Milwaukee orchestra faces longer wait for radio station

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I wrote recently about the good fortunes of free103point9, the New York nonprofit devoted to art that uses radio and transmission media as a starting point. free103 recently received a construction permit to start a new noncommercial FM radio station in Acra, N.Y. This led me to wonder about the fate of other applicants for noncommercial stations. Unfortunately, it looks like they have more waiting in store.

As I mentioned, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra also joined the thousands of eligible organizations that applied last fall for a noncommercial station. But like many applicants, the MSO is in a situation in which its application is competing with applications from other organizations. The FCC has to settle these disputes by weeding through the applications and awarding points based on a system that rewards localism and diversity of ownership, among other attributes.

I just heard through the public radio grapevine that the FCC is not likely to start this process until early next year. So the MSO and others will need to hang in until then. They’ve already waited a year — what’s another few months, right? Keep your fingers crossed for them!

I knew about the MSO because I worked with them to get their application in on time. But I wondered if any other nonprofits devoted to classical music applied as well. I searched this list of all applicants with the term “classical” and found just one filing, from the Payson Classical Music Association in Payson, Ariz.

This looked promising, but a little more digging revealed that the PCMA operates a low-power FM station, KCMA in Payson. And KCMA, despite its parent organization’s name, plays rock and top 40 — not classical, alas. Station manager Farrell Thompson says KCMA switched format the year after it launched and has no plans to return to classical.

There may be other groups that applied who plan to air classical — we’ll just have to see what happens as new stations sign on. Let’s hope classical and other underrepresented genres of music find some new homes on the airwaves.

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About Mike Janssen

Mike Janssen Served as Scanning The Dial's original co-authors from Mar, 2008 to Jan, 2010 and is a freelance writer, editor and media educator based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He has written extensively about radio, mostly for Current, the trade newspaper about public broadcasting, where his articles have appeared since 1999. He has also worked in public radio as a reporter at WFDD-FM in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he began his career in journalism and filed pieces for NPR. Mike's work in radio expanded to include outreach and advocacy in 2007, when he worked with the Future of Music Coalition to recruit applicants for noncommercial radio stations. He has since embarked on writing a series of articles about radio hopefuls for FMC's blog.

Mike also writes regularly for Retail Traffic magazine and teaches workshops about writing, podcasting and radio journalism. In his spare time he enjoys vegetarian food, the outdoors, reading, movies and traveling. You can learn more about Mike and find links to more of his writing and reporting at mikejanssen.net.

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1 thought on “Milwaukee orchestra faces longer wait for radio station”

  1. Mike- we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for the MSO. It’s a shame that their nationally syndicated series is heard all over the country, but not in their own hometown.

    What I haven’t heard mentioned is how supportive the musicians’ union must be of new ventures like this. Kudos to the progressive thinking on their part as well.

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