Programming

A little bit of horsing around

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I can’t resist the opportunity to add another chapter to what is becoming an ongoing Scanning the Dial series: Animals Enjoying Classical Radio. I get the chance this time thanks to an article in the British Telegraph newspaper about a woman in the U.K. who runs a stable. She was playing a classical radio station to keep her horses mellow — until The Man caught up with her.

A British entity known as the Performing Rights Society called Ms. Rosemary Greenway to inform her that playing the radio station qualified as a “performance” and she thus owed the PRS an annual license fee of 99 pounds. Greenway opted not to pay the fee and now plays the station only when alone at the stable (only employers of two or more people have to cough up the fee).

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Budget woes persist; Ohio station simulcasts classical

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Apologies to our readers for the, uh, radio silence here at Scanning the Dial as of late — your scribes have been buried under deadlines and other pressing concerns and haven’t had as much time for blogging as we’d like. But we have more reflections on last week’s Music Personnel Conference coming your way, including posts from guest blogger Mona Seghatoleslami of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

In the meantime, a few recent news items worth noting:

:: Budget difficulties continue at stations across the country. The Berkshire Eagle reports that WMHT in Troy, N.Y., faces a deficit of $235,000. With an annual budget of $8.5 million, that’s not as severe as some stations are dealing with, but WMHT has frozen hiring and cut a monthly magazine. A proposed budget for the state of New York would also drastically reduce WMHT’s state support.

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Notes From the Music Personnel Conference in Fort Worth

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I’m at the national conference of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio, being held in a newly remodeled Fort Worth Sheraton.  I’m sorry for those of you who couldn’t make it, because the sessions have been very good, and the food is outstanding.

Mona has taken detailed notes, and I think we’ll ask her to write up the great advice we got on announcing from a morning session by John Dodge, Program Director at KBPS in Portland OR.  John had a very lively, engaging list of do’s and don’t’s for classical announcers, based on long experience, a keen ear, and his own personable style.

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Music director among casualties at WMFE

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A few miscellaneous notes this morning. First off, a blogger for OrlandoSentinel.com reports that Dave Glerum, a classical host at WMFE in Orlando, Fla., was among the employees laid off last week when the station cut a quarter of its staff.

“Glerum was the station’s music director — which makes me wonder how a classical-music radio station can go on without someone programming its classical music,” writes the blogger. Good question. Classical 24, perhaps?

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