Community leaders rail against WYEP move

A last call to retain more jazz on public radio in Pittsburghmanifested on Tuesday in a pair of community leaders urging WYEPboard members and officials to reconsider plans to drop most of themusical genre when WDUQ's six-decade run ends this week.

Essential Public Media, a subsidiary of WYEP-FM 91.3, will takeover 90.5 FM at 12:01 a.m. Friday and will broadcast local, nationaland international news.

The first program will be BBC news followed by NPR's "MorningEdition," station officials said. More programming details areexpected to be released today.

The new station, which has not yet received call letters, willbroadcast six hours of jazz programming on Saturday nights -- adecision that has upset many supporters of WDUQ, which aired morethan 100 hours of jazz each week along with popular NPR programs.

"Jazz is African-American radio. It's important to theircommunity," said Maryellen Deckard, a region director for ActionUnited, an advocacy group for low- and moderate-incomePennsylvanians. "We need to figure out a better way than just havingsix hours of jazz on Saturdays."

The drastic reduction is "a slap in the face to jazz fans inPittsburgh," said Tim Stevens, chairman of the Black PoliticalEmpowerment Project.

"You are literally killing jazz for someone like me," Stevenssaid.

He said he lacks the technological savvy needed to listen to the24/7 jazz programming the new station will provide on a high-definition radio channel and through its website.

"We're not killing it. We're investing in it to the tune of 174hours a week," said Marco Cardamone, board chairman of WYEP andEssential Public Media, referring to the continuous jazz on the newstation and six hours a week on WDUQ.

Accessing jazz programming through the Internet, a smartphone oran HD receiver "isn't as hard as it sounds," Cardamone said. HDreceivers for the home or car can be purchased for about $25.

But the format change was necessary in order for the station tobe economically viable, Cardamone said. In addition to payingDuquesne University $6 million for the broadcast license, the newstation will have to raise enough money to stay on the air eachyear, he said. WDUQ has run budget deficits each of the past fiveyears, university officials said.

Essential Public Media received a $500,000 grant last week fromthe Pittsburgh Foundation, Cardamone said. Including that sum, localfoundations have provided at least $4 million in grants for the newstation.

Management yesterday met with employees from WYEP and WDUQ.

"They're a group over there that deserves some congratulations.They've been running through a wall themselves," said Lee Ferraro,general manager of WYEP. "And they've continued to produce somequality public radio."

Essential Public Media hired 11 WDUQ workers.