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.

Thoughts on the CBC hubbub, and other news

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Authormike72x72_3 Perusing the latest coverage and opinionating surrounding the cuts at the CBC, including the controversial decision to shut down the CBC Radio Orchestra, a backlash to the backlash appears to be afoot. Specifically, some onlookers — even John Terauds, the classical music critic for the Toronto Star — are pointing out that there might actually be some sound reasons for nixing the orchestra. Terauds writes of the overall changes at CBC:

For many Radio 2 supporters, classical music is synonymous with the CBC’s mandate to “safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of Canada.”

But that mandate also includes respecting the cultural diversity of the country. In Toronto, nearly half the population has no natural ethnic ties to Western culture.

A Los Angeles Times writer chimes in with a snarkier take and a headline that says it all: “Next thing you know, they’ll be dropping their radio ventriloquist acts too.” “…[T]ake a look at the protests that followed the announcement of the orchestra’s closing and you may ask what eon these people are living in,” writes Tim Cavanaugh.

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MTT Files wins a Peabody

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We’d be remiss if we didn’t note that among the Peabody Award winners announced yesterday was The MTT Files. The eight-show series was produced by American Public Media and the San Francisco Symphony and featured Michael Tilson Thomas, the symphony’s music director. Congratulations to all involved!

WETA and the spirit of on-air fundraising

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Authormike72x72_3 Tuesday I paid a visit to Dan DeVany, vice president and general manager of Classical WETA 90.9 FM, the all-classical station in the nation’s capital. We talked about WETA’s quick journey over the past three years from a dual-format news/classical station to an all-news station and finally to the music outlet it is today — a move that has brought it to a new level of success. It was a great discussion, and I’ll share the highlights with you soon.

But I did want to share something in particular right away. Dan brought to my attention a blog post by Robert Paterson, a consultant who has been helping public radio and TV stations adjust to the new realities of the media world. In fact, “New Realities” was the name of an ambitious strategic planning exercise that involved all of public radio, led by Rob and his crew a few years back. Take a look at Rob’s blog and you’ll see that he is the ultimate big-picture thinker. I often find his observations provocative and inspiring.

In this post Rob drew on a conversation with Dan about on-air fundraising around classical music. Dan told me and Rob that WETA’s first fund drive after going all-classical early last year was a smashing success. But in the fall they encountered a dauntingly slow start, forcing them to take a fresh look at how they were trying to connect with their listeners. As Rob describes it:

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Dual format out in Alabama

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Authormike72x72_3 News surfaced recently of some fallout from the upcoming cancellation of Classical Public Radio Network. WBHM, a news/classical station in Birmingham, Ala., announced last week that it would stop airing classical music during middays Monday to Friday, and has replaced the music with news programs. The changes took effect yesterday.

Station execs indicate that they had anticipated dropping midday classical sometime within the next few years, but that the impending demise of CPRN hastened those plans. In local press and on WBHM’s website, they cite several reasons for the change, many of which echo the weaknesses of the dual format that we’ve been discussing here at Scanning The Dial.

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