Psssssssssssttt…WUMB-fm hired a local program manager in November

Dr. Strangelove: Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, EH? 

Ambassador de Sadesky: It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises. 

No inference intended that "public" WUMB-fm is run as a Kubrickian war room, but why the need for secrecy?

According to his own Linked-In profile, Kim Grehn has been serving as the WUMB-fm “Local Program Manager” since November. 

Kim Grehn’s Experience

·         Local Program Manager

WUMB Radio

(Broadcast Media industry)

November 2010 — Present (2 months)

Responsible for managing and maintaining quality control of all aspects of the broadcast of local on-air programming and related material including staff, production and on-air promotions for WUMB Radio.

Visit My Blog:
http://ctmediamagr.blogspot.com/

NPR affiliate WUMB-fm, licensed to the the University of Massachusetts, Boston, has been operating without a program manager for over a year, since the departure of Brian Quinn, who had served in that capacity for over twenty years.   See Brian Quinn, WUMB program director, "laid off", dated November 9, 2009.


Mr. Grehn’s hiring was made public yesterday through the weekly online radio trade journal website "NorthEast Radio Watch".

*There's a new general manager at Boston's WBUR-FM (90.9), but Charlie Kravets is a familiar name in eastern MASSACHUSETTS broadcasting, where he spent the last two decades building New England Cable News from the ground up. Kravets was NECN's founding news director back in 1992, becoming the channel's president and general manager in 2008 before departing when Hearst sold its interest in NECN to Comcast. And he has deep ties to his WBUR predecessor: like Paul La Camera, Kravets has roots at WCVB (Channel 5), where he was the original producer of "Chronicle" and later assistant news director.

Kravets takes over the helm of WBUR on New Year's Day; La Camera will stick around as an ambassador for the station and as BU's administrator of public radio.

Meanwhile, WBUR has launched a new promotional campaign for the station; you can see one of the "UR BUR" TV spotshere, and you can read some pithy quotes from your friendly editor in a story about the ad campaign from Saturday's Boston Globe.

*Across town at WGBH (89.7), there's a new TV spinoff coming to radio. The Herald reports that January 8 will be the start date for a radio version of "America's Test Kitchen," which will air at 2 PM on Saturdays.

And completing the Boston public radio trifecta, there's a new program manager at WUMB-FM (91.9 Boston): Kim Grehn was VP of programming at Connecticut Public Radio until budget cuts eliminated that job last year.

Yet there has been absolutely no mention of this WUMB-fm management change in its own website, nor “Ripples” (formerly “Folk Ripples”, its monthly e-newsletter, nor has there been a posting for this position since Mr. Quinn’s departure two years ago.  WUMB’s jobs posting page reads

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Below are a listing of current employment opportunities with WUMB radio:

Sorry - there are no jobs currently available

Neither is there any mention in WUMB-fm’s secretive friends-only Facebook friend page or its public fan page (which is rather inactive, the last post being 11/24/10) nor in the WUMB-fm watchdog page “Fans of Folk Radio WUMB”, whose motto is “we listen to WUMB so you don’t have to.”

Nor in the form of a press release.  And speaking of the press, where is the Boston media?  Is this posting a Boston-area exclusive?

Filling a senior management position at a public entity should be public news, so why the secrecy?

Stay tuned for developments.