The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a listener-supported public radio station."For the past year, as part of an effort to broaden our supporter base, our Folk on the Air program has allocated less time to traditional American folk m

In a move to widen the supporter base, the radio station has allocated more time to Latino and world music at the expense of traditional American folk music for the past year. In response to this move, many long term supporters of the station have indited complains against the move. Moreover, the move was criticized by the local newspaper in an editorial. The author's idea of broadening the listeners of the station by allocating less time to American folk and more to Latino music and world music is incoherent. Changes made in the programming be made in compliance with the opinion of the listeners as they are the targets. However, it is unclear if any survey was taken prior to this move in order to find out about people's interests. It is quite natural for long term listeners to complain about the move as they naturally preffered the old program. Likewise, the author has not elaborated on the newspaper, which makes it unclear to comprehend what were they critical about.

The manager believes that the current emphasis on Latino music should be discontinued in order to forestall loss of additional listener supporters, by reverting back to the former mode. By doing this, the station would lose its current listeners that it would have mustered by the new move. Based on the letters of long term listeners and the recent article that appeared in the paper, it would be unwise to make a sudden change, as the station would be repeating the same mistake as the one it did a year ago. It is rather advisable to take people's opinion on the current program before makes any changes. If the survey reports are favorable to the new move, then is wouldn't require a change at all.

By allocating more time to the American folk, it could lose its current listeners, hence a conclusive decision has to be made after doing some research in order to be sure about the target audience. Moreover, suggestions can be taken from them in order to avoid further complains.