The Well-Tempered Ear

Wisconsin Public Radio needs timely online playlists and other fixes

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By Jacob Stockinger

March 8 was International Women’s Day.

To its credit, Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) celebrated the event all-day long by airing music composed and performed by women. 

The Ear heard some very memorable and noteworthy pieces that were new to him.

But when he went to the WPR website and looked for online listings to find out specifics about the composers, the pieces, the performers and the record labels, he found — nothing.

Today is March 15.

And one week later The Ear still finds nothing — no playlist for the March 8 broadcasts.

In fact, there are no online listings going back more than a month — to February 5.

You will find just a longstanding apology with a promise to fix it and some boilerplate warning about federal regulations that really have nothing to do with such a prolonged delay.

Take a look for yourself: https://www.wpr.org/classical-music-lists

That is disappointing and frustrating. Some might even say unacceptable.

The digital technology fixes that have been promised and, one assumes, already paid for can’t be THAT difficult to implement. WPR used to post the playlist information as soon as the piece started airing. (And, curiously, the non-WPR overnight service still offers that.)

Why not again? Technological updates are supposed to make things work better, not worse.

Fixing the playlist is especially important right now because WPR and its outstanding hosts have taken on the admirable mission of exploring music of women composers and performers; of composers and performers of color; and of neglected composers and works.

But without a playlist to consult, that mission remains unfinished. How else is the unfamiliar supposed to become more familiar?

That is not the only troubling thing at WPR.

The station did a superb job during the pandemic with home broadcasting.

But ever since then, there seems to be more dead air, miscues, interruptions and repeated programs than ever before. 

Yet you also hear many more promotions and pleas for public financial support in between quarterly membership drives than ever before.

WPR would be wise to attract and serve its supporters and listeners by focusing on completing the fixes, whether it requires hardware, software or staff training.

And correcting the disservice of not posting daily playlists online seems an excellent place to start. After all, The Ear was told that the problem of incompatible software “would be rectified soon.”

That was over a year ago.

And if it can’t be corrected?

Hope they kept the receipt.

Do you miss WPR’s daily online playlists?

Have you noticed other problems at WPR?

What about WPR would you like to praise? To criticize?

The Ear wants to hear.