WESA's flagship daily news show, the Confluence, has been dropped from the station's programming schedule amid a round of cuts and layoffs.
Longtime host Kevin Gavin made the announcement during the close of today's show.
"After a seven-year run, WESA will end production of the Confluence next Friday, Aug. 4," Gavin said on air. "We hope you've enjoyed listening to the program and tune in next week for our final shows."
The news follows two WESA reporter buyouts, and, according to a company spokesperson, a digital content position will also be eliminated from the service's sister station, WYEP. The spokesperson did not specify what position will be cut but said the responsibilities will be "picked up by another member of our digital team."
A press release issued by parent company Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting Corporation states The Confluence's three full-time staff have each been offered severance agreements negotiated through a union bargaining process.
The nonprofit radio company has reportedly landed on lean times this year. In a letter sent to station members June 15, President and CEO Terry O'Reilly acknowledged pending staffing and programming cuts brought on by "challenging times in our industry."
The letter points to rising costs from utilities and NPR programming fees, and notes efforts to roll back spending had already been in place prior to staff cuts, including freezing "all non-essential spending and hiring months ago, eliminating a senior management position, and cutting travel and other discretionary expenses."
PCBC's most recent financial report shows the company had around $2.3 million in liquid cash last September. During the 2022 fiscal year it passed a roughly $7 million dollar budget, with nearly $2.8 million earmarked for salaries and payroll expenses. Of that, nearly $800,000 was allotted to O'Reilly and the three next highest-earning managers.
Asked whether the company was considering executive pay cuts, O'Reilly tells Pittsburgh City Paper he is unable to comment while bargaining discussions continue.
"We are engaged in a process of good faith bargaining with SAG-AFTRA and have agreed with them that the specifics of our discussions will be kept confidential," O'Reilly wrote in an email statement.
Last fall, 26 workers across WESA and WYEP voted to unionize under national labor group SAG-AFTRA. When pronouncing their victory, radio workers talked as much about having a seat at the table as pushing for better contracts.
Union members and their local and national representatives did not respond to multiple inquiries made for this story.
In a short statement released after O'Reilly's June 16 letter, the union underscored their faith in the bargaining process.
"While the loss of any of our colleagues to buyouts is disappointing, we are working to help the Company get back on the right financial foot and preserve the jobs of those who produce the content that listeners know and love," the statement reads.
Some present and former WESA staff say The Confluence was chronically under-resourced and the small production team never had the support it needed for the show to flourish.
“God bless Kevin Gavin, that man worked so hard," Nancy Wood, WESA's former director of development, tells City Paper.
Wood said Gavin — who has been with the station and its predecessor for more than 45 years — would regularly work 12- or 14- hour days, along with the rest of his team.
Another former WESA employee who requested anonymity to share their comments reiterated a sense that the program was insufficiently supported.“The show was understaffed and under-resourced from the start," the former employee said. "The staff worked really hard to put together a quality show every day but there was a lot more potential there that was never realized.”
The Confluence was created in 2016 as a weekly show and became a daily program two years later.
In response to accusations the show was insufficiently supported, O'Reilly tells CP, "We are proud of the journalism that the Confluence Team produced, and of the awards and recognition that the program received during its run on WESA.”
A press release issued today about the show's closure points to the company's financial circumstances as the source of the programming cuts.
“The decision to end production of The Confluence was prompted by the financial challenges that we shared with our members several months ago – the same challenges being faced by other public radio stations across the country,“ Mike Sauter, vice president of broadcasting for Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting, said in a press release. “While The Confluence is ending, WESA will continue to integrate great interviews and roundtable discussions about issues important to our region, as they will be integrated into the station’s other daily programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered."
