Radio, TV Martí to cut 35 positions

``We have done everything possible to minimize the impact of these cuts on our staff,'' said OCB spokeswoman Letitia King.

Twenty-two employees will be laid off -- mainly television anchors and technicians, news editors and radio anchors, King said. The rest involve vacant positions and employees who have volunteered for buyout packages.

The workforce cuts take place at a time when the stations, designed to break Fidel Castro's information blackout, get ready for a September retooling of their program format, which has been criticized for its scant reception in Cuba.

The staff cuts ``reflect the proposal to change the news format of TV Martí, replacing two evening news programs with news updates every half-hour and giving Radio Martí an all-news format,'' OCB director Pedro Roig wrote in a memo to the staff Tuesday.

Roig said this is ``an inevitable and unfortunate situation that in no way reflects on the professional effort of those affected.''

Employee union representative Niurka Fernández Arteaga said the ``layoffs of federal employees are unnecessary. TV Martí can reduce its budget without affecting these people's jobs.''

Regarding the program changes, Fernández Arteaga, vice president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1812, argued that they are ``an excuse to dismantle TV Martí.''

``The newscast is TV Martí's spinal cord and its very reason of being,'' said Fernández, a TV reporter. ``If the newscast is removed, we have no reason to exist since TV Martí was created to deliver news to Cuba. What news can you deliver in five minutes?''

Four nonunion management employees received layoff letters explaining that, due to budget cuts, their positions had been eliminated. Among these are Marta Yedra, a radio figure in Miami who is a co-founder of the Martí stations, and Ramón Cota, who was El Nuevo Herald's news editor years ago.

The rest of the staff is in a wait-and-see mode, said Fernández. Those affected will be notified within about a month. Until then, TV and Radio Martí will offer buyout packages to employees willing to leave voluntarily,

King said the OCB cuts are estimated at $4.2 million for the 2010 fiscal year, which will begin Oct. 1.

In Miami, employees have protested the large number of contractors used by Radio and TV Martí. The staff of the TV Martí newscast that will be cut includes employees with the most seniority.