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.

A new voice joins the mix at Scanning the Dial

January 4, 2010 by Mike Janssen

With the arrival of the New Year, we’re making some changes here at Scanning the Dial. But rather than going on a diet, in a way we’re bulking up.

To start with, I’ve decided to cut back a bit on my contributions to the blog. (I know, that doesn’t sound like “bulking up,” but bear with me.) In recent months I’ve found I need to give more time to other freelance projects, most of which have little to do with classical radio. Given these demands, blogging on a regular basis about developments in the field has been difficult — especially if I aspire to do it with any degree of thoughtfulness, which is important to me. So we’ve arranged for a replacement to step into my role here.

WDAV assumes production of World of Opera

December 21, 2009 by Mike Janssen

WDAV in Davidson, N.C., announced Friday that it will be taking over production of NPR World of Opera from the D.C.-based network. Ben Roe, now general manager at WDAV, previously worked as NPR’s director of music and brought together the show’s host and producer. The show airs on 87 stations. Here’s the full release:

WDAV 89.9 CLASSICAL PUBLIC RADIO TO PRODUCE NPR WORLD OF OPERA

December 18, 2009 | DAVIDSON, NC — WDAV 89.9 Classical Public Radio announced today that as of January 18, 2010, the station will take over production of National Public Radio’s World of Opera, keeping in place NPR’s successful creative team of host Lisa Simeone and producer Bruce Scott. WDAV General Manager Benjamin K. Roe is the new executive producer. The show will continue to be marketed and distributed by NPR.

Stations share experiences with midday music research

December 18, 2009 by Mike Janssen

For almost two years, a small set of classical public radio stations have been trying to draw more listeners during middays by changing the music they play. The casual listener might not even be aware of the changes, but station programmers are aware that the process is systematic and grounded in extensive research backed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

I wrote a few posts about this some time ago, and just recently I wrote an update for Current, the trade newspaper that covers public broadcasting. I hope you find it enlightening — its starting point was a session at the Public Radio Program Directors’ conference in September, where station programmers shared their results due to the changes. As I learned, it’s made a big difference for some stations.

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