WUFT in Gainesville, Fla., went through with its change to all-news Monday, despite the continued protests of area classical fans. The Gainesville Sun ran an article noting the change — I wonder whether this might be the most media coverage of a switch away from classical since we inaugurated this blog. WUFT now airs an all-classical HD channel, and the Sun notes that electronics stores in Gainesville have sold an unprecedented number of HD radios since the change. I was also surprised that the HD channel features live hosts. That may be a first for an HD classical channel, according to the article. (Are any of the hosts on WNYC2 live?)
The paper ran still more letters from upset WUFT listeners, including one who rewrote the lyrics to Don McLean’s “American Pie”: “Professor Wright / You know you’re makin’ us sigh / Singin’ this’ll be the day that we cry.” And the University of Florida’s student newspaper covered the change as well.
In other station news, the Stamford (Conn.) Times looks at the history of WSHU in Fairfield, Conn., another station that has pared classical music from its schedule over the years. “We basically built our audience by having all classical music all day and 90 minutes of news from 5:30–7 p.m. each night,” General Manager George Lombardi tells the paper. “Back then we were known for classical musical with All Things Considered. Today we are National Public Radio with classical music.”
WEKU in Richmond, Ky., has made some programming changes. The station also announced that Keith Neisler will serve as its new program director. Neisler formerly served as station manager of KIOS-FM in Omaha, Neb.
And Robert McBride, a host on All Classical FM in Portland, Ore., has composed a piece that was performed by Ballet Victoria — see it here.
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When we do hear “hosts” at wnyc2, they are not live. George Preston told me about doing “tips and tails”, intros, and then the little bits after a piece finishes.
There have been several stabs at this, most recently I think Nadia Sirota, the new young phenom violist on the New York “New Music” scene, who regularly “hosts” Overnight Music. On the overnight I think it is also “tips and tails”.