You have a great idea for a radio series. You have the skill to create some shows, and the musicians have signed off on the rights to put the music on the air. But you don’t know how to get stations interested in your shows. Well, one of the strengths of the classical radio world is the network of people who know the biz and are always keeping an ear open for great programming. Enter Kathy Gronau and her organization, Creative Public Radio.
Programming
Classical radio makes for mellower worms
Humans are not the only species soothed by the strains of classical radio. We know this thanks to Abram Sparks, an eighth-grader and budding scientist who lives in Hazel Green, Alabama.
Sparks won a regional science fair in April with an experiment in which he subjected worms to different musical genres. One bucket of worms listened to a radio playing classical music, while the other listened to rap. As the Huntsville Times reports, the worms in the classical bucket exhibited all the characteristics of respondents to public radio’s Classical Core Values study: they were soothed and free of stress, evidently a worm’s natural state. (It’s harder to say whether they had achieved “clarity of mind.”)
Making the case for HD Radio with fresh programming
I’ve told you about the changes coming up at WGCU in Fort Myers, Fla., where classical music will soon be moved to a channel available only on digital radios. WGCU’s classical channel will air Classical 24, the nationally distributed satellite feed produced by American Public Media. Other public stations have taken similar approaches, filling their digital channels with Classical 24, Classical Public Radio Network (when it was still on the air), or other 24/7 formats such as rock or electronica.
Over at the Edison Media Research blog, Tom Webster suggests that radio programmers should give their HD streams a little more thought, especially if they hope to give consumers any real incentive to buy new HD Radios. His focus is on commercial radio, but the advice applies to public stations as well.
Some Innovative (And Painless) Programming
When stations play those CDs, and you hear the announcers chat about the music — blah, blah, blah — don’t you wish you could hear what the actual artists have to say about it? So many stations try to make celebrities out of their announcers, but the real celebrities are the people who make the music! It’s all about them. Really. That’s why I’m so fascinated by this fairly new production group called Virtuoso Voices. It’s not at all the old interview concept, where the announcer is still in the way. This … Continue Reading