At the end of this month, classical music lovers in Harrisburg and Chambersburg will no longer find 94 hours a week of classical music on their public radio station. In place of music, the station is switching to nearly all news/talk. To add insult to injury, Harrisburg listeners are treated like this in the press:
WITF is adding a classical music Internet channel to witf.org. Now lovers of classical music will be able to access their favorite music 24-7 on witf.org, via computer, mobile device or Internet radio.
I guess they are practicing politics-speak for when they go talkedy-talk on June 25th.
And the station is tossing the listeners a bone:
A new original series, Center Stage, will feature the concerts of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Market Square Concerts and other performing and presenting groups from our region. Center Stage will feature classical, jazz and other musical genres each Saturday and Sunday evening at 8 p.m.
So instead of 94 hours a week of classical music, they’re going to play a couple of hours a week, and those at a time when few people are listening. Saturday night at 8 is prime concert time. They’re actually competing for audience with the live concert audience. Brilliant.
I’m hoping our friends Cary Burkett and Joe Ulrich, the station’s classical announcers, aren’t losing their jobs. Here’s a statement from station management:
“WITF and NPR have an established track record of providing trusted news globally, nationally and regionally,” said President Kathleen Pavelko. “It’s not a decision we make lightly, but we are certain it will provide better coverage of our region, including of the arts and cultural community.”
“While we are certain this is the right course for our audiences and our organization, it is with sadness that we mark the end of our classical-music programming,” Pavelko said. “We know our classical listeners will have other ways to hear the music they love, and our expanded news format will bring new content to our audiences. But while it is the right course, we will be saying goodbye to a cherished part of our service that dates back to 1971.”
Don’t you love it when they say there are other sources for classical music? There’s one public classical music source in the community and they take it away. How many other news sources are there?
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Thanks for the news I had not heard this yet. A website stream of classical music means nothing. I am sure it will be a satellite feed that is also available all over the internet. And it does not help people in their cars. They should add an HD 2 signal of classical music not an internet stream. I do not understand how the station thinks that does any good.
In Harrisburg there is WJAZ 97.7 and WRTL 90.7 in Lancaster that both air classical music 6-18 Mon-Sat and 14-18 on Sunday’s from Philadelphia’s WRTI 90.1.
In southern PA WBJC 91.5 comes in best from York south and is 24 hour classical. And in the Chambersburg, PA area WGMS 89.1 comes in with 24 hour classical.
WRTL needs to add a classical station on an HD 2 signal for Harrisburg and Lancaster like WRTI does in Philadelphia. Maybe this will be the incentive to do it. But WJAZ and WRTL are low power and so the HD signal would be even lower power and hard to pick up.
Who cares about a concert program once a week they may not even air classical music. I would not even have a preset for them on my radio.
It would be better to have separate full-time news and classical stations everywhere but when there not at least there were 2 stations before that combined almost had full-time coverage. If I lived in the Harrisburg or Lancaster areas and in many other places too I would just get XM/Sirius satellite radio to be able to listen to classical music anytime I wanted. in the car.