Stations tie special programming to Olympics kickoff

With the Olympics about to begin Friday, two classical radio stations have announced special programming to mark the occasion. One is Boston’s WGBH, which has already kicked off its World of Classical Music Challenge on Aug. 1. The station is asking listeners to help create “the dream team of classical music” by submitting their favorite pieces of music from the world’s five regions as represented by the Olympic Rings: Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. Submissions will be accepted until Aug. 24.

Listeners won’t hear the fruits of their suggestions until September, which is Classical Music Month. That’s when WGBH will draw from the results for its special programming to observe the occasion. I especially like that listeners are being asked to call a toll-free number or e-mail audio files to comment on their selections — WGBH will work these voices into the programming. Sounds like a fun way to include the audience in the broadcast.

You can check out the Web page for the challenge here. And of course you’ll be able to listen to the special programming online when it gets underway.

The other summer blockbuster to accompany the Olympics comes from Cleveland’s WCLV, which has scheduled a marathon broadcast of Wagner’s Ring cycle from Friday morning to Saturday evening this week. “If you must watch the Olympics, turn down the TV sound and listen to Wagner. You’ll be surprised how well the Ring music fits the pictures from the Olympics,” says WCLV’s website. Oh, if you must. The rest of the schedule is pretty amusing, too. Die Walkuere gets going at 6 a.m. Saturday — “Yes, 6:00 AM!! If our announcer has to be here at 6:00 AM, you can damn well set your radio alarm to 6:00 AM.” Heh. WCLV also has a Web stream.

Thanks to David Duff for tipping me off to WCLV’s broadcast on his blog!