Bob Edwards

An Open Letter written to the NPR Ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin

(To keep you up to date, Jay Kernis is the Vice President of Programming responsible for the changes.)

Jeffrey:

I'm not going to say anything you haven't heard 53,000 times about Bob Edwards. I just want my voice to be one of the 53,000. Bob Edwards has been an essential part of my morning for as long as I can remember. So much so, that even on the days I sleep in or stay home sick, I will often go to the website to hear ME around 11. The idea that someone would try to replace Bob in the name of "changing news environment" or "expanding coverage" is irretrievably stupid. I hope Jay Kernis enjoys the new job he gets serving fries at McDonalds in a couple of months. It will be better than he deserves.

At my local station WDET in Detroit, The pledge drive that began last Monday, March 29th is still going on. DET used to raise $600,000 to $700,000 in five or six days, sometimes less. Now it's Tuesday (8 days later) and they still have over $30,000 to go. On-air, the hosts are trying to attribute it to the economy, but it hasn't taken this long to finish a pledge drive in the last 3 years. There is only one change that wasn't there a year ago, and that is Bob's removal. I thought long and hard before I called in my pledge this year. You can guarantee I'll think even harder in the fall. In the end, the decision came because WDET has a lot going for it in original music programming and other fantastic local-interest content that would make it a great radio station without any National NPR programming at all. For Jay Kernis to pass this off onto local stations by saying that refusing to donate only punishes local stations is an incredible load of horse-puckey for one person to shovel. So Mr. Kernis and the NPR central management have *no* accountability at all? It all goes to the local stations? Very brave. In fact, I take back what I said earlier, I hope he gets fired from the McDonald's job too.

By the way, I think this will get far worse before it gets better. I would bet that many long-time Bob listeners don't even know about this yet. To make things perfectly clear, the voice of this listener suggests that Jay Kernis (and/or the entire programming department responsible for this change) is incredibly short-sighted in his programming decisions about Morning Edition, and should be held accountable for their mismanagement of the situation. I have enjoyed many of the recent changes, and find that Day to Day is quickly becoming one of my favorite programs. But you don't put bunny ears on the statue of David, you don't repaint '66 Mustang with Rustoleum, and you don't change the formula for Coca-Cola. Anyone who doesn't understand that is destined to become a marketing case-study, and I doubt the textbooks will be kinder to Mr. Kernis than I.

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Kevin T. Moss
Listener and Member, WDET

Notes:

NPR Home Site

NPR Ombudsman Open Letter to Bob Edwards
(Link likely to change to this soon)

NPR Morning Edition Damage Control Site

WDET Detroit Public Radio (101.9 FM on your radio dial)

You can contact Jeffrey Dvorkin yourself by emailing ombudsman@npr.org