With apologies to Lewis Carroll for conflating his poems, and thanks to alert reader Dorron Katzin, I’d like to call your attention to a new study by Walrus Research, demonstrating that those of us who like classical music on the radio are aging. In fact, those who don’t like classical music on the radio are aging, too. It reminds me of the announcers who say, “it’s 10 am here on KING-FM.”
Marty Ronish
PSA’s – To Air or Not to Air
The classical stations have a thread going strong on the Listserv for the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio (AMPPR). They’re discussing whether stations should air public service announcements (psa’s) for free, for a fee, or not at all, and in the same vein how to decide who gets on-air interviews.
KCSN – Who Needs Announcers?
Thanks to reader Larry Mayer for letting us know about the massive — meaning 100% — cuts to KCSN’s announcing staff. The Northridge CA station has laid off their entire announcing staff and gone to unannounced, automated music from 6 am to 6 pm. According to John Rabe’s blog at Southern California Public Radio, KCSN plans to launch a digital stream on their website so you can see the name of the piece and the composer. For the moment it’s light classical, single movements, no-name stuff.
The Reality Out Here in Radioland, and Some News Bits
I spoke yesterday with Eric Teel, Program Director at Jefferson Public Radio in southern Oregon. Their network of stations and translators reaches a potential audience of 1 million in southern Oregon and northern California. Despite the large audience, he has a tiny staff. Eric does the octopus act of programming three stations: a 24 hour news/talk, a 24 hour classical, and a Triple A (adult contemporary). He recently lost his Operations Manager, so he also takes care of Ops, and he does a long air shift every day.