People

Peter Whorf Leaves WFMT for WKAR

by

Tom Taylor at Radio-info.com reports that Peter Whorf is leaving his longtime position as Program Director and VP of Content at WFMT in Chicago and will be taking over as General Manager of WKAR at Michigan State University. Peter Whorf departs Chicago for East Lansing, says TimeOut Chicago’s Robert Feder. The program director and VP of Content and Project Management at classical WFMT (98.7) takes over August 27 as station manager of Michigan State University-owned non-coms WKAR (news/talk at 870) and WKAR-FM (news and classical at 90.5). Peter worked at Chicago Public Media’s … Continue Reading

Fabulous! Classical Radio May Return to St. Louis by Summer

by

There’s great news from Sarah Bryan Miller in St. Louis, who has done such a great job of keeping us informed at stltoday.com. The Radio Arts Foundation-St. Louis, which provided considerable financial support to the old “Classic99,” KFUO-FM, hopes to be on the air with a new FM station in early June, pending FCC approvals.  The proposed analog station will be audible “in the Highway 40-I-44 corridor,” said station manager Jim Connett. The Centene Foundation gave $200,000 to begin the process and has committed $1 million more; further fundraising will begin in earnest … Continue Reading

Steve Brown New PD in Roanoke

by

WVTF in Roanoke has named Steve Brown its new Program Director.  He does the octopus act  — a little bit of everything — like all local station peeps do. Since October 2011, Brown has hosted the weekday “Morning” and “Afternoon Classics” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., “a lengthy announcing schedule by any broadcasting standards,” said WVTF Program Director Rick Mattioni. In his role, Brown now programs all the classical music for the weekdays and Saturday afternoons. In addition, Brown updates the playlists that appear on the WVTF website and maintains the music library. … Continue Reading

Good Idea at MPR

by

A friend asked me earlier this week if I’ve heard anything creative lately on classical radio, and I had to answer “not really.”  In my experience, classical stations are risk averse and I don’t just mean averse to playing new music or vocal music.  Not to disparage anyone, but except for KUSC and WQXR, I rarely hear about stations trying new ideas or being bold about stretching their audiences. I just ran across one today that I didn’t know about.  Minnesota Public Radio sponsors what they call an “artist-in-residence,” but instead of being “in-residence” on the … Continue Reading

Send this to a friend