chicago. the only thing that killed chicago radio was the people running it. It is some of the worst in the country!! (A bit off topic) when you have 3 companies that own ALL the stations and half the stations being in spanish format where else are you going to go? thats one reason i got XM (and oh my... i WORK in radio! -just not in chicago)

maybe if the 'full service local' format would come back to chicago it would improve! but again, 3 main companies owning the stations, guess what... they are all gonna be the same!

Kareoke would kill Chicago radio.

great city but get real.

iPod allowed people to listen to something other than the garbage being put out on the air, interspersed with 45 minute long blocks of commercials.

now you can get your populist propaganda sans jazz...

wwaayy ccooll mmaann...

look out radio, the new iPod monster is in town...

(somebody tell the author NPR doesnt care about ratings; this is free public radio)

Perhaps the reason why everybody is ignoring NPR now is because the neo-cons have adjusted the spin cycle and removed 'public oversight' and 'eliminated liberal talk' and replaced it with 'news that lacks leftist thought' or shall I warn 'contains facist bullying attacking the left' at the expense of the public'. Up you heard it right, Bill Moyers is out and now the neo-facist pigs are feeding our children HATE radio...

No wonder the iPod is saving them with PODCASTS of TRUTH (yes from both sides of the sewer...) Who wants to be force fed BS when you can serve up your own krap on demand...ha

> as the portable device generated a culture of listeners who dictate their own musical selections.

People could "dictate" their listening choice before the iPod came along. Heard of Sony's Walkman. They can also just change the station. So WBEZ, please take responsibility for your own demise.

WBEZ has been tanking in the last few years. But like I (and other people) have been saying Chicago radio has been c*** now for the last.... i dont know 10 years? either way ipod is just an excuse becasue people can not program a station. Some of the stations in the Des Moines metro area and Quad City area are a lot better than chicago radio.

I don't know what Chicago radio is like, but if it's anything like New York's I'm not surprised. Personally I have stopped listening to the radio altogether in favor of podcasts, and to a lesser extent the music I have on my iPod.

Although in Chicago you can still hear The Dr. Demento Show, so that's a plus. Dr. D hasn't been on in NYC since about 1985.

albert, you don't make sense.

NPR does care about ratings. Those quarterly pledge drives not only reign in money to fund the station, the individual shows that spend a portion of their airtime to the pledge drive use the call traffic to help gauge the size of their listening audience.

People seem to think that WBEZ is dying. They're not. But they're realizing that their jazz audience is no longer as big as it used to be. And with this dearth in local news coverage, they think they can get a larger audience by switching to all talk/news.

I don't completely agree with the move, but that's how I understand the situation.

Funny that the article ignores one of the other public radio stations in the Chicagoland area (there are at least three). 90.9 FM, just down the dial, is broadcast from the College of DuPage and the city of Chicago is well within range of their signal. They play jazz 24 hours a day (except on weekends where they sprinkle in shows dedicated to other genres of music).

If you wanted to keep apace with THEM you should be playing spanish music, not jazz; the illegal alien market is much sought after, to hear some people tell it...

WBEZ is going to all-news? Awesome; there's nothing quite as innovative as listening to broadcast after broadcast of wrong-headed dimwits blaming Bush for everything while hailing Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro as the salt of the earth. Throw in the ocasional "Prairie Ho' Companion" and the picture is complete.

NPR is a sinking ship. Kiss it goodbye...

Things change.....NPR being a liberal mouth piece. Blame the competition (apple ipod) why not look inward to see what they could of done to improve their programming. NPR has become a dinosaur.