• Home
• Who is Marc Steiner?
• Why was Marc Fired?
• Cancellation Matters
• Take Action
  • Email Executive Committee of the Board of Directors
  • Contact the WYPR Board of Directors
  • Contact the WYPR Community Advisory Board
  • Call and Write Underwriters
  • Call and Write WYPR
  • Attend the Community Advisory Board Meeting
  • Contact the CPB Ombudsman
  • An Appeal: Refuse to Appear on ANY WYPR Show
  • Join the "Refund" Drive
  • Write Letters to the Editor
  • Sign the Petition
  • Wear Your Protest
  • Support Marc Steiner on Facebook
• In The News
• Save WYPR Blog
• Links
  • Marc Steiner's Blog
  • Save the Steiner Show!

Cancellation Matters

Why is the cancellation of the Marc Steiner show important to you?

The abrupt cancellation of the Marc Steiner Show by the Board of Directors of WYPR shocked thousands of listeners all over the state of Maryland. Marc Steiner has been the voice of WYPR and led the major public fund-raising drive that rescued the station six years ago. His daily program anchored local programming on the station. Marc’s show became a kind of daily community forum, where listeners from all over the state knew that they would learn something important, hear something provocative, and be exposed to new ideas, important people, and innovative ways of thinking about the problems and challenges we face in this state. The loss of his show is a blow to the future of civic engagement in this state.

No other media forum in the state boasts the diversity of listeners and participants as Marc’s show. In a time when we are increasingly fractured by politics, race, class and region, we desperately need to preserve those few places where we can engage in civil, intelligent and important dialogue. Marc’s insistence that his guests grapple with the racial and class consequences of the policy positions they advanced made the Steiner show unique and a critically important site of dynamic and diverse discourse. In an era where talk show hosts earn their living through insult and extreme provocation, Marc’s guests knew they always would be treated with respect and dignity, whether they expressed conservative or liberal points of view.

That the show was cancelled so abruptly without consultation with the public raises troubling questions about the future of public radio in this region. It is why we say that the show’s cancellation is not just about Marc Steiner. It is about us, the public and the meaning of public radio and community participation. The Board acted not as stewards of the public trust but exercised power that we expect from owners of a corporation for profit who fires a disfavored employee. Indeed, Chief Executive Officer Tony Brandon and Board President Barbara Bozzuto completely fail to understand the purpose of public radio when they refer to themselves as “owners” in their press release, From their perspective, they saw no reason to consult with the Community Advisory Board or to dialogue with anyone outside of the Board. They must now accept why these actions have deeply damaged the credibility of the Board in the eyes of the public.

People should be disbelieving and skeptical when Chief Executive Officer Tony Brandon and Board President Barbara Bozzuto explain their rationale for canceling the show was because of falling ratings as a principal reason for canceling the Steiner show. Programming on public radio is usually not dependent on ratings. If it was, we should have seen more firings by now, considering that WYPR’s ratings dropped 17% since 2005, roughly the same as Marc’s during the same period. The Board’s press release made no mention of CEO and former president Brandon’s six-year running battle to oust Marc because they had sharp philosophical differences over the meaning of public radio. As the owner of forty-five radio stations nationally and a major partner in oil, gas and real estate investment ventures, Brandon wanted control and more corporate underwriting to increase the station’s value and profitability. Marc saw the public as owning the airwaves on which WYPR is heard.

Nor does CEO and Board member Tony Brandon’s insistence that the station must move in “a new direction,” one less focused on Baltimore, stand up to close scrutiny. Marc’s show was not just about Baltimore. He frequently aired programs featuring statewide elected representatives like the former and present Governor, county executives from throughout the state, Congressmen Wayne Gilchrist, Dutch Ruppersberger, Roscoe Bartlett and Chris Van Hollen and  and state senators and delegates from Allegany, Anne Arundel, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Garrett, Kent, Montgomery,  Prince George's, Queen Anne's, St. Mary's,  Somerset,  Washington, Wicomico, and Worcester countries with the past two years alone. He often had important state figures such as the state Attorney General, the State Superintendent of Education, and the Comptroller of Maryland.  He broadcast from around the State and held community forums in Annapolis and Western Maryland.  His show often focused on issues and events that held extreme statewide importance, such as the health of the Chesapeake Bay, rising energy prices, education, transportation, and the impact of the Base Realignment and Closure that will bring 40,000 new people to Maryland.  More often than not, the subject of the Steiner show was national and international in scope, with authors, experts, and activists from all over the country appearing as guests.

Of course, there is no question but that Marc Steiner is the voice of Baltimore. He unashamedly and proudly wears his Baltimore roots and his love for this great city on his sleeve. But Marc’s deep commitment to Baltimore was not a liability to the station. Instead Marc’s grounding in Baltimore was a key part of his credibility with listeners. The public knew that Marc was not merely a disinterested host. The lives of real people, and the future of a city and a state he loves were always at stake in every interview. Marc used his experience in Baltimore, his knowledge of the peculiar realities of this town to push his guests to ground their abstract policy positions into pragmatic solutions for real local problems. This “local perspective” deepened the listener’s understanding of the complex social, legal and political problems we face. In the best spirit of public radio, Marc gave average, local people a space where their voices were respected. Local public radio should promote, not dilute the power and importance of local voices to helping us understand the complexities of the problems faced by our communities.

Those of us who are outraged by the cancellation of The Marc Steiner show hail from all over the state. We are young and old, black and white, working class and upper class, Democrats and Republicans, Independents and Libertarians, students, teachers and activists, businesspeople and volunteers. Despite our differences, we stand firm in the belief that public radio is a sacred public treasure. It must be guarded and protected. WYPR must be returned to the public.