All Entries in the "Big Picture" Category
Dreaming Our Future
“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
Old broadcasters never die…
When I was about 10 years old someone teased my parents and said, “That kid was vaccinated with a Victrola needle”, meaning I talked a lot. Given my Irish heritage, I was told it was something to be proud of. “You have a gift for the gab”.
Just sayin’.
We’re drowning in a river of words: blogs, emails, text messages, tweets, comments, speeches, oratory, rhetoric, verbal engineering, commentary, and spin, spin, spin. Sure, we contribute our fair share right here on Scanning the Dial, but our contribution to the torrent hopefully sets just the right tone, is just clever enough and feels just right. [...]
Brooklyn Rider, and Hope Springs Atonal
When my grandfather was in his 80s, he would go every two weeks to get a vitamin B-12 shot. For about two days he would be energized and full of the dickens. Well, a great concert or a fascinating piece of music can do the same thing for you.
WUOL in Louisville, For Example
Those of us in the biz have studied at length how classical radio can survive, or even thrive, when its main proponents are in serious decline. Alex Ross posts a scary graph in his Feb. 3rd article in the New Yorker.
Every classical organization in America should print out this graph, pin it on the bulletin board, and ponder what is to be [...]
Kicking the tires of philanthropy.
To give or not to give, that is the question.
Not-for-profit radio stations around the country are entering into the spring fund-raising season, facing the same challenges as last year and the year before that, and the year before that. The perennial challenge is engaging the listener in a conversation about the relevance of the station [...]
WETS in Johnson City Switches from Classical to Talk
WETS, a real stalwart on the classical scene for 34 years is switching over its weekdays to all talk, according to station manager Wayne Winkler. You can read about it here. Winkler says you can get music from so many sources: CDs, MP3 players, satellite radio…
“In this economy”
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a hundred times, “We’ll be lucky to achieve our goals in this economy”.
We’re all in the same boat, this challenging economic boat – in the doldrums yet relatively secure, generally insulated, and comparatively safe – not untouched mind you, but our lifestyles are barely altered – we’re [...]
Redefining Intimacy
Dear all of you,
Most New Year’s resolutions involve weight loss so this is not meant to offend. When I think of all of me, a resolution or least some resolve to lose a little weight may be in order for this blogger. Not a lot, just enough to make my new jeans more comfortable. Now, [...]
Here’s Hoping for a Better Decade in Classical Radio
Happy New Year! We start the year with good news in Oxford, Mississippi where the sale of a translator by San Diego’s Christian Broadcasting has brought classical music to the town’s airwaves. If you’re in Oxford you should be able to pick up Memphis-station WKNO, a mix of NPR shows and classical music, at 103.1.
