A while back I wrote about the influential “core values” research conducted by the Public Radio Program Directors Association, which aimed to understand what listeners to classical music radio appreciate most about their stations of choice. Those studies were useful because they helped classical programmers put themselves in their listeners’ shoes and get a handle on why exactly people listen at all.
But the studies were limited in scope — they assessed the value of classical radio only in general terms and stopped short of gauging reactions to specific musical works. Last year, however, PRPD unveiled the results of the Midday Classical Music Testing Project, a study that aimed to do just that. The study asked groups of listeners to rate a wide range of musical snippets as appealing or unappealing, and programmers at classical stations are now revising their music mixes to line up with the findings in an effort to improve midday listening.
The 309 listeners in four cities who participated already listened to classical during middays on the stations in their markets. With handheld units, they registered their reactions to 150 30-second musical samples, noting positive or negative appeal.
Amid our recent discussion of classical podcasts, this news item caught my eye: the host of a classical show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s radio stations found a new home for his program after the CBC dropped it in March. Rick Phillips’ Sound Advice is now available as a podcast. The interesting thing is that the new producer and distributor of Sound Advice is Universal Music Canada, the record label. As a result, the show, which discusses classical recordings, now spotlights only Universal products.