Posted by Craig on October 02, 2009 at 21:53:00:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Some WQXR Hosts Staying After Change, More Music Per Hour posted by Brett Alan on October 01, 2009 at 22:38:17:
Actually, NPR has a grandfather clause about religious programming that WQXR could certainly claim if it wanted.
KBYU-FM in Provo Utah, which serves as Salt Lake City's Classical NPR station, is owned by Brigham Young University and runs Mormon religious programs. WQXR could continue running Friday evening services from a New York synagogue and still be an NPR affiliate. With the Constitution's Freedoms of Religion and Speech, I doubt NPR's ban on religious programming for its members could stand if challenged, anyway.
It's clear WNYC Management doesn't want to continue WQXR's religious programming, just as it doesn't want to hire most of WQXR's air staff. WNYC Management is using the NPR religious programming ban as an excuse.
Now maybe in this day and age, broadcasting a religious service in the middle of Friday afternoon drivetime programming, especially when sunset occurs early in fall and winter, makes no sense. But it's not because NPR bylaws prohibit religious programming for stations that have been doing it for decades.
I really hate when radio station management isn't truthful.
Craig
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