Jim "Uncle Griff" Griffith announced today on his
Facebook that changes were coming to
eBay Radio next month. Listeners will only have access to the live show through a private eBay group, he said. Griff is eBay's Dean of Education, author of the Official eBay Bible, and one of eBay's earliest employees. He hosts eBay Radio, which is billed as "eBays' official talk show with expert guests, news direct from eBay and of course your call ins produced by wsRadio.com."
According to Griff's announcement, "We'll be announcing more during the week but one of the biggest changes will be access to the live show. Starting Nov 3rd, the link to all eBay Radio shows will only be available from the eBay Radio Group."
Currently eBay promotes the show on its announcement board. In addition, WSRadio, which broadcasts the show, also promotes the show on its website, but Griff does not say why those two entities will stop linking to the program.
However, in the comments, he writes, "We funnel listener traffic through eBay Radio's Group so we can measure the audience participation by user id... or we kill eBay Radio. Those were my choices. What would YOU have chosen?"
eBay has been trimming costs in many areas and has eliminated its "Pinks" forum moderators, as well as ceasing publication of its longtime eBay Chatter newsletter blog. Could it be more cost-cutting by eBay? Or do they simply want to control who listens to the show by forcing them to access it through the eBay Group? (Why would they want to measure audience participation by user id?)
PayPal also has a radio program on WSRadio, hosted by Jason Miner, and billed as "The official show of PayPal. Supporting PayPal users while covering the latest news and developments from "The Global Leader of Online Payment Solutions." (
Link) No word on whether any changes are pending to PayPal Radio, or to the eBay Town Hall meetings that are also hosted on WSRadio.
Griff Says Changes Coming to eBay Radio 
