New media

What WGBH learned from its Second Life experiment

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In May my co-author Marty and I told you about the virtual online world of Second Life and an intriguing experiment conducted by Boston-based public broadcaster WGBH. Classical pianist Jeremy Denk visited WGBH’s studios to perform live on-air and, at the same time, in a virtual performance space within Second Life. Afterward, he answered questions submitted by the Second Life audience.

Public media’s experience in Second Life extends to just a few isolated efforts, and WGBH had never staged such an event before. So Gary Mott, the radio producer at WGBH who oversaw the event, didn’t really know what to expect. Would anyone show up? Would they enjoy it? And would WGBH’s considerable efforts to stage a virtual performance be worth it?

WGBH's Second Life performance space
WGBH's Second Life performance space

I talked to Mott the other day to find out, and the answer on all counts was “yes”: “It surpassed what we expected,” he said. About 70 Second Lifers showed up to see Denk and ask questions, and Mott says they were polite, attentive and keenly curious about Denk and his music. They also chatted with each other via instant messaging throughout the concert — you can see their comments and applause in the image accompanying this post.

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WCPE – An Amazing Business Model

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I was surfing the net the other day and saw a press release from WCPE in Wake Forest, NC about their new affiliation with KXMS in Joplin, MO. Jeff Skibbe, the Joplin station’s General Manager is always intensely interested in classical radio’s place on the internet, so my ears perked up. I picked up the old fashioned telephone and called Curtis Brothers, WCPE’s outreach manager.

We’re providing programming free to small stations that can’t afford their own. We pay a lot of attention to the human aspect; we’re always 24-hour live-hosted. For radio stations we provide tones for local i.d.s; a lot of stations use us overnight.

Free to any station that wants it? Wait a minute. How is that possible? The recent demise of CPRN’s voice-tracked satellite service which we reported on March 21st makes this seem impossible from a business standpoint. CPRN was charging stations for their service, as are the two other programming services, Beethoven Satellite Network from WFMT in Chicago, and Classical 24 from American Public Media in St. Paul, MN. How does WCPE do it for free?

Because they really want to. Curtis Brothers says they are managed extremely efficiently.

We’re 100% listener-supported. We do our own fundraisers twice a year. Volunteers answer the phones and send out mailings. We use volunteer hosts for 25% of our airtime. Stations get the local Wake Forest concert announcements and underwriting because it’s just straight streaming, but it’s only a couple of minutes per hour.

Seems like a small price to pay. WCPE has about 150,000 listeners in Raleigh-Durham, plus 11 translators and 14 radio station affiliates. You can pick up their signal on many cable TV stations, and if you have your own dish you can pick it up at home from the AMC-1 satellite.

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Classical podcasts from labels, and a new show Down Under

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Authormike72x72_3 Amid our recent discussion of classical podcasts, this news item caught my eye: the host of a classical show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.’s radio stations found a new home for his program after the CBC dropped it in March. Rick Phillips’ Sound Advice is now available as a podcast. The interesting thing is that the new producer and distributor of Sound Advice is Universal Music Canada, the record label. As a result, the show, which discusses classical recordings, now spotlights only Universal products.

Here’s the full article at scena.org about this change. Radio stations, take note — if you create a vacuum or leave one unfilled, other producers in the new-media realm are in line to cozy up to your listeners.

Another example is the weekly podcast available from the Naxos label, featuring interviews with performers, composers, conductors and others about new recordings on Naxos. Thanks to David Srebnik for pointing that one out after I asked for podcast suggestions.

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Podcasts, KCSN and American Public Media

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Authormike72x72_3 Commenters brought to my attention a few classical podcasts originating from stations. In case you didn’t see their additions to the original thread, here they are:

Boston’s WGBH offers Classical to Go!, a podcast featuring live performances from its studios. It doesn’t have a dedicated Web page, so here’s the direct XML link. Thanks to commenter lassus for that one.

WSHU in Fairfield, Conn., previews local symphony concerts (XML link). Thanks to Mike Crane for that heads-up. A great use of podcasts, in my opinion — strengthens community ties, puts voices of people in the arts community on the air, and helps to establish the station as a go-to place for information about local arts. That latter point, I think, will be especially important as people have more and more options for acquiring and listening to music. Even when they’re listening to streams from Saudi Arabia, they’ll still want to know where to see a live performance in their own backyards.

Know of more classical podcasts that stations are producing? Let us know.

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