Good Idea at MPR

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A friend asked me earlier this week if I’ve heard anything creative lately on classical radio, and I had to answer “not really.”  In my experience, classical stations are risk averse and I don’t just mean averse to playing new music or vocal music.  Not to disparage anyone, but except for KUSC and WQXR, I rarely hear about stations trying new ideas or being bold about stretching their audiences. I just ran across one today that I didn’t know about.  Minnesota Public Radio sponsors what they call an “artist-in-residence,” but instead of being “in-residence” on the … Continue Reading

Radio My Way – Ron Della Chiesa

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Veteran Boston broadcaster Ron Della Chiesa has a new memoir out called Radio My Way: Featuring Celebrity Profiles from Jazz, Opera, the American Songbook and More.  You can read a profile of Ron on the WBUR blog here.  The book has a foreword by Brian Bell, Ron’s partner-in-crime at Tanglewood and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  You can read about the two of them and sound engineer Jim Donahue in this article about Tanglewood’s 20th anniversary. For the last two decades, Boston radio personality Ron Della Chiesa has been the “voice of Tanglewood,” hosting Friday and … Continue Reading

Huge News for Radio

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The FCC has just made a major and overdue decision about Low-Power FMs that could affect the classical radio landscape.  The commission has cleared — basically denied —  hundreds of applications for repeaters that have been waiting for approval and instead has opened up the airwaves to hundreds of potential new community stations to broadcast on low-power signals in urban areas. The applications for repeaters were filed by corporate and religious broadcasters who wanted to spread their biased content even further. …what a lot of right-wing, conservative radio stations have been able to do is expand their reach … Continue Reading

Once Again, KUSC Gets It

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I’ve always maintained that if a classical music radio station wants to be healthy, it needs to be Arts Central for its community.  That means the station should be the first place people turn for info.  For that reason, a good radio station will be the keeper of the community arts calendar.  It’s not rocket science and it’s not a hugely burdensome task, but it IS enormously useful to listeners if it’s done well. Need to find out what time a concert starts?  Where you can get tickets?   Who’s performing in what venue?  It’s a no-brainer.  Stations … Continue Reading

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