A continuing decline in The Marc Steiner Show's ratings and its host's refusal to consider changes to the early-afternoon program left WYPR management with no choice but to fire Steiner, station President and General Manager Anthony Brandon said during an on-air interview yesterday.

"When you look at the ratings from 11 to 12 o'clock, they're significant. And at 12 o'clock, they drop off precipitously," Brandon said during an interview with Maryland Morning host Sheilah Kast, broadcast on WYPR between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. yesterday. "And they stay down until 2:05, when Talk of the Nation comes back on.

"We have to look at what our audience is telling us. We have to listen, and look at the fact that audience was dropping off in that time period. We need to look at new ways to address these issues."

Brandon did not provide any ratings numbers, and Kast, who admitted at the segment's outset that she was "not completely comfortable" interviewing her boss on-air, did not press for specifics.

According to Radio Research Consortium, the public-radio station had about 170,500 weekly listeners in the fall of 2005. By fall 2007, the number of listeners fell to 142,000, or by about 17 percent. During that same time, Steiner's audience sank from 47,300 to 37,400, or by about 21 percent.

Brandon, who had been unavailable for comment since Steiner was fired Friday afternoon, was interviewed for about 10 minutes. His segment was preceded by a 10-minute interview with Steiner, which Kast said had been taped about an hour earlier. The two men did not appear on-air together.

For his part, Steiner continued to argue that his firing had nothing to do with ratings but was instead the result of a difference in philosophy over public radio's role in the community - a difference that has been a bone of contention between him and management ever since the station was purchased from the Johns Hopkins University in 2002.

"It's a mindset," Steiner said. "And the mindset is that we, guarantors of the station, are holding this in trust for the public. Not, 'We own it.' Not, 'It's ours.' It's not theirs, it's ours - ours being the listeners and the public-radio community."

Though pressed by Kast, Steiner never explained what role WYPR management should play in deciding what goes on the air. He suggested the station did not do enough to promote his show, which could have contributed to a ratings decline. He said that he had never been asked to make changes to the show. And he confirmed that he turned down a $50,000 buyout offer that would have kept him on the air until May.

"I'm not going to be silenced by somebody's $50,000 paycheck to me," he told Kast.

Brandon, who helped secure financing that enabled a group of eight investors to purchase the station, said it was up to him and the WYPR board of directors to look at the ratings and gauge what the community wants to hear.

"I have a great deal of confidence in our senior management team, and I have a great deal of confidence in our board," he said. "Our board ... provides stewardship for this organization. It is the trustee of the license, and it is the ultimate authority over this radio station."

Ever since the station was purchased in 2002 and its call letters were changed from WJHU to WYPR, Steiner has been its most identifiable voice. He helped raise money for the station's purchase ($750,000, according to published reports; $250,000, according to what Brandon said on-air yesterday). Many listeners have long credited Steiner with saving the station, which clearly rankles Brandon.

"Those original eight guarantors should be absolutely praised for stepping forward, with altruism that I've never seen," he told Kast. "They had absolutely no upside, no possible gain financially. They stepped forward for this community to buy this radio station, to preserve public radio. I can tell you that they are committed to the concept of public radio. These people are absolutely community heroes for stepping forward."

chris.kaltenbach@baltsun.com