KPCC's Madeleine Brand Debacle Makes Me Conflicted About Renewing My Membership

 

I've been a KPCC member for over 15 years, but I may not renew my membership after their debacle which resulted in the end of Madeleine Brand and Pat Morrison's programs. And those excellent shows were replaced with the bland Take Two, BBC and The World (which airs an hour earlier on KCRW and is therefore redundant).

Madeleine Brand had KPCC's number one show and it was my favorite. She brought on the funny Luke Burbank with his Awesome/Not Awesome segment. Her disappearance and the circumstances surrounding it, chroniced in this LA Weekly article, leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

The people working on Take Two are good, competent people, but they can't light a candle to Madeleine Brand. 

My bitterness over Brand's decision to leave KPCC is made worse by KPCC's phony damage control show in which GM Russ Stanton tried to put a happy face on Madeleine Brand's replacement, the often generic Take Two. I heard the damage control show in late September, aired on Larry Mantle, and it struck me as phony and dishonest. Stanton's explanations struck me as creamy and unctuous.

Too bad, because I still like a lot of KPCC's principals, Larry Mantle and others.

I don't know what to do about renewing my membership. For now, I'm inclined NOT to renew. 

As far as Take Two goes, I will not listen to it. It's Jim Rome or KCRW music for now. 

Comments

[Angelo]

Jeff: Honestly, you're too smart to be struggling with this decision. It seems to be a no brainer. The only way you will send a REAL message to them is to not be a member----at least for a year (if not longer). If there's no consequence to this action, it will only embolden them to behave this way in the future. The only real leverage you (and other members) have is to deny them your membership. If enough fans of hers do this---at the very least, it will send a strong message that an error was made that isn't acceptable to you. To continue patronizing them only condones what they did.

[StarHalo]

Sorry to hear that, but after living here on the left coast for a decade, I can only come to the conclusion that West Coast talk radio is a sinking ship. I used to be able to listen to my radio all evening, actually make use of some of the digital memories, and have a good time; some of those talk stations don't even exist anymore. Now it's the TuneIn radio app to listen to the East Coast, the Northwest, wherever they still actually seem to want to be entertained by the radio..

[herculodge]

I told my wife today that I will not be renewing my membership for an indefinite period. Still have a bad taste in my mouth.

[Tom Welch]

I agree with Angelo1