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Author Topic: Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer  (Read 3883 times)

DoItRockapella

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Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer
« on: March 13, 2016, 02:30:51 PM »
http://current.org/2016/03/whadya-know-to-end-production-after-31-years/

I can't say I saw this coming, but if it really is down to that few stations it's understandable. By the time I myself discovered this show, it wasn't on the radio in my area either, leaving me to listen via podcast.

Any other Michael Feldman fans here?

jage

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Re: Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2016, 02:34:10 PM »
It was an enjoyable show, but sometimes dragged on as a two hour format. I always thought it'd better as an hour show. Still, 31 years is a very good run, and it's one of the first comedy shows I remember from public radio.

Thunder

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Re: Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2016, 03:13:46 PM »
It always seemed to have horrible timing issue, and I'm sure that's because it was a live show. Then it started just not being as funny and entertaining as it used to be.

Edited to add: After reading the article, it seems that this wasn't Michael Feldman's decision.

DoItRockapella

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Re: Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2016, 03:30:05 PM »
After reading the article, it seems that this wasn't Michael Feldman's decision.

I probably should have clarified that - it was not Michael Feldman's decision, and the below link (to a post by him on the show's Facebook page) should give you some idea of his feelings about it.


TimK2003

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Re: Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2016, 01:13:35 PM »
It was an enjoyable show, but sometimes dragged on as a two hour format. I always thought it'd better as an hour show. Still, 31 years is a very good run, and it's one of the first comedy shows I remember from public radio.

There were some stations which would only air one hour of the show (not sure if said stations could only air Hour 1, Hour 2, or if they could choose).

Used to listen all of the time, but now I live in a non-WYK area.  Instead, I get "Wait Wait..." which is a faster-paced 1-hour show.  As much as I prefer all the hi-jinks that could happen on a live show like WYK over a pre-taped, tightly-edited show like WWDTM, I still found the latter to be more entertaining over the years.

Matt Ottinger

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Re: Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2016, 05:56:46 PM »
To the degree that I paid much attention to WYK at all (which honestly wasn't much), I guess I just always assumed that Feldman was the controlling producer as well as the host, much like Garrison Keillor.  That it was, in every important sense, "his" show.  From the tone of his Facebook message, that appears not to be the case. 

At some point, the show that I've been hosting for just about as long, and which is also controlled by other people, will eventually end, and almost certainly that decision will be made by someone other than me.  While there will certainly not be nearly the hue and cry that this has generated, I hope I handle the public part of my sudden joblessness better than he seems to be doing.

And yes, every time I did listen, it sounded for the world like a two-hour raw feed of a program that everybody knew was going to be edited into an hour.
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Clay Zambo

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Re: Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2016, 08:43:39 AM »
There were some stations which would only air one hour of the show (not sure if said stations could only air Hour 1, Hour 2, or if they could choose).

Unless I'm very much mistaken the one-hour version was an edit of the two-hour, not an either-or.
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mmb5

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Re: Public Radio's "Whad'ya Know?" To End Run This Summer
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2016, 07:53:59 PM »
For a while it was either or (Michigan Radio would drop out after an hour for a while) but then it became a one hour version.  Frankly, it had not been listenable since the late 90s.
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