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.

CBC hires new classical host; the plight of jazz radio

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Authormike72x72_3 There’s been little news to report as of late regarding the uproar over programming changes on CBC Radio, but the Vancouver Sun today features a profile of Julie Nesrallah, a mezzo-soprano from Ottawa who has been named the host of CBC Radio Two’s new flagship classical show to debut in September. Nesrallah has no previous experience with radio, but CBC execs say she bowled them over with her innate grasp of the medium. The article highlights how the new host plans to approach her job:

[Nesrallah] says she hopes to help de-mystify classical music for those who think it’s difficult, and she says her own story serves as an example.

Nesrallah’s family did not listen to classical music or opera when she was growing up. She discovered it through school choirs and the encouragement of music teachers like Sylvia Darwood at Alta Vista Public School, who recognized a promising singing voice.

“You don’t have to grow up with Haydn at teatime to appreciate classical music,” says Nesrallah.

“You can be a middle-class Lebanese kid from Ottawa who waitressed and put themselves through school, and you can dig classical music. I hope I’ll be able to deliver it in a way that’s interesting.”

Here’s the full article.

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Horner: Midday research as “a house of cards on a foundation of quicksand”

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To wrap up my series of posts about the midday classical music research undertaken by the Public Radio Program Directors Association, I conducted a Q&A by e-mail with Wes Horner. Horner has a long track record in arts and documentary programming for public radio. He started in the business as a producer at Boston’s WGBH, then went on to serve as executive producer of NPR’s Performance Today. He also worked in the same role for Smithsonian Productions, helped develop From the Top and is now involved with Five Farms, a series of radio documentaries about farming families in the U.S.

Horner wrote a commentary for Current newspaper last year in which he questioned the findings and implications of the Midday Classical Music Testing Project. I asked him to explain his views and to lay out the priorities classical public radio should be pursuing. Here’s our interview.

Scanning the Dial: What do you see as the shortcomings of the PRPD Midday Classical Music Testing Project?

Wes Horner
Wes Horner

Horner: Two issues:

(1) The conceit that you can make meaningful decisions about programming pre-recorded music on CD based on testing artificially excised samples, tested in an artificial environment, I believe is building a house of cards on a foundation of quicksand. Music is more complex than the study recognizes, as is real-life listening. The data aren’t very useful.

(2) Tinkering with the process of making the “right” selection of CD tracks in the hopes that we can energize music on radio is a deflection from where our energy and resources ought to be focused. Namely, how can public radio create music programming that shares the values of our successful news programs? We need to come to grips with the dissonance we’ve created between our music programming and our news/talk programming. And we ought to ask ourselves what the landscape would look like in music on public radio nationally if we invested money, developed production infrastructures, and cultivated talent on both sides of the microphone on a scale similar to that of news. Imagine — please — that the community of music makers and music lovers considered public radio their meeting place of engagement, as do newsmakers and news consumers.

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How midday classical research is changing station playlists

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On Monday I wrote about the midday music research conducted by the Public Radio Program Directors Association — a survey of hundreds of classical-music listeners that gauged their responses to dozens of snippets of music. The goal was to determine which sounds appealed to those listeners and which didn’t, thus helping programmers at classical public radio stations build audience by focusing on more user-friendly selections.

So how is this research being used? Following the release of the study’s results, 12 stations around the country began applying its lessons to their midday music mixes. I checked in with a few programmers to find out what changes they’re making.

“I’ve found that it’s taken me back to really trying to think and listen like my audience,” says Karen Walker, operations and music director at KBIA in Columbia, Mo. Walker has been combing through her station’s music library and classifying selections according to their appeal to the listeners surveyed in the study.

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Roe chosen to lead WDAV

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WDAV-FM in Davidson, N.C., announced today that Ben Roe will serve as its general manager. Roe previously worked at National Public Radio for 20 years, serving most recently as its director of music and music initiatives. At WDAV, he succeeds Kim Hodgson, who has led the station for nine years. Roe assumes the job July 1. WDAV, a full-time classical station, serves Charlotte and the surrounding area. Read the full release from WDAV. You can also check out Roe’s writing about music and media on his blog.

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