You have a great idea for a radio series. You have the skill to create some shows, and the musicians have signed off on the rights to put the music on the air. But you don’t know how to get stations interested in your shows. Well, one of the strengths of the classical radio world is the network of people who know the biz and are always keeping an ear open for great programming. Enter Kathy Gronau and her organization, Creative Public Radio.
Classical radio makes for mellower worms
Humans are not the only species soothed by the strains of classical radio. We know this thanks to Abram Sparks, an eighth-grader and budding scientist who lives in Hazel Green, Alabama.
Sparks won a regional science fair in April with an experiment in which he subjected worms to different musical genres. One bucket of worms listened to a radio playing classical music, while the other listened to rap. As the Huntsville Times reports, the worms in the classical bucket exhibited all the characteristics of respondents to public radio’s Classical Core Values study: they were soothed and free of stress, evidently a worm’s natural state. (It’s harder to say whether they had achieved “clarity of mind.”)
Some Perspective on KCSN and News About the Oregon Symphony
We’ve been posting periodic updates about the disturbing decisions being made about KCSN in Northridge, CA (the L.A. area). We just received this bit of historical perspective from Helen Peppard, of CreativePR.
Making the case for HD Radio with fresh programming
I’ve told you about the changes coming up at WGCU in Fort Myers, Fla., where classical music will soon be moved to a channel available only on digital radios. WGCU’s classical channel will air Classical 24, the nationally distributed satellite feed produced by American Public Media. Other public stations have taken similar approaches, filling their digital channels with Classical 24, Classical Public Radio Network (when it was still on the air), or other 24/7 formats such as rock or electronica.
Over at the Edison Media Research blog, Tom Webster suggests that radio programmers should give their HD streams a little more thought, especially if they hope to give consumers any real incentive to buy new HD Radios. His focus is on commercial radio, but the advice applies to public stations as well.