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.

Station Beat: St. Louis’s KFUO still in play; KCRW plans new stream

by

It’s the end of the week and still no word on the fate of KFUO-FM, the commercial classical station in St. Louis that might be sold by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. This even-handed editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the synod’s board was expected to decide yesterday, but I don’t see any updates online. In a poll tallied up this week, a majority of Post-Dispatch readers opposed the sale of the station.

Continue Reading

News roundup: More on WUFT; Arizona station moves classical to AM

by

The Gainesville Sun reports that unhappy fans of the classical music aired until recently on WUFT have been, um, scanning the dial for alternatives — and finding cause for offense. Like WUFT, Gainesville’s Rock 104 is owned by the University of Florida. Former WUFT listeners have been turning to Rock 104, and they’re complaining about a morning show that airs on the station. What this article doesn’t explain is why these classical fans would turn on a rock station and then feel let down about what they find there — as if this weren’t entirely predictable. What did they expect? I’m baffled.

Meanwhile, the newspaper is still running letters from the miffed classical fans.

Continue Reading

WUFT makes the switch, and other station happenings

by

WUFT in Gainesville, Fla., went through with its change to all-news Monday, despite the continued protests of area classical fans. The Gainesville Sun ran an article noting the change — I wonder whether this might be the most media coverage of a switch away from classical since we inaugurated this blog. WUFT now airs an all-classical HD channel, and the Sun notes that electronics stores in Gainesville have sold an unprecedented number of HD radios since the change. I was also surprised that the HD channel features live hosts. That may be a first for an HD classical channel, according to the article. (Are any of the hosts on WNYC2 live?)

Continue Reading