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WRNI — some of the rest of the story
BY IAN DONNIS
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The recently reported cuts at WRNI (1290 AM) pose the question of whether Rhode Island’s public radio station will be able to function as little more than a repeater for its parent, Boston-based WBUR. The most serious blow is the cancellation of Focus: Rhode Island, the one-hour weekly newsmagazine that succeeded One Union Station, with its larger amount of daily programming, in early 2002. Although WBUR spokeswoman Mary Stohn initially told the Phoenix last week that Focus: Rhode Island was continuing (" ‘Streamlining’ sparks cuts at WRNI," This just in), she later indicated that the show, because of limited resources, is being canceled. "It was a misunderstanding on my part," Stohn said in explaining the disparity between her first and second account. Two of four full-time news positions at WRNI are also being eliminated, and those staffers assigned to WBUR. Meanwhile, the matter of how four-year-old WRNI has been reduced to a skeletal operation — after attracting millions of dollars in public support with a pledge of robust local programming — is a story for another day.
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