Going by the numbers

As a longtime supporter of Maine Public Broadcasting, I attended the meeting of the board of trustees on Jan. 16 because I had been concerned about the recent changes in radio programming. I must admit I found the meeting rather surprising and alarming.

First of all, it was surprising to learn that the board made no decisions about programming. These decisions are left wholly to those managing the station themselves. It was with growing alarm that I listened to the explanations and rationales by these people of how such programming decisions had been made. The station’s core audience seemed to be composed solely of numbers, averages and percentages determined by pollsters who gathered quantitative data about how much of a potential listening audience was tuned in or out at any particular moment.

When issues of what was being broadcast were raised, only vague and general references to service or satisfaction, or whatever, were presented. (It came as a rather welcome alternative when, late in the meeting, real people stood up and talked about particular programs that they listened to, or didn’t listen to, and explained why they did so.) My alarm is focused on this lingering and disturbing question: If the long-range planning and day-to-day business reside in the hands of people who are no better than statisticians, who is minding the quality store?

For me, what was finally most chilling was the sense I took away from the meeting that these number people truly believed what they were saying and in what they were doing.

Paul Bauschatz

Orono