Change at WOI Radio has been made in an effort to preserve the future of the radio station. For years WOI had been known as a staple of classical music and intelligent talk, according to William McGinley, the station’s general manager. Over the summer, the station came under criticism when it began incorporating jazz into the programming format, about seven hours a week. “Initially, there was a burst of criticism,” said Dave Becker, Programming Director at WOI. “Some people believed the station was being compromised.” After that wave subsided, both McGinley and Becker received e-mails, letters and phone calls from listeners who applauded the move. National Public Radio has seen tremendous growth over the last few years. Last fall in San Francisco, a classical commercial station tied for first place among the 60-odd music stations as the one listened to the most in the Bay Area. The success hasn’t transferred over to central Iowa. Listenership is on a slow decline. “WOI’s audience has grown static,” Becker said. “It has not experienced any audience growth in the last decade. In fact, it hasn’t grown in the last quarter century.” Adding to this problem, the core group of listeners is growing older. Ten years ago, the core group was 35 to 40 years old. Now these listeners are in their mid-40s to early 50s. When the 8 p.m. syndicated classical concerts program began to fail significantly, jazz was the station’s solution. Monday through Thursday, a listener can now find an hour of locally hosted jazz music starting at 8 p.m. And Friday night, jazz blares from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., with the first two hours hosted locally and the last two hosted nationally. Curt Snook is the lone disc jockey at WOI who has crossed over, hosting both jazz and classical music. Though he said that WOI will always be known as a classical station first, he believes there was an insufficient amount of jazz being played on the air. “Before, there was one or two hours a week of jazz,” Snook said. Snook hasn’t found his new duties to be too stressful, however. “I love what I do,” he said. While it is still too early to gauge the effect of classical music hours being reduced from 117 to 110 a week, Becker is hopeful. “Jazz dates back to the ’20s in Iowa. You have to be a virtuoso to both play and appreciate it,” Becker said. McGinley and Becker are hoping to reach a younger audience. They believe that if children are not exposed to jazz and classical music through their parents, these same children will not listen to this forum as adults. If this happens, two generations will simply keep scanning the air waves looking for something else to listen to, which would leave WOI vulnerable to being taken off the air. For the most part, WOI is still classically oriented, but Becker pleads for critics to look at the station as more inclusive. “Expect a benchmark of quality,” Becker said. “We want to be perceived as now offering the total package.”