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.

Links: Future of radio, Tennessee’s WUOT, CBC’s Radio

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The first hour of The Diane Rehm Show yesterday focused on the future of radio. Thanks to the Public Radio Program Directors’ blog for the heads-up. There’s speculation afoot that WUOT-FM, a news/classical public radio station in Knoxville, Tenn., may drop its midday music (though I think the Metro Pulse’s substantiation of this is a little shaky). But the station’s program director does confirm that WUOT might replace some of its local classical programming with Classical 24, the most widely carried around-the-clock satellite feed. And a critic writing for the (Saskatoon) StarPhoenix … Continue Reading

Miami’s WKCP to offer live broadcast of Cleveland Orchestra

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After Marty wrote last week about classical music and new media, we got a tip from Lawrence Budmen, a music critic who writes for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Lawrence alerted us to the fact that Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern time, WKCP in Miami will broadcast a live performance by the Cleveland Orchestra from Miami’s new Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. The concert will be streamed online at WKCP’s website, and Brian Newhouse, host of public radio’s SymphonyCast, will provide on-site commentary. “This definitely marks a major expansion for the … Continue Reading

One network’s success with ending the dual format

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I’m just about to move on from discussing the nuts and bolts of public radio’s dual news/classical format. But I did want to add this footnote about Vermont Public Radio after a recent chat with Jody Evans, the network’s program director. I’d called her about Classical Public Radio Network, in fact, because the network relied heavily on CPRN when it was getting its first all-classical stations on the air four years ago.

For several years VPR chugged along with a dual news/classical mix on seven stations across the state. But like other broadcasters, VPR was seeing its dual-format approach lose steam. When classical came on after NPR News, news listeners were fleeing to other news/talk stations.

“We had done well with the dual format,” Evans said. “But our audience was holding steady—it wasn’t growing.”

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What’s happening with Classical Public Radio Network?

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As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Classical Public Radio Network will go off the air June 30, narrowing the range of choices for public radio stations looking to fill airtime with an around-the-clock, plug-and-play stream of music.

CPRN is one of several 24/7 feeds of classical music available to public stations via satellite, many of which use it or its competitors to fill overnight hours or otherwise keep costs low at times when using live hosts would be pricy or inconvenient. About 60 stations carry CPRN, which also airs on six HD Radio multicast channels. The service launched nationally in 2003, a partnership between Colorado Public Radio in Denver and KUSC in Los Angeles.

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