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DISCONNECTION UPDATE
It’s over — unless it isn’t

BY DAN KENNEDY

They’ve got dueling Web sites (www.TheConnection.org and www.ChristopherLydon.org), featuring dueling statements as to exactly what happened and why. Yet the departure of Christopher Lydon and his senior producer, Mary McGrath, from WBUR Radio (90.9 FM) still seems so inexplicable that you have to wonder whether it’s really, truly over.

Lydon, contacted on Wednesday, was guarded in his remarks, saying, “That’s exactly the riddle in my head. When is it over and why should it be over?” He declined to elaborate on that thought, though; and when asked about the possibility that he and McGrath could take their show to another radio station, he replied that there is “a lot of interest.” On Tuesday, Boston Globe columnist David Warsh passed on speculation by Northeast Radiowatch editor Scott Fybush that Lydon’s destination might be WNYC Radio in New York. Lydon responded, rather cryptically, that that guess “was not informed by me and was not off.”

As the Phoenix went to press, Lydon said he was drafting a public statement that would clarify his plans. It may have been posted on his Web site by the time you read this. “The spirit of the real Connection lives and thrives in exile, and we’ll be back on the air soon,” he says.

If Lydon is being a bit mysterious, you certainly don’t need a Ouija board to read the signals coming out of WBUR. A call placed to station general manager Jane Christo was returned by spokeswoman Mary Stohn, who explained that Christo has decided to stop talking about Lydon and McGrath’s departure. “Let me tell you definitively — the negotiations have ended,” Stohn says. Adds Bruce Gellerman, co-host of the station’s Here and Now program: “The people here have moved on.... His [Lydon’s] picture’s down off the wall, although I’ve noticed that their stuff is still at their desks.”

According to Stohn, WBUR has lined up a series of guest hosts for The Connection while it begins the process of selecting a permanent replacement; presumably the station will have no trouble finding candidates now that everyone knows Lydon was offered the chance to make as much as $330,000 per year. NPR veteran John McChesney will end his stint on March 14, and Judy Swallow, of the BBC, will helm the microphone through April 6. After that, guest hosts will include NPR legal-affairs reporter Nina Totenberg, Atlantic Monthly senior editor Jack Beatty, and NPR reporter Neal Conan.

Lydon left the airwaves in mid February, when, after eight months of contentious contract negotiations, the station placed him and McGrath on a two-week paid leave of absence. The Connection’s staff of five quit (Lydon says the crew has stayed together pending his and McGrath’s next move). The final break came last Thursday, with management refusing to go along with Lydon and McGrath’s insistence that they be given an ownership share of the show as it moves into more markets. (The Connection is now broadcast in about 75 cities, with a weekly listenership of 400,000 — 100,000 of them in Boston.)

It’s been an ugly break-up, marked by disputes over money and the revelation of nasty internal e-mails. Yet, logically, the Lydon-WBUR marriage still makes sense. As one of the country’s most dominant public stations, ’BUR is an ideal forum for Lydon, and Lydon’s brand of intelligent talk has been good for ’BUR. So could they get back together? Lydon has said repeatedly that he sees himself and McGrath as entrepreneurs who deserve ownership, which ’BUR seems unlikely to grant — ever.

But Mary Stohn left the door open slightly by noting that Lydon and McGrath have announced they’re forming their own company, L&M Productions. Would ’BUR ever buy a syndicated Christopher Lydon show? “We would certainly be amenable, just as we would be with any other production company,” Stohn says. “We expect to hear from them at some point.”

Issue Date: March 8 - 15, 2001






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