Scanning The Dial

Behind the Scenes: Fundraising at a Classical Station

November 24, 2008 by Marty Ronish

This is not going to be a compendium of fundraising ideas for classical stations, so if you’re looking for the foolproof idea that will make your fundraising SING during a recession, sorry. I wanted to give non-radio types a look at what goes on behind the scenes.

It’s almost impossible for public classical stations to generate “earned income.” Radio has always been free — like the internet — so you can’t really sell the product, unless you’re satellite radio and force people to buy a special receiver and pay a subscription fee.

New Hampshire’s WCNH: a small station filling a big role

November 21, 2008 by Mike Janssen

The other day I wrote that I found no applicants for new noncommercial classical stations in last fall’s application window, other than the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Well, I did find another one, under the inconspicuous name of Highland Community Broadcasting. And Highland is no newcomer to classical radio — in fact, it now operates the only classical station in the state of New Hampshire.

Extra-terrestrial Classical Radio

November 19, 2008 by Marty Ronish

Ok, well, maybe extraterrestrial isn’t the term you’d use, but this post is about classical music radio outside of the terrestrial stations — two sources in particular: 1) the new, combined Sirius XM classical channel which they call Symphony Hall, currently on channel 80 on Sirius and 78 on XM, and 2) Naxos Web Radio, which has 80 (!!!!!!!!!) classical channels, divided by genre. Both are subscription services.

Milwaukee orchestra faces longer wait for radio station

November 17, 2008 by Mike Janssen

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.

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