World’s Best Job: Pandora Music Analyst

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How would you like the job of listening to music all day and getting paid to judge what you hear without having to write a review? That’s what Pandora’s 26 human — not computer — analysts do all day.  They sort and catalogue Pandora’s library of some 350 genres, encompassing nearly a million tracks by 90,000 artists. There’s a great article about the Music Genome project here.  Michelle Alexander is a senior music analyst and supervisor. …music analysts go through thousands of songs, one by one, rating various music attributes. There are between 200 and 450 attributes for … Continue Reading

Another Entry in Our Digest of Creative Ideas

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WKU Public Radio in Bowling Green, KY is partnering with a local law firm to offer cash prizes for poetry written in response to classical music.  The contest is for high school students, who listen and choose from one of two pieces, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, or Vivaldi’s Mandolin Concerto.  They then write and submit their poems.  The top two winners get $500 and $200 respectively in savings bonds.  A nice way to celebrate National Poetry Month.  Read more here.

Spring Fundraising – Guilt, Dread, oh yeah, and Gratitude

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It’s that time for many stations.  Spring fundraising time.  There’s a tongue-in-cheek, somewhat uncomfortable op-ed on Chron.com from the Houston Chronicle.  History Professor and KUHF listener Robert Zaretsky writes about his dread of fundraising and guilt for not donating regularly. I confess a sense of guilt plays a role in my reaction. Though I regularly listen to KUHF, I have been an irregular member. Like the rest of us, I suspect, I have a number of strategies for dealing with this form of guilt. There is the “that will show ’em” gambit, … Continue Reading

Steve Brown New PD in Roanoke

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WVTF in Roanoke has named Steve Brown its new Program Director.  He does the octopus act  — a little bit of everything — like all local station peeps do. Since October 2011, Brown has hosted the weekday “Morning” and “Afternoon Classics” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., “a lengthy announcing schedule by any broadcasting standards,” said WVTF Program Director Rick Mattioni. In his role, Brown now programs all the classical music for the weekdays and Saturday afternoons. In addition, Brown updates the playlists that appear on the WVTF website and maintains the music library. … Continue Reading

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