Two updates today on recent station-centric kerfuffles that we’ve been following. The first pertains to WUFT-FM in Gainesville, Fla., which as you might remember decided to drop classical from its primary signal and move all the music to an HD channel.
Well, the station had its first fund drive since the switch, and donations were down — by 37 percent, according to the Gainesville Sun.
Hi there — apologies for the extended absence, but I’ve been whupped with deadline after deadline as of late. It’s nice to come up for air. As Douglas Adams said, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”
So it looks as if classical fans in St. Louis despondent over the imminent loss of KFUO might have some salvation coming. KRCU, a public radio station in Cape Girardeau, Mo., is eying an upgrade of its signal in Farmington, about 80 miles outside of St. Louis. In a release on KCRU’s website, General Manager Dan Woods says that could get the station’s signal into parts of St. Louis.
The classical stations have a thread going strong on the Listserv for the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio (AMPPR). They’re discussing whether stations should air public service announcements (psa’s) for free, for a fee, or not at all, and in the same vein how to decide who gets on-air interviews.
Thanks to reader Larry Mayer for letting us know about the massive — meaning 100% — cuts to KCSN’s announcing staff. The Northridge CA station has laid off their entire announcing staff and gone to unannounced, automated music from 6 am to 6 pm. According to John Rabe’s blog at Southern California Public Radio, KCSN plans to launch a digital stream on their website so you can see the name of the piece and the composer. For the moment it’s light classical, single movements, no-name stuff.