Great news from David Duff, President of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio:
This year’s MPC will be in New York City, in the Greene Performance Space at WNYC/WQXR. Dates for the conference will be April 21-23, 2010.
We’ll be reducing the registration fee this year to assist stations affected by the economy (aren’t we all?). Exact amount will be set soon.
Conference hotel will be the Four Points Soho, with a nightly rate of $179.
We will keep you posted as the agenda develops.
Thursday night, at 8 p.m., the new WQXR as owned and operated by WNYC hit the airwaves. The station moved from 96.3 to 105.9 and became a public radio station, while continuing to broadcast classical music. The new version of the old station started with a few introductory remarks and a concert performance by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra broadcast live from Carnegie Hall.
But what’s next? How will the station’s overall sound change? Playlists for the few hours of operation so far are online (lots of standard orchestral music, but also Arvo Pärt and an opera aria), but it’s hard to tell the overall direction from such a short sample.
Had an email from Daniel Gilliam today, P.D. of WUOL in Louisville. He reports that Louisville Public Media has achieved its highest listener numbers ever, with the three Louisville public stations up 38% over the spring book. LPM Vice President Todd Mundt credits his staff and the stations’ focus on community:
Happy Monday, everybody. There’s a very nice blog post about WQXR’s switch from commercial to public radio here. Doc Searls lists five reasons public radio is better than commercial for classical music, but my favorite is the last one: Direct Listener Involvement. Commercial radio has had a huge disadvantage for the duration: its customers and its consumers are different populations. As businesses, commercial radio stations are primarily accountable to advertisers, not to listeners. Public radio is directly accountable to its listeners, because those are also its customers. As public stations make greater … Continue Reading