Music director among casualties at WMFE

by

A few miscellaneous notes this morning. First off, a blogger for OrlandoSentinel.com reports that Dave Glerum, a classical host at WMFE in Orlando, Fla., was among the employees laid off last week when the station cut a quarter of its staff.

“Glerum was the station’s music director — which makes me wonder how a classical-music radio station can go on without someone programming its classical music,” writes the blogger. Good question. Classical 24, perhaps?

Also: NPR Music has created a Web stream, a Valentine’s Day “Make-Out Mix,” with help from partner stations. Cincinnati’s WGUC is representing on the classical front. This is a great idea for collaborative streaming efforts, of the kind I was musing about the other day.

And finally, check out this kick-butt letter to the editor published in a Wilmington, N.C., newspaper, regarding changes underway at that city’s WHQR-FM. If we gave out awards for Defenders of Classical Music on the Airwaves, this writer would be a shoe-in.

About Mike Janssen

Mike Janssen Served as Scanning The Dial's original co-authors from Mar, 2008 to Jan, 2010 and is a freelance writer, editor and media educator based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He has written extensively about radio, mostly for Current, the trade newspaper about public broadcasting, where his articles have appeared since 1999. He has also worked in public radio as a reporter at WFDD-FM in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he began his career in journalism and filed pieces for NPR. Mike's work in radio expanded to include outreach and advocacy in 2007, when he worked with the Future of Music Coalition to recruit applicants for noncommercial radio stations. He has since embarked on writing a series of articles about radio hopefuls for FMC's blog.

Mike also writes regularly for Retail Traffic magazine and teaches workshops about writing, podcasting and radio journalism. In his spare time he enjoys vegetarian food, the outdoors, reading, movies and traveling. You can learn more about Mike and find links to more of his writing and reporting at mikejanssen.net.

View all posts by Mike Janssen

Subscribe Via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to Scanning the Dial and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously

5 thoughts on “Music director among casualties at WMFE”

  1. I know people value Classical 24. But it is no substitute for good music radio. I mean, sure, it fills a void, but it’s like eating cellulose.

    This may not be a popular view, that I understand.

    >>RSM

    Reply

  2. Thanks, Mike.

    I recall that in 2004 Dave Glerum was profiled in a national magazine article, “Radio Silence”, dealing with the travails of classical broadcasting:

    “…On a couch next to the Dolphin Room, Dave Glerum sat talking about classical music and public radio. Glerum is a friendly and thoughtful man, bearded and roundish, who serves as the music director of WMFE, the public radio station in Orlando. He’s been coming to the AMPPR conference for 25 years.

    “Believe it,” he said. “This was once like a major trade show. You had 30 record labels here, giving records away, all kinds of free
    stuff. Artists would perform during the day, every night, promoting their records. There were throngs of people all weekend long. By Sunday, when you left, you still wouldn’t have met 80 percent of the attendees. That’s how many people there were. And now it’s . . . well . . .” He waved his hand toward the conference-goers who drifted from room to room, singly or in groups of twos and threes.

    Glerum has been working at WMFE since 1990. He was hired away from WXXI in Rochester, New York, where he’d worked for more than 10 years. In retrospect, those years now look like the tail end of the glory days of classical programming on the nation’s public radio stations, when a large majority of them devoted a large majority of their airtime to music.

    “When I came to WMFE, we had three full-time on-air announcers and two part-time announcers,” he said. “Now we have no part-time announcers and one full-time announcer.” He tapped his chest. “Me….”

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/184uadtr.asp

    Good fortune to you Dave–we’ve had some good, insightful talks at the AMPPR confabs over the years,

    Best regards,
    -Robert Ready
    Vermont

    Reply
  3. Pingback: Music director among casualties at WMFE | Inside The Arts

  4. March 26, 2009
    So sad to discover while perusing the WMFE 90.7 website that Dave Glerum had been let go back in February. I met Dave around 2001 and we went out as friends to various concert events. Dave was a gentle and kind in person as was the sound of his voice on the radio. An eminence in and passionate about Classical Music, beyond knowledgable, professional and dedicated. I remember how tuning in to Dave’s morning show always made my work day more bearable. He made every day special.Can’t believe WMFE didn’t have the sense to keep such a jewel. I moved to Austria, Europe from Orlando, FL last September and liked tuning in online to WMFE to help me feel “connected” still to Orlando. Not the same without Dave’s voice and great programming. Interesting that Catherine McManus kept her position (she was appointed head of fundraising last year, what happened?), after all she is the daughter of the previous President and CEO. Oh well, non-profit or not, such is the world of corporate politics… I am sure Dave will find many open doors in even this tough economy. The light inside him will ilumine the way.
    Lisa, Austria

    Reply

  5. I have been waiting for a month or more for an announcement about donating old digital phones but I haven’t heard it lately. I have a NOKIA 5165 Digital Multi-Network phone in its original box. Want it? Sorry, I can’t offer my classic 1992 Fleetwood because I need it for trnasportation.

    Last item. Do you still include “Echoes” in your weekend programming? Why? Is there something about the recprded noise that it puts out that I just fon’t get. I still think diLiberto (sp?) must be related to someone high up over there.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Send this to a friend