The Fall and Decline of WPFW

As of this writing, the once consequential and serious WPFW 89.3 FM has started its annual fall pledge drive, a drive that more than usual takes on a particularly feverish air of desperation with the survival of the station being at stake. Concerning this sorry mess, a few observations:

1. Those charged with the responsibility of running WPFW are guilty of mismanagement and malfeasance in squandering a valuable resource.
2. To continue pledging financial support to the station, without any assurances that it will reverse course, is tantamount to throwing money down a proverbial rat hole.
3. The usual hackneyed arguments - for example, that it is "the lone beacon of jazz music and political truth on the Washington, D.C. area radio airways" - no longer hold sway because of the aforementioned (1) and because of a changed media landscape that pretty much renders the station a nullity.
4. Instead of prolonging the inevitable, WPFW should be allowed to suffer the fate of organizations that fail to keep pace with a changing environment: it should be allowed to die.

WPFW's Turmoil

The recent firing of Ron Pinchback as general manager of Pacifica's WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, D.C. was badly timed and ill-considered, not because of Pinchback's ability - truth is, he was a mediocrity who reached the apogee of his meager skills years ago when he was responsible for public service announcements and calendar of events - but because his termination coincides with the departure of Bobby Hill as program director. These actions render an already shaky, floundering organization even more unstable. The station prides itself on 30 years of community service but the truth is, it has failed miserably to inject its programming with the imagination and energy sorely needed to compete in a dynamic, ever-changing environment created in large part with the emergence of the internet and other technologies.