Recent Articles
Chicago Broadcaster Norm Pellegrini Dies
Venerable classical broadcaster Norman Pellegrini passed away early this morning in Chicago. He was 79 years old.
Pellegrini started at Chicago’s legacy station WFMT at its founding in 1951, and served as the station’s Program Director for an amazing 43 years. He was responsible for the station’s eclectic mix of classical music by day, plus comedy and folk music on The Midnight Special. Norm hated the loud advertising and ubiquitous jingles on most commercial classical stations, and he is revered for sticking to his principles and keeping the advertising on WFMT quiet and dignified.
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Confessions of a Newbie Classical Announcer
Chloe Veltman is a blogger on ArtsJournal.com and at VoiceBox – The Radio Show, but she’s also a new classical radio announcer on KALW in San Francisco. She agreed to be a guinea pig on this blog and reveal her innermost fears and joys at this new experience.
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Searching for a Stone Age ensemble
You care about music, right? Well, you’ll care about this. And thus I justify a somewhat off-topic post, but this is too cool not to write about.
Archaeologists have dug up a 35,000-year-old flute that is believed to be the oldest musical instrument yet found. Unearthed in a cave in Germany, the five-holed flute was made from the radius bone of a griffon vulture.
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A day of silence
I had a post ready to roll today.
But at the end of a week made so bizarre and spectacular by not only Gov. Sanford’s romantic self-immolation but the deaths of Farrah and, of course, the King of Pop, it feels like a good time to just simmer down and let you all work through your emotions. Join the communal mourning if you’re so inclined.
I’ll post Monday when hopefully we’ll all be ready to move on. Enjoy the weekend.
Americans for the Arts and the Obama Administration
Do you hear that rumbling sound? That’s the sound of the creative class locomotive beginning to roar.
1200 of the nation’s arts leaders came to Seattle last week for the Americans for the Arts (AFTA) national conference. I thought you might like to hear some of the voices that are leading the national dialogue.
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Dallas to get new public Triple A station
We say we’re a blog about “classical music in broadcasting,” but I sometimes like to stretch that mission statement to include other musical genres. Some passions and challenges transcend genre and encompass all music broadcasters who aim to serve the public interest, not just sell ads.
So here’s welcome news of a coup for fans of music and noncommercial radio who live in Dallas, Texas. At a time when few stations have the budgets to expand, KERA, that city’s primary public broadcaster, has struck a deal to buy an FM frequency that it will program with the Triple A format. Triple A, or Adult Album Alternative, assumes various guises at individual stations depending on the programmers in charge. But generally the format showcases rock, folk, alternative, country and other genres — the music’s roots as well as its contemporaries.
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Guest Post on Programming – Must Read
One of our own, General Manager Jeff Skibbe from KXMS in southern Missouri has written this guest post on programming. Mille grazie, Jeff!
“Qube Connections” by Jeff Skibbe
I have always been a fan of British TV’s James Burke, the science historian whose episodes of the series “Connections” famously began with a thread of an idea upon which Burke would weave a rich tapestry of cause and effect in the worlds of science and technology. If you haven’t seen the 1978 original or any of its sequels, you should investigate getting a subscription to Netflix soon.
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Americans for the Arts National Convention & Three New Studies
Thursday through Saturday is the national convention of the advocacy organization Americans for the Arts. It’s being held in Seattle, and I will be interviewing attendees and presenters for the group’s website. I also plan to report here on who’s saying what and how it might impact us in classical music radio.
There are also three new reports out that you might want to read. One is from Chorus America that finds:
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Why We Still Do Radio!
As a radio nerd, I often enjoy reading the stats on the Arbitron website. There are a couple of reports on there that came out in March, but I don’t think we’ve reported on them yet.
For instance, this one:
Ninety-five percent of adults 25-54 with a college degree and an annual income of $50,000 or more tune into radio over the course of a week.
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Imagining the listener
Who is my listener?
I ask myself that question all the time as I pick music to play on my radio show. I know very little about who’s really listening, and because I’m on from 3 to 5 a.m. Tuesdays, maybe few people are. The host who follows me told me that in the last Arbitron book before I started, my slot was the lowest-rated on the station. (Nowhere to go but up!)
I’ve had calls and e-mails from a few people since I’ve started. A man in Fredericksburg, Va., listens to my show as he delivers bread to bakeries early in the morning. I like knowing that. But that’s about it for hard facts.
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