Give us 12 or 18 months, says executive producer Doug Berman. Then we’ll know what the public thinks of the news quiz Berman just brought to WBEZ. There are straws in the wind already, however–censure so sharp it could poke your eye out.
“The premiere of ‘Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me’ was the worst piece of radio I have ever heard, period.”
“I understand that WBEZ is in large part responsible for the costs of ‘Wait Wait Don’t Torture Me.’ I submit that paying anything for this amateurish drivel is an insult to your members exceeded only by having to actually listen to such stilted and awkward dross.”
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Malatia has no idea how many fans the show’s attracted, though he says pledges held up nicely from 10 to 11 AM during the latest fund drive. “I’d guess there are lots of people listening,” he surmises, “because it’s coming off a very popular program, Car Talk, and a lot of people are sampling.” According to Arbitron, some 370,000 people tune in WBEZ each week. At last report, about 54,500 of them listened to the final quarter hour of Car Talk, and about 45,100 to the first quarter hour of Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know? Of course, that was back in 1997, when Whad’Ya Know? still began at 10 AM (Wait, Wait’s spot now) and was broadcast live.
“If we really must have the show, put it in the 9:00 time slot now occupied by Car Talk (a show on tape already) and leave Michael Feldman’s show live.”
“I know you’re unhappy,” replied Malatia pleasantly. “But let’s rehearse this, and maybe move from the close-up to the bigger picture. There are, maybe, upwards of 30 regular posters in these last several web pages. All of them intelligent, devoted listeners with a point of view they have had an opportunity to clearly articulate. And that’s good and important, and we take it all with due weight. AND there are over two years of comments, letters, and use patterns of listeners tracked that led to the changes.”
Doug Berman had been thinking along those lines for a couple of years. When he persuaded NPR to produce the show outside the Beltway, Malatia volunteered Chicago. “So we’re giving it a shot,” Berman says. “I think it’s better every week.”
