Redefining Intimacy

Dear all of you,

Most New Year’s resolutions involve weight loss so this is not meant to offend. When I think of all of me, a resolution or least some resolve to lose a little weight may be in order for this blogger. Not a lot, just enough to make my new jeans more comfortable. Now, back to you, I mean, all of you.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “of” is a preposition used as a function word to indicate the component material, parts, or elements or the contents <throne of gold> <cup of water> <all of you>. When someone attempts to greet you in the globally inclusive way, all of you, I doubt they are referring to the component material or parts of your corporeal presence. They are just ignorant or being lazy.

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Boston — A Work in Progress

Thanks, Richard for your comment about Boston.  The changes at WGBH/WCRB are not making Bostonians ecstatic yet, but the new station is a public station, so I hope members of the public will keep weighing in until they get what they want.  To that end, there is a public meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 5th, 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Old South Church in Copley Square.  You can read more about it here.

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KFUO sale challenged, and some views on music research

Four petitioners hope there’s still a chance that the sale of St. Louis’s KFUO isn’t a done deal. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported today that multiple challenges have been filed with the Federal Communications Commission to block the sale of the commercial classical station to Christian broadcaster Gateway Creative Broadcasting.

One group is made up of members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which is selling the station. Another is a fundraising group that has helped support KFUO. I was surprised to see Patty Wente speaking on behalf of this fundraising group — she used to be general manager of KWMU, the city’s main NPR station, until she was dismissed amid controversy last year.

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Stations share experiences with midday music research

For almost two years, a small set of classical public radio stations have been trying to draw more listeners during middays by changing the music they play. The casual listener might not even be aware of the changes, but station programmers are aware that the process is systematic and grounded in extensive research backed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

I wrote a few posts about this some time ago, and just recently I wrote an update for Current, the trade newspaper that covers public broadcasting. I hope you find it enlightening — its starting point was a session at the Public Radio Program Directors’ conference in September, where station programmers shared their results due to the changes. As I learned, it’s made a big difference for some stations.

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