Two weeks after National Public Radio dumped longtime “Morning Edition” host Bob Edwards, stirring quite a public relations mess for itself, we would be pleased to report that the donation-supported network has laid out a grand plan in which Edwards' demotion was but one chess move across a board of great ideas.
    We cannot.
    If there is a grand plan for bettering NPR, the network is not revealing it to its listeners.
  Further, and perhaps more troubling, NPR is not revealing it to its affiliates.
   Certainly, as first explained, Edward's ouster seemed to signal some new direction within the organization. 
  But what that may be is no clearer these weeks later, and some must now suspect that rather than a bold new direction for NPR, all crafted out, there is in its place but a vague notion of a need to change.
   All this leaves affiliates asking, Who are we, what are we? What the hell is going on?
   And they are asking these questions at precisely the time when they most need answers: Their pledge periods.
   While NPR may have the hefty $200 million donation from Ray Kroc’s widow to fall back on, the affiliates aren’t as lucky. They earn their money the hard way, by pitching viewers for smaller sums.
   “I don’t understand the thinking behind moving Edwards off the show, and many of my listeners don’t either,” says Gerry Weston, president of the Public Radio Partnership in Louisville, KY. 
  “We don’t have our final pledge numbers in yet, but I’m anticipating we’re going to take some kind of financial hit. Hopefully, not a big one.”
   Since the decision to replace the 56-year-old Edwards, NPR has been flooded with tens of thousands of angry calls and emails.
   The web site savebobedwards.com has gathered more than 15,000 digital signatures protesting NPR’s move.
  Editorial writers from coast to coast, ranging from the Hartford Courant to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have weighed in on the wisdom or lack thereof of the Edwards decision.
   Yesterday NPR's Jay Kernis got an earful from listeners during a live online web chat as he tried to explain Edwards' demotion. Kernis is the network's senior vice president for programming.
  Earlier, NPR explanations were couched in vague talk of a need for change.
   Could the answer be as simple as Edwards not wanting to share hosting duties with another anchor in a revamped “Morning Edition” format? 
  That was the explanation Kernis was offering yesterday.
   “We’re putting into place two hosts, and Bob has always indicated that he wanted to host alone,” Kernis said.
   Edwards had indeed said he'd have preferred to stay solo on “Morning Edition,” since it seemed to be working.
   But why did Kernis wait until the webcast to trot out this explanation?
   Why not come right out and tell it like it is when NPR pulled the plug on Edwards last month? 
   Are there in fact bigger changes coming, and might Edwards' ouster be part of them?
   Perhaps.
   “There’s been a big internal push at NPR since 9/11 to change the way the network covers breaking news, especially on the morning show,” says Mike Janssen, an associate editor at Current, an industry publication that focuses on public broadcasting.
   But that is an urge for change rather than a plan.
   The situation is eerily similar to how Maryland Public Television bungled its removal of Louis Rukeyser from “Wall $treet Week” in 2002. The show was a perennial winner for MPT, but at some point network executives decided a change was needed to attract younger viewers, Rukeyser being up in years and something of a cornball wit.
   Its replacement, “Wall $treet Week with Fortune,” is still struggling to regain the audience lost when Rukeyser got the boot. 
   Like the Edwards situation, there was no rational reason given to remove Rukeyser, especially given the success Rukeyser has enjoyed with his new show on CNBC, a show that is rebroadcast by many public TV stations.
   Edwards has hosted “Morning Edition” since it began in 1979. NPR says over the last five years the network’s overall audience has grown more than 60 percent. Listenership for “Morning Edition” alone is up over 40 percent during the same period. Some 13 million people a week tune in for a taste of Edwards on their radios.
   During Monday’s web chat and in a letter last week to “Morning Edition” listeners, Kernis tried to explain the Edwards move by saying it was part of an overall network strategy to improve its news gathering and news presentation.
   “How can we continue to improve and deepen our coverage of the critical stories of the day? How can we better tell powerful stories … in the way only NPR can? How can we enhance our on-air diversity?” he said.
   NPR’s Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne will serve as interim co-hosts of “Morning Edition” starting May 1, when Edwards begins his new job as senior correspondent. Kernis told web chat participants when events warrant, one host will hit the road to anchor and report from breaking news locations.
  Kernis says there’s no going back on the decision to replace Edwards. 
  Yet angry listeners surely intend to keep the pressure up for what they perceive as NPR’s arrogance and what they call the network’s disrespect for its public.  
  With the Kroc's cash in its tills, it may not feel overly threatened. The bigger issue it faces will come from affiliates as they worry over declining donations.