Big Picture

Feb. 13th is World Radio Day

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UNESCO has declared Feb. 13th World Radio Day.  From their website: Radio has to be recognized as a low cost medium, specifically suited to reach remote communities and vulnerable people: the illiterate, the disabled, women, youth and the poor, while offering a platform to intervene in the public debate, irrespective of people’s educational level. Furthermore, radio has a strong and specific role in emergency communication and disaster relief. There is also a changing face to radio services which, in the present times of media convergence, are taking up new technological forms, such … Continue Reading

Radio – Still Not Dead

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World Radio Day is coming up next week, and it’s a good time to remember why we love radio so much.  We even love getting mad at the radio.  Today I heard a classical music station offer as a premium a CD of music  they wouldn’t air on the station — Quelle  Horreur!  Choral music! An article today on the blog The Eye by Ravenna Koenig is titled “Internet Killed the Radio Star – The myth behind the decline of radio.” A panel convened at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn on January 25 to discuss … Continue Reading

The BBC Takes the Lead

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It’s not so common anymore to see a classical radio station lead a major arts festival, but the BBC is doing just that.  You can read the full story here. Leading up to the the London 2012 Festival and the Cultural Olympiad, the “Beeb” has more than 100 live performances taking place across the UK on the weekend of March 3-4. Built around classical and orchestral music, but also featuring jazz, folk and world music, Music Nation will see thousands of musicians and audiences experience world-class performances, community projects and workshops in venues and public … Continue Reading

Is News/Talk the “Tyranny of the Majority?”

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There’s an interesting post on BuffaloNews.com today by Jeff Simon.  I think his hyperbole is tongue-in-cheek, but he has some intriguing thoughts.  Simon bemoans the whittling away of jazz and blues on Buffalo’s stations: …no one ever understood the inherent flaw in American democracy better than Alexis de Tocqueville, whose 1835 “Democracy in America” tells you most of what you need to know about why excellence always has been a media battleground and always will be. What de Tocqueville summarized in one phrase characterizes the current perils of WBFO-FM in an age of WNED … Continue Reading

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