CBC hires new classical host; the plight of jazz radio

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Authormike72x72_3 There’s been little news to report as of late regarding the uproar over programming changes on CBC Radio, but the Vancouver Sun today features a profile of Julie Nesrallah, a mezzo-soprano from Ottawa who has been named the host of CBC Radio Two’s new flagship classical show to debut in September. Nesrallah has no previous experience with radio, but CBC execs say she bowled them over with her innate grasp of the medium. The article highlights how the new host plans to approach her job:

[Nesrallah] says she hopes to help de-mystify classical music for those who think it’s difficult, and she says her own story serves as an example.

Nesrallah’s family did not listen to classical music or opera when she was growing up. She discovered it through school choirs and the encouragement of music teachers like Sylvia Darwood at Alta Vista Public School, who recognized a promising singing voice.

“You don’t have to grow up with Haydn at teatime to appreciate classical music,” says Nesrallah.

“You can be a middle-class Lebanese kid from Ottawa who waitressed and put themselves through school, and you can dig classical music. I hope I’ll be able to deliver it in a way that’s interesting.”

Here’s the full article.

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Horner: Midday research as “a house of cards on a foundation of quicksand”

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To wrap up my series of posts about the midday classical music research undertaken by the Public Radio Program Directors Association, I conducted a Q&A by e-mail with Wes Horner. Horner has a long track record in arts and documentary programming for public radio. He started in the business as a producer at Boston’s WGBH, then went on to serve as executive producer of NPR’s Performance Today. He also worked in the same role for Smithsonian Productions, helped develop From the Top and is now involved with Five Farms, a series of radio documentaries about farming families in the U.S.

Horner wrote a commentary for Current newspaper last year in which he questioned the findings and implications of the Midday Classical Music Testing Project. I asked him to explain his views and to lay out the priorities classical public radio should be pursuing. Here’s our interview.

Scanning the Dial: What do you see as the shortcomings of the PRPD Midday Classical Music Testing Project?

Wes Horner
Wes Horner

Horner: Two issues:

(1) The conceit that you can make meaningful decisions about programming pre-recorded music on CD based on testing artificially excised samples, tested in an artificial environment, I believe is building a house of cards on a foundation of quicksand. Music is more complex than the study recognizes, as is real-life listening. The data aren’t very useful.

(2) Tinkering with the process of making the “right” selection of CD tracks in the hopes that we can energize music on radio is a deflection from where our energy and resources ought to be focused. Namely, how can public radio create music programming that shares the values of our successful news programs? We need to come to grips with the dissonance we’ve created between our music programming and our news/talk programming. And we ought to ask ourselves what the landscape would look like in music on public radio nationally if we invested money, developed production infrastructures, and cultivated talent on both sides of the microphone on a scale similar to that of news. Imagine — please — that the community of music makers and music lovers considered public radio their meeting place of engagement, as do newsmakers and news consumers.

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The Radio Performance Tax — Just Say No

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Authormarty72x72_2 Who makes money off of classical music radio, or any music radio, for that matter? Is it the artists? The stations? The record companies?

If classical music radio were profitable, there would be a lot more stations doing it. That’s why it makes no sense at all for the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) to try to levy a Radio Performance Tax on stations. For the past 50 years or more, record companies have been sending free recordings to stations and begging for airplay. The money the companies made off all that free airplay was pure profit.

After making money off the stations for all those years, now the record companies have become ingrates and want to charge the stations. They are saying that the radio stations are getting their products for free and making money off them, and they ought to pay for the privilege. Virtually all of the record companies still standing are overseas, so any tax money earned would immediately leave the country.

It won’t succeed — this time. Congress isn’t going to allow it. As of last week, a majority in the House and about 13 senators have opposed the effort. You can read about it here. Here’s the other side of the argument in Wired.

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How midday classical research is changing station playlists

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On Monday I wrote about the midday music research conducted by the Public Radio Program Directors Association — a survey of hundreds of classical-music listeners that gauged their responses to dozens of snippets of music. The goal was to determine which sounds appealed to those listeners and which didn’t, thus helping programmers at classical public radio stations build audience by focusing on more user-friendly selections.

So how is this research being used? Following the release of the study’s results, 12 stations around the country began applying its lessons to their midday music mixes. I checked in with a few programmers to find out what changes they’re making.

“I’ve found that it’s taken me back to really trying to think and listen like my audience,” says Karen Walker, operations and music director at KBIA in Columbia, Mo. Walker has been combing through her station’s music library and classifying selections according to their appeal to the listeners surveyed in the study.

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