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.

Another public station drops classical

July 6, 2009 by Mike Janssen

Another public radio station has announced it’s dropping classical music in favor of news — a common enough occurrence that maybe I should just write a boilerplate post about the phenomenon and change the links, cities and call letters where appropriate.

This time it’s WUFT in Gainesville, Fla., which makes the switch Aug. 3. Like WGCU in Fort Myers, Fla., which dumped classical last year, WUFT will move the music to a 24/7 stream available to listeners with digital radios.

Searching for a Stone Age ensemble

June 29, 2009 by Mike Janssen

You care about music, right? Well, you’ll care about this. And thus I justify a somewhat off-topic post, but this is too cool not to write about.

Archaeologists have dug up a 35,000-year-old flute that is believed to be the oldest musical instrument yet found. Unearthed in a cave in Germany, the five-holed flute was made from the radius bone of a griffon vulture.

A day of silence

June 26, 2009 by Mike Janssen

I had a post ready to roll today. But at the end of a week made so bizarre and spectacular by not only Gov. Sanford’s romantic self-immolation but the deaths of Farrah and, of course, the King of Pop, it feels like a good time to just simmer down and let you all work through your emotions. Join the communal mourning if you’re so inclined. I’ll post Monday when hopefully we’ll all be ready to move on. Enjoy the weekend.

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Dallas to get new public Triple A station

June 22, 2009 by Mike Janssen

We say we’re a blog about “classical music in broadcasting,” but I sometimes like to stretch that mission statement to include other musical genres. Some passions and challenges transcend genre and encompass all music broadcasters who aim to serve the public interest, not just sell ads.

So here’s welcome news of a coup for fans of music and noncommercial radio who live in Dallas, Texas. At a time when few stations have the budgets to expand, KERA, that city’s primary public broadcaster, has struck a deal to buy an FM frequency that it will program with the Triple A format. Triple A, or Adult Album Alternative, assumes various guises at individual stations depending on the programmers in charge. But generally the format showcases rock, folk, alternative, country and other genres — the music’s roots as well as its contemporaries.

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