What happened to Tavis Smiley's NPR show? We liked it and my guess is it was very popular in Atlanta. The NPR site has a Press Release expressing regret. The Washington Post details a falling out:
NPR executives say Smiley simply would not negotiate after an agent delivered his demands. "We tried to meet, we tried to talk by phone," says Washington lawyer Robert Barnett, who represented NPR. "We were woefully unsuccessful. . . . " Says Smiley: "What NPR is apparently upset about is not that I would not negotiate, but that I wouldn't acquiesce. I do not do my best work in chains and shackles. For black kids and brown kids yet unborn, I felt I had to say no. They were being disrespectful."
NPR documents the agent's "$3 million demand for promotion" that it was unable to meet. The show started three years ago on 16 stations and was reaching a multiethnic, upscale and educated audience on more than 80 when Smiley exited in December. His replacement, "News & Notes," is also a partnership between NPR and the African-American Public Radio Consortium.
