“In this economy”

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a hundred times, “We’ll be lucky to achieve our goals in this economy”.

We’re all in the same boat, this challenging economic boat – in the doldrums yet relatively secure, generally insulated, and comparatively safe – not untouched mind you, but our lifestyles are barely altered – we’re afloat. We may be thinking greener, driving less, recycling more, watching household expenses, packing lunch, eyeballing boxed wine for the first time and generally curbing our consumption but at a pace that  could be characterized as a stroll. No real urgency.

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Boston’s Classical Shapeshifting – Updated

Update 12/18: A new article in the Boston Globe here

Before I talk about Boston, I want to thank those of you who made suggestions about better Xmas programming.  Even without actually hearing the music you suggested, I can hear it in my head and it makes me smile.  The wonderful trio from Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ — wow, gorgeous.  If you haven’t played it on your station yet this year, please do.  And so many other great suggestions.  Sounds like a lot of you are enriching your listeners.

Boston is going through growing pains with the new classical switchover from WCRB to WGBH.

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Pledge income down at WUFT, and a closer look at the KFUO sale

Two updates today on recent station-centric kerfuffles that we’ve been following. The first pertains to WUFT-FM in Gainesville, Fla., which as you might remember decided to drop classical from its primary signal and move all the music to an HD channel.

Well, the station had its first fund drive since the switch, and donations were down — by 37 percent, according to the Gainesville Sun.

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