WITF in Harrisburg – Update

We told you about the switch from classical to news/talk in Harrisburg PA on WITF a while back.  Well, the change happened this morning.  A few interesting observations from the Pennlive.com blog post today:

1. The rationale for changing formats was that there were twice as many news listeners as classical listeners.

I hear this a lot.  It assumes that because more people listen to news/talk than classical, that those people want talk all the time.  In 2004 the PRPD did an audience segmentation study, separating listeners in “NPR Activists” and “Classical Monks” and concluded there was limited overlap in the two audiences.  I’m pretty sure classical listeners also find a way to get their news.  Some of us actually want both.  Imagine that!  Some prefer to read the news because you can absorb so much more volume-wise reading than you can by listening in real time.  You can even listen to classical music while you read the news.

2. If twice as many people want news/talk, you would expect twice as many people to be happy about the change.  Instead,

the station has received a substantial number of protests from classical music fans regarding the format change, as well as expressions of support for the new setup. .. Sentiment is about 70-30 against the change via letters, phone calls, online comments and emails, and about 50-50 via Twitter and other social media…

3. It was not a financial decision.

In announcing the change last month, [WITF President and CEO Kathleen] Pavelko said economic factors did not drive the decision. “There are no layoffs associated with this change, and this is not a cost-reduction strategy,” she said. “We are doing this because we believe we can provide more public service by providing high quality regional and national news than by providing recorded classical music.”

4.  And of course we get the usual spin:

Classical fans also can still access that music via WITF Classical, a 24/7 internet service that will exclusively feature classical music purchased through a syndicated service. Listeners will be able to access the channel in their cars, homes and offices through computers, smart phones and internet radios.

One thing I wholeheartedly believe is that the classical musicians coming out of the music schools and conservatories now are even more accomplished than the generations that came before them, but they will have to find new audiences, new performance venues, and reinvent their own media, because our generation is rapidly shutting out their voices.  Our loss.