There’s an interesting argument against classical music radio here today.
Reacting to the reactions of Sacramento listeners at the loss of some classical programming, classical music blogger Greg Sandow writes about the reasons classical radio listeners shouldn’t be upset when stations cut back on or cut out classical music on their stations.
And why do these stations cut back? Because people aren’t listening. The Sacramento station offers these numbers, based on hour-by-hour surveys of what people listen to: 400,000 people listen to its news broadcasts each week, and 130,000 listen to classical music.
So the station — not unreasonably — decides to educate its community with news, because that’s what the community wants. And how could public broadcasting survive, with an audience less than half the size of what it has now?
What gets me, in all of this, is how illogical the outraged classical music fans can be. ”Looking at rating numbers – this is just not right for public radio,” says the listener who wants the station to educate the community with classical music. “I think they’re shooting themselves in the foot because they’re going to lose listeners like me. And once we’re gone, we’re not coming back.”
Right. They’re going to worry about losing 130,000 classical music listeners, while if they kept classical music, they might lose 400,000 news listeners. Not that there isn’t some overlap, but still. Which group should the station want to hold on to? (And, of course, some of the classical listeners will in fact stay, because they like “All Things Considered.”)
Be sure to read the comments, too. And then throw out your spring greens, arugula, and Romaine and instead eat iceberg lettuce because that’s what most people eat.
What to me is skewed in this argument is the idea that classical is a niche format so it doesn’t deserve a radio bandwidth of its own. 130,000 listeners are throw-aways.
Personally, I think there’s room for all of us on the radio. I’m guessing there are other news stations in Sacramento, but there’s only one classical station. I’m a news hound myself and I listen to/read a lot of news sources every single day, but you know what? They are all reporting the same news. 20 different outlets, all saying the same thing. You can’t say the same about classical outlets. There are lots of online classical resources — wonderful ones — but the number one reason for not dumping local classical radio is that the classical station is the most important media outlet — a lifeline, really — for the entire arts community.
Just saying.
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Hi Marty,
Thanks for your simple yet elegant rebuttal to Sandow’s post. I agree completely that local classical stations should focus on giving a voice to the local arts scene. In fact, you’d think that local arts partnerships would be tremendously beneficial to everyone involved.
Well, that’s not always the case, unfortunately.
Since coming to WGTE in Toledo a few years ago, I’ve discovered that the major arts players in this community are in fierce competition with each other (for dollars. mostly), and whenever the idea of “cooperation” or “partnerships” come up, it always turns into a struggle to see who can get the biggest share of the pie. Even worse, there’s a persistent attitude of disdain toward Public Media, coupled with the belief that everything we do should be offered free of charge, as a service to the community. One of our local orchestras – whose concerts we broadcast, by the way – insists that we also provide them with free underwriting, since we are a “public” station (I think they have “public” confused with “community access”).
It’s unfortunate, because there are a lot of wonderful things going on here. The area has a strong and vibrant classical music scene, with Bowling Green State University just to the south and the University of Michigan just to the north. The Toledo Symphony made a splash at Carnegie Hall last season, and is scheduled to tour China this summer. Opportunities are ripe everywhere, but I find little or no cooperation from most of these folks. It’s as if they’re just not interested (even when I invite them on to talk about upcoming concerts, perform in the studio, etc).
So, the question is, what does one do to effect change in this sort of attitude? I believe some of the blame can be laid at the feet of my predecessor, who for many years staunchly resisted any sort of promotion of local arts groups, unless it was paid underwriting.
I’m curious if you (or your readers) have any thoughts on the issue. Many Thanks!
Brad Cresswell
Radio Program Manager, WGTE Public Media
I should add, by the way, that I’m not talking about getting local arts groups to advertise on our station; I actually have a difficult time getting them interested in free exposure via in-studio interviews and performances, etc. Go figure!
Thanks for starting that conversation, Brad. I hope your colleagues will weigh in. I’ve been on both sides of that equation, and cockeyed optimist that I am, I keep thinking we’re all in this together and there’s a perfect balance if we’ll try. The arts groups need us, and we need them, and neither one should expect the other to do all the giving.