Dick Gordon speaks out about his surprise firing from WBUR

[ckramer]

FIRED ON A FRIDAY

There’s at least circumstantial evidence that WBUR (and its owner, Boston University) wasn’t looking to attract a lot of attention to the cancellation of The Connection, which is carried by 66 public radio stations and will go off the air following the August 5 broadcast. (Michael Goldfarb, the station’s London-based correspondent for the Inside Out documentary unit, was also quietly laid off that week.)

The press release went out on a Friday, and the news landed softly in the pages of summer Saturday papers. Mention of The Connection’s demise was buried in the press release’s eighth paragraph; to the extent that there was any explanation for the move, it was in a paragraph that chalked up station changes to a desire for a significant decrease in on-air fundraising, an increase in the quality and depth of local news coverage, and an effort to manage finances aggressively.

In speaking to the media, WBUR spokesperson Nancy Sterling went further, stating that The Connection’s ratings had been "flat" for the past few years. Asked to comment for this story, Sterling says: "We’ve shared our reasons for canceling The Connection, both privately with Dick and publicly through a letter to the listeners and through the media. And we wish him well."

Station officials declined to provide evidence to support the claim that Connection ratings had been flat and problematic.

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