A little more than a week ago, I told the Phoenix that I was leaving to take an associate producer job at WGBH’s Greater Boston, where I’ve been a frequent guest panelist. The news has now been announced at the paper, so I wanted to mention it here as well, even though I’ll be writing through March 10.

While I’m excited about heading to WGBH and taking part in the big changes unfolding over there, leaving the Phoenix is bittersweet.

Radio Boston, WBUR's weekly local-news show, is about to become a five-day-a-week affair. As Universal Hub's Adam Gaffin notes, a posting for an executive producer job at Radio Boston describes:

a new, local daily program (five days a week) which will cover a full range of topics, from public affairs and politics, to the arts and economy, from cutting edge culture to the highs and lows of daily life that matter to the WBUR audience.

In a piece that'll be out later this week, I cite the coming public-radio battle between WBUR-FM and WGBH-FM as one of the big media stories of 2010--and state that, at least during off-peak hours (i.e., when the programming on the two stations isn't duplicative), the decision to take 89.7 FM to a news-focused format (while moving classical programming to 99.

As a media columnist and occasional classical-music listener, I'm intrigued by WGBH's newly announced purchase of WCRB--apparently for the not-insubstantial sum of $14 million.

I was struck, though, by the Globe's description of how WGBH plans to pay for its $14 million acquisition. Writes Megan Woolhouse:

Judging from an email that WGBH president/CEO Jon Abbott sent to staff yesterday, things at Boston's public-broadcasting powerhouse aren't quite as bad as they are at, say, the Globe. But they're not great, either, for a bunch of distinct but related reasons.

Abbott's email follows. (Full disclosure: I'm a frequent guest panelist on WGBH-TV's Beat the Press

Beat the Press blogger Ralph Ranalli notes an interesting contradiction regarding the ongoing Times Co.-Boston Newspaper Guild negotiations:

My question is this: Since the imposition of the 23 percent wage cut was based on the Times claim of a bargaining "impasse," how Times officials be participating in marathon bargaining sessions yet asserting an impasse at the same time? Someone help me with this.

Friday night plans? Not too late to change 'em! I'll be on the weekly "Beat the Press" segment of Greater Boston tonight, discussing the latest Globe funkiness; coverage of killer swine flu and the related suspension of world-class anti-Mexican Jay Severin; and John Henry and Linda Pizzuti's...candor. Please tune in, or watch online at your leisure.

Big Friday-night plans?

If not--or perhaps as a pre-party!--consider watching Greater Boston's Beat the Press, at 7 pm on Channel 2. Emily Rooney, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sciacca, Callie Crossley, and yours truly will be discussing sundry media topics, including Barack Obama's upcoming prime-time infomercial and fact-checkers gone wild.