General Manager Ellcessor wants programming to reflect Detroit community

J. Mikel Ellcessor is known for taking a radio station, turning it around to reflect the residents it engages and making it more successful.

In his third month at the helm, the general manager of Detroit Public Radio WDET-FM (101.9) produced sweeping changes Feb. 23 to the station’s format.

“You see in a number of different places around the country public media re-evaluating its relationship with its service community,” Ellcessor said. “And I’m definitely not alone in this.”After two years without a permanent general manager at the station, due to former general manager Michael Coleman’s resignation, Ellcessor has taken over with a vision of further interaction with the community.

“You see people, principally inside public radio stations, looking out into the community and saying, ‘How do we serve them with programming that is more finely attuned, more customized to the specific interests and the needs of this area,’” Ellcessor said.

“The question is, how do you sound more like the city that you’re serving? How do you help the city to see themselves accurately reflected in their media? How do people that live in this area feel like they have public service media that’s really asking questions in the public service?”

The changes still kept intact “Morning Edition” from 5-8 a.m. Following is “The Takeaway,” from 8-10 a.m., which is a live, morning news and analysis program co-produced by Public Radio International and WNYC Radio in collaboration with the BBC World Service, The New York Times and WGBH Boston.

“It’s a very compelling, forward-leaning, new national programming,” Ellcessor said. “‘The Takeaway’ is going to give people a lot of ways to interact with their media.”

Some shows have just changed time slots, such as “Detroit Today,” which was previously heard weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon. It was pushed back in the daily schedule to make way for “On Point,” from 10-11 a.m., along with “Tell Me More,” which moves to 11 a.m. to noon, from its former time slot of 1 p.m.

“On Point” is hosted by award-winning journalist Tom Ashbrook, with the show hoping to engage Detroit listeners into the national conversation.

“Tell Me More” will be heard again from 7-8 p.m. The remainder of the weekday schedule still includes such popular WDET programs as: “Fresh Air,” NPR’s “All Things Considered,” “Marketplace,” “The Ed Love Program,” “The Evolution of Jazz” and “BBC News” from midnight to 5 a.m.

“These weave together with our local talk programming, which is a very wide portal for the city to come in and have access to the airwaves,” Ellcessor said.

But one of the more music-filled changes comes on the weekend, with the addition of “Ann Delisi’s Essential Music.” Delisi, a graduate of Wayne State and a former employee of WDET, has been around Detroit media for over 20 years.

“Couple all this with Ann Delisi holding down eight hours of programming on the weekend,” Ellcessor said. “And that we’re going to be embracing, supporting, nurturing, and shining a white-hot spotlight on artists that are living and working and trying to make their own way right here in the area.

“All of these things add up to what I think is, what I hope is, a really exciting vision of how Detroit and its media can have a new kind of a relationship and get excited about each other for a change.”