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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Roe chosen to lead WDAV

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WDAV-FM in Davidson, N.C., announced today that Ben Roe will serve as its general manager. Roe previously worked at National Public Radio for 20 years, serving most recently as its director of music and music initiatives. At WDAV, he succeeds Kim Hodgson, who has led the station for nine years. Roe assumes the job July 1. WDAV, a full-time classical station, serves Charlotte and the surrounding area. Read the full release from WDAV. You can also check out Roe’s writing about music and media on his blog.

Getting to the nitty-gritty of listeners’ musical tastes

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A while back I wrote about the influential “core values” research conducted by the Public Radio Program Directors Association, which aimed to understand what listeners to classical music radio appreciate most about their stations of choice. Those studies were useful because they helped classical programmers put themselves in their listeners’ shoes and get a handle on why exactly people listen at all.

But the studies were limited in scope — they assessed the value of classical radio only in general terms and stopped short of gauging reactions to specific musical works. Last year, however, PRPD unveiled the results of the Midday Classical Music Testing Project, a study that aimed to do just that. The study asked groups of listeners to rate a wide range of musical snippets as appealing or unappealing, and programmers at classical stations are now revising their music mixes to line up with the findings in an effort to improve midday listening.

The 309 listeners in four cities who participated already listened to classical during middays on the stations in their markets. With handheld units, they registered their reactions to 150 30-second musical samples, noting positive or negative appeal.

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