Asks: A WAMC Arts Center, Why?

To: WAMC Northeast Pirate Network - 
Great detective work yet again.  Disgusting is the only word that comes to mind when reading of all this.  Now, here's a puzzle to solve: Why does WAMC develop an arts center? 

Considering that WAMC eliminated virtually all its arts programs over the last decade or more, why did it acquire a bank building and turn it into an arts center? 

WAMC has taken up the standard of NPR news/talk-all-the-time, so that there's nary a trace of anything remotely resembling arts programming.

I am not an expert in tax law, but considering that the station plays almost nothing from local organizations except for the Albany Symphony, I wonder whether there is a legal formula that allows WAMC to acquire additional real estate while avoiding property taxes, under the rubric 
of 'the arts'. 

I listened to one of those 'arts' offerings last week, and it was nothing more than a cooking program.  Most of these shows will likely air at times when the station has a small listenership, so 'Dr' Alan can wrap himself up in the mantle of arts patron while keeping such shows off of high-listening periods of the broadcast day. 

Someone I know who attended an event in the new building reported that the acoustics and sightlines are poor. 

Finally, WAMC has the most incomptent and deaf engineering staff of any local broadcaster -- their sound quality is horribly compressed and limited, and the long distance between Albany 
and Mount Greylock guarantees a noisy basic signal in stereo.

Keep up the great work, Pirates, and let's hope a tax lawyer will add some useful comments of arts centers being used as tax shelters.

DON DREWECKI  drewed@rpi.edu
Wednesday, March 06, 2002