The other day I wrote that I found no applicants for new noncommercial classical stations in last fall’s application window, other than the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Well, I did find another one, under the inconspicuous name of Highland Community Broadcasting. And Highland is no newcomer to classical radio — in fact, it now operates the only classical station in the state of New Hampshire.
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Extra-terrestrial Classical Radio
Ok, well, maybe extraterrestrial isn’t the term you’d use, but this post is about classical music radio outside of the terrestrial stations — two sources in particular: 1) the new, combined Sirius XM classical channel which they call Symphony Hall, currently on channel 80 on Sirius and 78 on XM, and 2) Naxos Web Radio, which has 80 (!!!!!!!!!) classical channels, divided by genre. Both are subscription services.
Milwaukee orchestra faces longer wait for radio station
I wrote recently about the good fortunes of free103point9, the New York nonprofit devoted to art that uses radio and transmission media as a starting point. free103 recently received a construction permit to start a new noncommercial FM radio station in Acra, N.Y. This led me to wonder about the fate of other applicants for noncommercial stations. Unfortunately, it looks like they have more waiting in store.
Classical stations, fundraising and the economy
A recent article on MSNBC.com examined how public radio stations are faring with fundraising in these unstable economic times. The article prominently features two classical stations, WDAV in Davidson, N.C., and WWFM in Trenton, N.J. As I mentioned the other day, WDAV has just restarted its on-air fundraising drive after putting it on hold.