Thursday, October 20, 2011

Latest NPR flap draws in WDAV

WDAV-FM is helping deal with the latest brouhaha involving National Public Radio and politics.

WDAV produces "World of Opera," a weekly program featuring performances recorded in theaters across the United States and Europe. Distributed by NPR, it airs on 61 U.S. stations. Lisa Simeone, a Maryland-based broadcaster who works for WDAV as a freelancer, is the host.

The Capitol Hill journal Roll Call reported Tuesday night that Simeone also acts as a spokesperson for October 2011, a group involved in anti-Wall Street demonstrations in Washington. NPR, which has been stung by disputes involving its radio personalities and their political views, put out word that it was looking into Simeone's actions. The blogosphere quickly picked up on the hot topic, as did Fox News.

Simeone was fired Wednesday as the host of another program: "Soundprint," a show that airs on some NPR stations but isn't produced by NPR. Meanwhile, WDAV general manager Scott Nolan went into discussions with NPR about "World of Opera."

Thursday afternoon, WDAV put out word on its blog, Classical Musings, that Simeone will stay put on "World of Opera":


As host of World of Opera, Lisa Simeone is an independent contractor of WDAV Classical Public Radio. Ms. Simeone’s activities outside of this job are not in violation of any of WDAV’s employee codes and have had no effect on her job performance at WDAV. Ms. Simeone remains the host of World of Opera.

The item added that the station is working with NPR to "find a solution to the issues surrounding 'World of Opera,' " and said it will publish any updates on its blog.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another delusional lieberal elitist for sure...educated in the wrong way for real America.

Anonymous said...

You're a reactionary, apparently conservative, who thinks the majority of people share your distorted viewpoint.