WHY DOES KBYU-FM REDUCE FREQUENCY OF BBC NEWS ON WEEKENDS?

About the only "public" radio station carrying BBC news during the day on Saturdays and Sundays is KBYU-FM, owned and operated by Brigham Young University. So if you want to hear BBC News on the radio, you will need to tune in to KBYU.

But there's a problem. KBYU airs BBC News only four times a day on the weekends. That means if you don't tune in either at 6 AM, 7 AM, 5 PM or 11 PM, you are out of luck for BBC News.

Why only four times on Saturdays and Sundays? Does the management at KBYU, specifically Marcus Smith or Eric Glissmeyer, think that weekends are periods of little or no news, thus their listeners won't be deprived of learning about important world events which just don't happen on Saturdays and Sundays?

News, important news, occurs at random on any day of the week, including Saturdays and Sundays. By its parsimonious policy in limiting BBC News to a mere four times on Saturdays and Sundays, KBYU deprive its listeners and the Utah public of an important and reliable news source in the BBC. This is bad public policy.

Today, Sunday, for example, both chambers of the U.S. Congress are attempting to fashion a compromise on the U.S. debt ceiling, a move that could have profound effects on debt and equity markets throughout the world.

Yet no matter how important or momentous the world events, KBYU reduces the frequency of its BBC News to only four times a day. This ill serves the listening public in Utah, notwithstanding that KBYU likes to call itself "public," especially during its frequent fund drives.