Big Picture

Thread on WETA

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There’s an interesting thread about Washington DC’s classical station WETA on City-Data.com.  It’s in response to the somewhat snarky question, “Why is WETA so boring?”. This is not an attempt to criticize WETA in any way.  It’s a legacy station that rode to the rescue when WGMS dropped the classical format.  From 2005 to 2007, WETA switched to news/talk, angering a lot of listeners.  But when WGMS gave up on classical music, WETA didn’t hesitate to switch from the generally more lucrative news format back to classical.  I give them full credit for preserving and protecting … Continue Reading

5 Million Hours of Music on Public Radio!

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April is Public Radio Music Month (who knew?), and WDIY in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania has some great statistics about music on public radio stations. Across the country, public radio music sounds like: Nationally, more than 180 public radio stations have full-time music formats and another 400 or more play music as part of their programming lineups. A recent study of the public radio system found that 1 in 3 listening hours was to music. On the whole, local public radio stations air nearly 5 million hours of music per year, … Continue Reading

Huge News for Radio

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The FCC has just made a major and overdue decision about Low-Power FMs that could affect the classical radio landscape.  The commission has cleared — basically denied —  hundreds of applications for repeaters that have been waiting for approval and instead has opened up the airwaves to hundreds of potential new community stations to broadcast on low-power signals in urban areas. The applications for repeaters were filed by corporate and religious broadcasters who wanted to spread their biased content even further. …what a lot of right-wing, conservative radio stations have been able to do is expand their reach … Continue Reading

Once Again, KUSC Gets It

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I’ve always maintained that if a classical music radio station wants to be healthy, it needs to be Arts Central for its community.  That means the station should be the first place people turn for info.  For that reason, a good radio station will be the keeper of the community arts calendar.  It’s not rocket science and it’s not a hugely burdensome task, but it IS enormously useful to listeners if it’s done well. Need to find out what time a concert starts?  Where you can get tickets?   Who’s performing in what venue?  It’s a no-brainer.  Stations … Continue Reading

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