Longtime WNYC Hosts Leonard Lopate, Jonathan Schwartz Placed On Leave

Well at least the Times decided to keep Glen Thrush.

I read that article and it does not sound like anything Lenny Lopate said was worth firing him over.  I can see why he is mad about it.  Everyone says stupid things at work sometimes.  Scary to think we might be fired at any moment for those comments.  Oppressive. 

nan said:

I read that article and it does not sound like anything Lenny Lopate said was worth firing him over.  I can see why he is mad about it.  Everyone says stupid things at work sometimes.  Scary to think we might be fired at any moment for those comments.  Oppressive. 

I would imagine it depends on how pervasive the comments were. I read the article and it sounds like this was not a one-off thing.

He also basically got a warning in February which included one-on-one anti-harassment training. That doesn't sound like getting fired at any moment for a comment.

I'm disappointed... I've listened to him for years and for the most part really have enjoyed his work. 

Good news: Schwartz is gone! Yay! Everyone on MOL knows how much I hated him and his crap shows. Not only was he an awful DJ but he was a harasser and assaulter of women as well. Good riddance. 

Bad news: the Great American Songbook (or "GAS" - snore) will continue to attract ancient, boring, middle-of-road listeners (and yes, contributors). There's a huge world of new pop music that should be programmed  to attract a younger and hipper audience. The GAS audience will be dead soon and then how will public radio survive?  Who will they have to pander to? 

The_Soulful_Mr_T said:

Good news: Schwartz is gone! Yay! Everyone on MOL knows how much I hated him and his crap shows. Not only was he an awful DJ but he was a harasser and assaulter of women as well. Good riddance. 

Bad news: the Great American Songbook (or "GAS" - snore) will continue to attract ancient, boring, middle-of-road listeners (and yes, contributors). There's a huge world of new pop music that should be programmed  to attract a younger and hipper audience. The GAS audience will be dead soon and then how will public radio survive?  Who will they have to pander to? 

If only there was some way a younger and hipper audience could listen to the new world of pop music.

I was once either younger or hipper — I can’t remember which — but that didn’t keep me from catching up to the greatness of the Great American Songbook eventually.

DaveSchmidt said:

I was once either younger or hipper — I can’t remember which — but that didn’t keep me from catching up to the greatness of the Great American Songbook eventually.

There are plenty who would love the opportunity to have a show like his, but better.

I don't know his name, but the guy who hosted the show last week was pretty good - at any rate, he was playing music that, while unfamiliar to me, was still very interesting. Somehow Schwarz managed to play music that I often found very boring.

ridski said:

DaveSchmidt said:

I was once either younger or hipper — I can’t remember which — but that didn’t keep me from catching up to the greatness of the Great American Songbook eventually.

There are plenty who would love the opportunity to have a show like his, but better.

drummerboy you actually heard him play music?  Seriously I swear whenever I would turn on his program it ended up being his hour of nothing but Sinatra. 

To T's point both Schwartz and Lopate have an appeal that certainly skews to an older demographic. Which I guess I'm getting to be part of. But I'm sure that lots of donors fall into that group as well and WNYC needs those folks to stay alive. I think for sure the firing of Lopate will have financial repercussions for the station since he's been a fixture for so long.

In their email they talk about continuing to produce a 2 hour midday program with revolving hosts. I hope they eventually settle on someone (or a duo) as a regular host for that slot. Lopate will be hard to replace.... he was a fixture and knew tons of people in the arts in NYC. Time to let someone new start developing that way.

As far as Schwartz and the American Song Book I think a new host has an opportunity to evolve and reinvigorate that program without alienating its current core audience. You don't have to dump all the Berlin and Sinatra and Pizzarelli to make room for some newer voices and composers in the genre.

mrincredible said:

As far as Schwartz and the American Song Book I think a new host has an opportunity to evolve and reinvigorate that program without alienating its current core audience. You don't have to dump all the Berlin and Sinatra and Pizzarelli to make room for some newer voices and composers in the genre.

Not to mention there's already more, you know, music per hour now.

I must have picked a good hour, but there was no Sinatra when I listened.

mrincredible said:

drummerboy you actually heard him play music?  Seriously I swear whenever I would turn on his program it ended up being his hour of nothing but Sinatra. 

drummerboy said:

I must have picked a good hour, but there was no Sinatra when I listened.

mrincredible said:

drummerboy you actually heard him play music?  Seriously I swear whenever I would turn on his program it ended up being his hour of nothing but Sinatra. 

I take it that Mr. I was referring to Schwartz. The host you mentioned hearing was (and is, at least for the interim) Paul Cavalconte.

oh

DaveSchmidt said:

drummerboy said:

I must have picked a good hour, but there was no Sinatra when I listened.

mrincredible said:

drummerboy you actually heard him play music?  Seriously I swear whenever I would turn on his program it ended up being his hour of nothing but Sinatra. 

I take it that Mr. I was referring to Schwartz. The host you mentioned hearing was (and is, at least for the interim) Paul Cavalconte.

Yes I was talking about listening to Jonathan Schwartz.

I think I'm letting myself get sidetracked from the main point here though. Two established and influential men have lost their positions because of behavior toward female colleagues. It's a sign of a cultural shift that will hopefully stick. 

In this case it sounds like each man was given due process, although not a very transparent one from our perspective. On the one hand, it seems like it might be more fair to investigate these situations more thoroughly before public revalations are made. But it seems without the intense public scrutiny that has been happening in the last couple of months, these investigations may not actually get off the ground in the first place.

Listened to a WNYC show via Sirius yesterday and Lopate was heard on a voice over for their annual giving and donation campaign. So they like his voice but not his behavior.