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Wednesday, October 13, 2004
WBUR NAMES INTERIM GM. Two days before
WBUR Radio general manager Jane Christo officially leaves, Boston
University has announced that Peter Fiedler - the son of the late
Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler - will replace her on an interim
basis. The text of the announcement is as follows:
BOSTON - Boston University today
announced that Peter Fiedler will be the interim general manager
of WBUR-FM. Fiedler met with station managers today and will begin
work immediately.
"Sitting down with staff members will be
my top priority," said Fiedler, who will oversee the day-to-day
operations of the station during the search for a permanent
general manager. "I want to hear from employees at all levels of
the operation as we work on strengthening one of the top public
radio stations in the country."
Fiedler began his 25-year media career in
television production at WCVB-TV, the ABC affiliate in Boston,
where he held a variety of positions including unit manager and
field producer/director. He provided creative production and
direction to an interactive video startup in 1984. He then became
Vice President and General Manager for Target Productions and then
served as Director of Operations for Channel 68 in Boston. Fiedler
currently oversees sports broadcasting, media services,
publications and the classroom upgrade technology program as an
assistant vice president at Boston University.
Fiedler, who lives with his wife and three
children in Boxford, is the son of legendary Boston Pops Conductor
Arthur Fiedler and remains actively involved in the annual 4th of
July concert on the Esplanade.
The two most significant pieces of news here,
I think, are that (1) Fiedler was named so quickly (in an interview
with the Phoenix this week, for an item that will be published
tomorrow, BU spokeswoman Nancy Sterling suggested the interim GM
might not be named until next week); and (2) Christo will be replaced
not by one of her own underlings, but rather by someone with
significant broadcast experience who's now in an executive position
at BU.
The Channel 68 background is interesting as
well. During the 1990s, BU acquired the station and attempted to turn
it into a news-and-public-affairs channel. You might say the
university tried to emulate what Christo had accomplished at WBUR and
failed (the station is now owned by the family-friendly PAX chain),
although that would be unfair, since Channel 68 had nothing like
National Public Radio to rely on for a good share of its
programming.
Among the folks who passed through Channel 68
were Charles
Adler, now a talk-shot host at CJOB
Radio, in Winnipeg, as well as two hosts who moved on to prominent
slots at WBUR: Ted
O'Brien (now at BU) and
Delores
Handy-Brown.
posted at 4:35 PM |
2 comments
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2 Comments:
Now WBUR's sniveling "middle managers", who were enslaved by Czarina Chriso, have to go. they can pick up their balls in a jar by the door as they leave. They are cowards. Had they any self-respect they would have warned Jane she was going too far. Too much spending, too many Albanians, too much fudging on fed contracts. Instead, these pathetic bumblers nodded up and down like a bunch of dickless bobbing heads.
Where did she find such detestable people? What is Jane, the school yard bully, going to do now without them? And what are they going to do without their bad mommy?
Mr. Fiedler has a long string of failed project behind him. I hope 'BUR isn't the next to go. The station appears to be making many changes that are more about its relationship to BU and less about quality programming. Some of these change might have been better implemented by someone who doesn't have Interim in his title.
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
