You reached a new low

I'm not a huge fan of your 7-8 pm lineup. "Free Advice" seems like free advertising for your guests, and I can look things up on the internet all by myself, thank you. "Help Desk" is a bunch of geeks whose every other word seems to be "uh" trading in-jokes and techo-babble. And Cheri Lawson really needs to work on developing an "inside voice" -- she always sounds like a kindergarten teacher talking to a large and distracted group of children.

But you reached a new low [the week of January 14th]. From the one hour commercial for plastic surgery on "Sound [Health]" (one of the few programs in this time slot that I usually find bearable) to not one, but TWO corporate shills on "Friday Forum" trying to convince listeners that customer service is still important to huge, faceless corporations, I was amazed at your blatant pro-business pandering. Couldn't you at least try to pretend that you care about the little guy and aren't just determined to be as business-friendly as possible? A little discourse on the downside of plastic surgery and whether or not that's an appropriate response to cultural and societal pressures to look good and never age (in the former instance), or having a representative on from a consumer or privacy advocate (in the latter) would have been balanced, appropriate and welcome.

I realize that business and corporate support are very important to your station, but an obvious pro-business slant and constantly insulting the intelligence of your viewers are not what I expect from public radio.

--Name withheld by request, Richmond