Author Archive for Mike Janssen
Mike Janssen is a freelance writer, editor and media educator based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He has written extensively about radio, mostly for Current, the trade newspaper about public broadcasting, where his articles have appeared since 1999. He has also worked in public radio as a reporter at WFDD-FM in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he began his career in journalism and filed pieces for NPR. Mike is one of Scanning The Dial's original co-author's and now serves as a Founding Contributor.
A new voice joins the mix at Scanning the Dial
With the arrival of the New Year, we’re making some changes here at Scanning the Dial. But rather than going on a diet, in a way we’re bulking up. To start with, I’ve decided to cut back a bit on my contributions to the blog. (I know, that doesn’t sound like “bulking up,” but bear [...]
KFUO sale challenged, and some views on music research
Four petitioners hope there’s still a chance that the sale of St. Louis’s KFUO isn’t a done deal. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported today that multiple challenges have been filed with the Federal Communications Commission to block the sale of the commercial classical station to Christian broadcaster Gateway Creative Broadcasting. One group is made up [...]
WDAV assumes production of World of Opera
WDAV in Davidson, N.C., announced Friday that it will be taking over production of NPR World of Opera from the D.C.-based network. Ben Roe, now general manager at WDAV, previously worked as NPR’s director of music and brought together the show’s host and producer. The show airs on 87 stations. Here’s the full release: WDAV [...]
Stations share experiences with midday music research
For almost two years, a small set of classical public radio stations have been trying to draw more listeners during middays by changing the music they play. The casual listener might not even be aware of the changes, but station programmers are aware that the process is systematic and grounded in extensive research backed by [...]
How many people are really listening?
Hello, readers of my poor neglected blog. Apologies for not having posted for some time, but the usual deadlines have kept me away. Let’s jump right back in, though, with a look at a new way of measuring radio’s audience that is affecting all formats, including classical. People outside the radio industry might not be [...]
Classical goes down on Orlando’s WMFE
As Mona asked in a tweet yesterday, “Is there something in the water in Florida?” Though the more appropriate question may be, “Is there something in the water in public radio?” Because another dual-format public radio station, WMFE in Orlando, has dumped classical from its schedule. Well, not entirely. Like Gainesville’s WUFT, which made a [...]
Pledge income down at WUFT, and a closer look at the KFUO sale
Two updates today on recent station-centric kerfuffles that we’ve been following. The first pertains to WUFT-FM in Gainesville, Fla., which as you might remember decided to drop classical from its primary signal and move all the music to an HD channel. Well, the station had its first fund drive since the switch, and donations were [...]
Chance of more classical in St. Louis
Hi there — apologies for the extended absence, but I’ve been whupped with deadline after deadline as of late. It’s nice to come up for air. As Douglas Adams said, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” So it looks as if classical fans in St. Louis despondent [...]
St. Louis to lose its classical station, KFUO
It’s official: St. Louis’s KFUO-FM, that city’s commercial all-classical station, will be sold to a Christian broadcaster, pending FCC approval. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has agreed to sell the station to Gateway Creative Broadcasting for $18 million and interest.
Tech study sheds light on classical listeners’ habits
A few weeks ago I paid a quick visit to the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Cleveland. I’m working on an article for Current about the application of midday classical music research, which was discussed on the conference, so I can’t get into that subject on this blog quite yet. But there’s one thing [...]
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