Q is gone, Fresh Air survives

Former rock singer Jian Ghomeshi was fired by Q producer CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) in October when former lady friends claimed he got violent with them during sex.

San Diego’s top-rated public radio station initially said it was standing behind the one-hour pop-culture show it carried at 8 p.m. weekdays. But this week’s programming shakeup at KPBS (89.5 FM) included the dropping of the program.

Ghomeshi denies the claims. He awaits trial on seven counts of sexual assault against six women.

Q originates in Toronto and is distributed by the CBC to KPBS and 160 other National Public Radio stations. Q segments include interviews with authors, athletes, actors, and musicians. The suave and plugged-in Ghomeshi was lauded as “the cool guy on an otherwise stodgy network [CBC].”

“Jian was the show,” says KPBS director of programming John Decker, noting that he is unaware of any other NPR station to have dropped Q. “We are in no way condoning what he did, of course, but to be honest, when he left the show it just wasn't that good anymore.”

Decker says that the Q replacement hosts were a “disappointment, quality-wise,” and the local ratings for Q took a post-Ghomeshi dive. “I counted on Q to continue to improve after he left but it actually got worse.” He says Q fans can still access the show via internet podcast.

Q and Fresh Air with Terry Gross were the only KPBS weekday shows to focus on the arts. Now that Q is gone, Fresh Air is KPBS radio’s only nod to the arts. This week Decker moved Fresh Air from its longtime 1–2 p.m. slot to the less-desirable 8–9 p.m. slot previously occupied by Q. It is thought that few interviewers are better than Gross.

Still, Decker says that Fresh Air was given the less-prominent slot because it has lately been dropping in listenership, showing “less and less interest,” according to ratings.

Decker says KPBS pays $40,000 a year to carry Fresh Air, which originates in Philadelphia. Decker says he would consider replacing Q with another syndicated culture-based show, “But there’s just not a lot quality shows out there. We aren’t going to put on an arts-and-culture just to fill a void. We will not air a crappy show.”