Jack Allen

Jack Allen is a self-proclaimed dreamer, raconteur, rapscallion and radio guy. He got his start in radio, a second career, in 1992 at WMRA in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The broadcasting ethers have carried him through stints in St. Paul and Austin. He can now be found leading the team at All Classical Public Media, KQAC in Portland, Oregon.

Tough Being a Stand Alone Classical Station (Anywhere).

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Stations are still not out of the woods. Not In Chicago or in any city for that matter. Revenue realities are coming into focus, but what about expense realities? We’re in fiscal-year-end mop up mode with a mini-June drive here in Portland, closing a revenue gap. It will indeed be interesting to watch as KING in Seattle moves to a listener support model.

In Search of Chopin

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Back in 1992, I spent 3 days in Warsaw, not really thinking much about Poland or Chopin, but intent on wrangling a visa to get into Russia. It wasn’t easy at the time. Warsaw was the back door. Those 3 days turned out to be life-changing for me. Yes, Chopin just happened to be my “desert island” composer, but my focus was a quick transit to Moscow to explore joint-venture opportunities in a newly open, former Soviet Union. Don’t ask. In any event, I was completely caught off guard – Warsaw charmed me.

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CQ, this is your son. Come back?

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Remember the 1997 film, Contact directed by Robert Zemeckis? I was reminded of the film upon watching the new series Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking airing on the Discovery Channel. His now already famous quote, “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans” is an early gem from the series.  Hawking’s grim yet grounded opinion about what would happen if aliens landed on Earth made me nostalgic for the feel-good, hopeful opinion crafted by Zemeckis into the Jodie Foster film.

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