Disheartened about jazz

While I am glad to hear you are adding the BBC to your broadcast, as I drive to work at 2 am, I am disheartened to hear that the jazz I have come to know and love will not be on your flagship broadcast. Mama Jazz will be missed. I would at least encourage you to ensure promotion of the other HD stations to inspire more people to make the switch in their cars to an HD radio, as I will now consider.

Another concern of mine is the fate of the Tavis Smiley Show on Sundays, will this still be part of your programming? I consider his show and Michelle Martin's to be essential parts to understanding America as a whole. As people stay safe in their little bubbles, these shows help force issues of race, poverty, sexism and discrimination to the forefront for discussion, instead of leaving them invisible in the background because those subjects do not get ratings. This is a vital part of the responsibility duty-bound to public broadcasting, and one WMUB has always partaken. I hope this continues in all future realignments of the programming format. Thank you.

--Rob Lavezzi, via email

P.S. Please feel free to use my comments including my full name for Friday Feedback. I feel NPR and WMUB are vital parts of public discourse and information sharing and I want to support you any way I can. Thank you for your consideration.