Marty wrote a series of thought-provoking posts a while back about diversity and classical radio. I was neck-deep in other business at the time and didn’t get a chance to chime in, but now I have some time to think things over and, I hope, advance the discussion. I’d like to start with a wide lens before zooming in.
Behind the Scenes: Fundraising at a Classical Station
This is not going to be a compendium of fundraising ideas for classical stations, so if you’re looking for the foolproof idea that will make your fundraising SING during a recession, sorry. I wanted to give non-radio types a look at what goes on behind the scenes.
It’s almost impossible for public classical stations to generate “earned income.” Radio has always been free — like the internet — so you can’t really sell the product, unless you’re satellite radio and force people to buy a special receiver and pay a subscription fee.
New Hampshire’s WCNH: a small station filling a big role
The other day I wrote that I found no applicants for new noncommercial classical stations in last fall’s application window, other than the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Well, I did find another one, under the inconspicuous name of Highland Community Broadcasting. And Highland is no newcomer to classical radio — in fact, it now operates the only classical station in the state of New Hampshire.
Extra-terrestrial Classical Radio
Ok, well, maybe extraterrestrial isn’t the term you’d use, but this post is about classical music radio outside of the terrestrial stations — two sources in particular: 1) the new, combined Sirius XM classical channel which they call Symphony Hall, currently on channel 80 on Sirius and 78 on XM, and 2) Naxos Web Radio, which has 80 (!!!!!!!!!) classical channels, divided by genre. Both are subscription services.