charlotte Hursley, a KUT contributor at the Leadership Circle level. She suggested aiming pledges at specific shows, such as “Blue Monday.”
Monday, Hattersley said the group was leaning toward a boycott, perhaps putting donations in an escrow account until demands are met.
“The biggest job will be to identify and contact local contributors of every stripe, individual or corporate,” he said. “We intend to try to speak directly to absolutely everyone who has given KUT any money over the last 10 years.”
For their parts, Monroe and Ray have kept a low profile. Ray, who was recently inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame , did not respond to requests for comment. Monroe said that he was presented with the changes as a done deal — “I was not given any options.”
Monroe has been spending time taking care of dental and medical work before his insurance runs out. He will be working an eight-hour week, which includes “Blue Monday” and the prep time required for the award-winning show, the longest-running blues show in America with a single host. (Blue Monday launched in 1981.) He declined to comment on whether he had been talking to other radio stations, terrestrial, online or satellite.
jgross@statesman.com; 912-5926
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The New Yorker, Thom Yorke and EPs
Over in the New Yorker blog, Sasha Frere-Jones notes one of Austin Music Source’s pet obsessions: The return of the EP and the non-album single as vibrant, relevant formats.
As has been noted here in 2007 and here in June, we think about this a lot.
We are in favor of it, for all of the reason Frere-Jones and Thom Yorke discuss.
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‘ACL’ honored by hall of fame; Mos Def and K’Naan to tape sets
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum says it’s designating the Austin City Limits music television show as a historic rock and roll site. About to embark on its 35th season, the KLRU-based program is the longest running music series in American TV history.
Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the rock hall of fame in Cleveland, made the announcement Monday with the show’s executive producer, Terry Lickona (pictured).
“I was speechless,” ACL executive producer Lickona said of Stewart’s suggestion that the ACL studio be included on the list of historic sites. Other sites so designated include the Whisky-a-Go-Go club in Los Angeles and Brooklyn High School in the Cleveland area, where Elvis Presley played his first concert north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Stewart says a plaque will be placed at the Austin City Limits studio on the University of Texas campus and another plaque will be placed in the show’s new, 2,500-capacity studio in Block 21, which is scheduled to open in 2011. (The current studio can hold about 300 people.)
The old Austin skyline backdrop will not move to the new space; a new one is slated to be designed. The old backdrop will remain in the old studio, which will continue to be used.
The formal presentation of the plaque and designation will be Oct. 1, which is also the date of ACL’s first hip-hop show, a double shoot with Mos Def and K’naan, both of whom will be playing the Austin City Limits Music Festival. On Oct. 2, the studio will host two educational panels on the history of the program. Pearl Jam tapes a set Oct. 3, while Sonic Youth tapes a set Oct. 5.
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