Some Innovative (And Painless) Programming

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When stations play those CDs, and you hear the announcers chat about the music — blah, blah, blah — don’t you wish you could hear what the actual artists have to say about it? So many stations try to make celebrities out of their announcers, but the real celebrities are the people who make the music! It’s all about them. Really. That’s why I’m so fascinated by this fairly new production group called Virtuoso Voices. It’s not at all the old interview concept, where the announcer is still in the way. This … Continue Reading

Florida station moves classical to HD

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We’ve been ruminating and prognosticating lately about the Future of Classical Radio, but it’s equally important to follow present-day developments in good old terrestrial radio — for many still the primary source for classical.

So I took notice when not one but two public radio stations announced in the past few weeks that they’re moving away from the dual news/classical format and giving more daytime hours to news and talk. They join several other stations that have made similar changes since we launched this blog in March. As I’ve written before, 200-plus public stations in the U.S. air both news and classical. But the format is saddled with some inherent drawbacks, the main one being that few listeners enjoy both kinds of programming.

One of the stations to dump the dual format is going whole-hog — not just taking classical out of middays, but taking it off its primary signal entirely.

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Classical radio in a post-iPhone world

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Is the death of conventional radio imminent, and if so, which broadcasters will survive the jump to new platforms? Several bloggers and radio watchers took up these questions last week, prompted by the introduction July 11 of Apple’s newest iPhone. More than a million of the mega-hyped gadgets sold over their debut weekend, and according to the Radio and Internet Newsletter, Internet-radio applications were among the most popular downloads as buyers tricked out their new toys. Options include Last.fm, Pandora, allRadio and AOL Radio, which also features streams of dozens of CBS-owned stations around the country.

Some observers of the media world and the radio trade argue that, for radio, this marks the beginning of the end. Sure, the iPhone is far from universal adoption, and radios are still ubiquitous (even if members of the younger generations rarely turn them on). But as RAIN’s Kurt Hanson noted, “Keep in mind that what an iPhone can do today, most phones will be able to do in the not-too-distant future.” He adds:

Radio broadcasters could be leaders in this space, but except for the AOL/CBS partnership, none currently are. The problem is, radio broadcasters will have to develop new products and services appropriate for consumer needs and tastes in this new environment, and that means more than straight AM/FM simulcasts.

It means offering a broad spectrum of genres of music, offering playlist options that can be, at the consumer’s demand, very tight or very wide, offering other personalization options that are brand-specific, and, to compete effectively with the AOLs and Pandoras of the world, not trying to deliver 12 minutes of commercials per hour.

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Martin Perlich, KCSN, Ben Rosen on the Met, and Sean MacLean

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Some notes about happenings in the classical radio world on a midsummer Friday. Dailynews.com reports than longtime radio personality Martin Perlich resigned on Tuesday from his job as Program Director at KCSN in Northridge, CA. Perlich is very well respected for his award-winning interviews with musicians. He’s retiring at age 70 with his legendary energy unabated. His retirement leaves a big hole in the radio landscape and raises even more questions about the fate of KCSN, where there have been rumblings of changes, but no hard news yet. To quote the article … Continue Reading

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