Public radio

Performance Royalties – The First Domino Tumbles

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Until recently, musicians and record companies have had a mutually-beneficial agreement with radio stations.   No money needed to change hands because the artists and record companies got free publicity and the radio stations got free product. With music moving to the internet and the change in media ownership rules, however, that delicate balance has shifted.  Record companies have lost out to file-sharing.  Big money now owns most of the broadcast spectrum. Radio has never paid royalties to the artists, which made sense when radio was little mom and pop companies.  But you can see why it’s … Continue Reading

More Classical – A Tale of Three Cities

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San Francisco: The somewhat convoluted steps that have gone into making commercial classical KDFC into a public station in the crammed Bay area market is starting to resolve with a new ruling by the FCC. Commercial KDFC’s powerful signal was sold 17 months ago, and to keep classical music on the air, the Classical Public Radio Network in LA acquired a group of smaller stations that would cover the Bay area.  KUSF at the University of San Francisco was one of them.   But the students and community listeners of eclectic KUSF were not pleased and they mounted a p.r. offensive against the … Continue Reading

WITF in Harrisburg PA Drops Classical

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At the end of this month, classical music lovers in Harrisburg and Chambersburg will no longer find 94 hours a week of classical music on their public radio station.  In place of music, the station is switching to nearly all news/talk.  To add insult to injury, Harrisburg listeners are treated like this in the press: WITF is adding a classical music Internet channel to witf.org. Now lovers of classical music will be able to access their favorite music 24-7 on witf.org, via computer, mobile device or Internet radio. I guess they are practicing politics-speak for when they go talkedy-talk on … Continue Reading

Adding Translators in Eugene OR

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Reader Brian Marchan is on top of the classical radio news.   He reports that KWAX in Eugene OR is adding three translators serving Sutherlin, Roseburg and Tri-City.  He also speculates that this might eventually affect programming in Roseburg. I wonder if the translators could eventually signal a format flip for other Univ of Oregon stations in the area from classical to a news/rythmic format. Specifically classical KSRS 91.5 Roseburg, OR which is Classical except Morning Edition and All things Considered, run by Jefferson Public Radio for the Univ of Oregon. I would add that … Continue Reading

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