Thanks to reader Larry Mayer for letting us know about the massive — meaning 100% — cuts to KCSN’s announcing staff. The Northridge CA station has laid off their entire announcing staff and gone to unannounced, automated music from 6 am to 6 pm. According to John Rabe’s blog at Southern California Public Radio, KCSN plans to launch a digital stream on their website so you can see the name of the piece and the composer. For the moment it’s light classical, single movements, no-name stuff.
Money
The Reality Out Here in Radioland, and Some News Bits
I spoke yesterday with Eric Teel, Program Director at Jefferson Public Radio in southern Oregon. Their network of stations and translators reaches a potential audience of 1 million in southern Oregon and northern California. Despite the large audience, he has a tiny staff. Eric does the octopus act of programming three stations: a 24 hour news/talk, a 24 hour classical, and a Triple A (adult contemporary). He recently lost his Operations Manager, so he also takes care of Ops, and he does a long air shift every day.
Update on Seattle
I spoke this morning with Bryan Lowe, Program Director of KING-FM, who wanted me to clarify the situation in Seattle. His words:
Classical Music Radio – How Do We Survive and Thrive?
Ever since the news that WUFT at the University of Florida in Gainesville is switching from classical music to news/talk, Mike and Mona and I have been privately batting around a discussion about what classical stations need to do to survive and thrive. We thought you might want to join the discussion.