Chance of more classical in St. Louis

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Hi there — apologies for the extended absence, but I’ve been whupped with deadline after deadline as of late. It’s nice to come up for air. As Douglas Adams said, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

So it looks as if classical fans in St. Louis despondent over the imminent loss of KFUO might have some salvation coming. KRCU, a public radio station in Cape Girardeau, Mo., is eying an upgrade of its signal in Farmington, about 80 miles outside of St. Louis. In a release on KCRU’s website, General Manager Dan Woods says that could get the station’s signal into parts of St. Louis.

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PSA’s – To Air or Not to Air

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The classical stations have a thread going strong on the Listserv for the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio (AMPPR).  They’re discussing whether stations should air public service announcements (psa’s) for free, for a fee, or not at all, and in the same vein how to decide who gets on-air interviews.

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KCSN – Who Needs Announcers?

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Thanks to reader Larry Mayer for letting us know about the massive — meaning 100% — cuts to KCSN’s announcing staff.  The Northridge CA station has laid off their entire announcing staff and gone to unannounced, automated music from 6 am to 6 pm.  According to John Rabe’s blog at Southern California Public Radio, KCSN plans to launch a digital stream on their website so you can see the name of the piece and the composer.  For the moment it’s light classical, single movements, no-name stuff.

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The Reality Out Here in Radioland, and Some News Bits

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I spoke yesterday with Eric Teel, Program Director at Jefferson Public Radio in southern Oregon.  Their network of stations and translators reaches a potential audience of 1 million in southern Oregon and northern California.  Despite the large audience, he has a tiny staff.  Eric does the octopus act of programming three stations: a 24 hour news/talk, a 24 hour classical, and a Triple A (adult contemporary).  He recently lost his Operations Manager, so he also takes care of Ops, and he does a long air shift every day.

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