UMass-Lowell gets Lydon back on the air
Four years after his bitter departure from WBUR, Christopher Lydon is coming back to the airwaves because of an extensive arrangement with the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
Lydon, the former host of ''The Connection" on WBUR-FM (90.9), will launch a new hourlong program called ''Open Source." It is slated to air on WGBH-FM (89.7) and the UMass-Lowell station, WUML-FM (91.5), Mondays through Thursdays from 7 to 8 p.m., the university's office of media relations announced yesterday.
The program, which Lydon said he hopes to begin by early June, will be one component of Lydon's relationship with the university. He will also help develop a new communications major and work with student programming.
''Open Source," which will be marketed and distributed nationally by Public Radio International, will be similar to ''The Connection," with an hourlong talk format featuring guests and discussions on specific topics, Lydon said during a phone interview from the Lowell campus. He will also draw on his experience hosting a website and webcasting from his Internet site christopherlydon.org.
''My vision is that we will have an open forum," said Lydon. ''There will be a ten-day to two-week cycle of conversation, argument, and preparation before a broadcast and . . . after a broadcast . . . a distilled list of links about what we were talking about."
He compared the show to ''a lot of blog comment boards, but there's a live radio show in the middle."
''Open Source" is a production of Lydon's Open Source Media Inc. The show will initially be produced using WGBH's facilities while UMass-Lowell upgrades its studios. During construction, expected to be completed in 2006, the university will be credited as a partner and will retain the underwriting rights. Following the upgrade, the show will be produced on the Lowell campus.
Lydon, the original host of ''The Connection," split with WBUR in 2001 over issues surrounding ownership of the program.
The announcement also laid out a larger relationship between Lydon and the UMass-Lowell. In addition to hosting ''Open Source," Lydon will host a show in the fall to be produced and engineered by students. He will also work with the school to design a new communications major and contribute to the student-run station's programming, staff training, and recruitment.
''Communication skills are the core of the new citizenship," said Lydon, noting the importance of the new major.
The involvement of Lydon in a student-produced show may be seen as a response to recent campus unrest. So, too, might the announcement by the university that no student activity fees -- traditionally used to run the station -- would be used for ''Open Source." The program will instead be funded by reorganizing university budgets and by obtaining separate underwriters.
In 2003, students protested the launch of the professionally run ''Sunrise" programming every weekday morning from 6 to 10. They recently revived their protests to voice disapproval of the further encroachment on student programming time by the proposed Lydon show and by Lowell Spinners baseball games, which will be broadcast beginning in June.
Louis DiNatale, executive director of public affairs for UMass-Lowell, denied that student protests had any impact on Lydon's deal.
''The university is proud of its student-managed station," he said. ''We're adding public affairs broadcasting and there was never any intention to deny them the resources that they already have."
