5 Million Hours of Music on Public Radio!

April is Public Radio Music Month (who knew?), and WDIY in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania has some great statistics about music on public radio stations.

Across the country, public radio music sounds like:

• Nationally, more than 180 public radio stations have full-time music formats and another 400 or more play music as part of their programming lineups.
• A recent study of the public radio system found that 1 in 3 listening hours was to music.
• On the whole, local public radio stations air nearly 5 million hours of music per year, the majority of which is local programming

WDIY itself airs 123 hours a week of of classical, folk, jazz, blues, adult alternative and world music, most of it locally-produced.

There’s a dedicated blog here, but there’s not much classical on it.  If you are at a station that is doing special events for Public Radio Music Month, drop us a line here at Scanning the Dial, and we’ll post it.  It seems a little odd to have a special month for something we do all day, every day, all year long.  Still, it does focus attention on what we do.

We do need to remind folks that we are a critical part of the classical music economy and infrastructure in this country.  Without us, how are artists going to get their music heard? The web?  Yes, but of course, but the web is still only, what… 10% of classical listening?  I think classical radio is one of the most powerful, most effective partnerships ever in the arts world.  Yay for us.  Happy Public Radio Music Month.