According to a University of Houston news release, the University of Houston’s Board of Regents voted to buy Rice University’s  student-run radio station, 50,000 watt KTRU for $9.5-million,  If approved by the Feds it would end the station’s student-driven programming and create an all new 24-hour classical-music station, the call letters of which would be KUHC.

The students at Rice aren’t laying down quietly, mounting what always feels like a futile SOS (save our station) campaign on-line and through social networking sites. This statement appears on KTRU’s Facebook page, “Without any input from students or community members, the Rice administration has decided to sell KTRU’s signal, tower, and FCC rights to KUHF. When the dial is tuned to 91.7 fm, you’ll hear all classical all the time and the KTRU that we all know and love will be completely online. Please show your support.”

David Duff, President of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio, shared this on the AMPPR list-serve today, “Congratulations to the folks at KUHF and the University of Houston–the Board of Regents yesterday voted to purchase the station owned by Rice University, and it will be used to provide a 24-hour classical service to the Houston market (KUHF will become 24-hour news/talk). In addition to the recent moves in Tampa and Columbus, OH to put 24-hour classical stations on the air, this is most welcome news!”

The students at the Rice station are getting an unexpected lesson in business and politics, however the city of Houston, and this rare format may be the real winners.

Onward!

Remember listening to radio as a kid, utterly fascinated, totally engaged, completely charmed. Radio was a constant companion. Simpler times. Less complex media environment. Far fewer choices. I don’t remember ever hearing classical radio as a kid in the Shenandoah Valley. The choice was AM and the formats were country, gospel and top-40, most of which went dark at dusk. But, what made radio work then? We each have our ideas and opinions about that, but for me it came down to 3 essential elements: the mix of music, the personality on-air and the sense of place.

Things haven’t changed that much, really.

For us in classical radio, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s commercial or public-supported, we might add to this short list of ingredients: audience interaction. That’s not a new concept either. Don’t forget all the request and dedication shows, back in the day. I can still hear Cousin Brucie on WABC in New York, must have been around 1972, skipping 350 miles across the ionosphere to the AM radio in my ’61 Plymouth Valiant, “Thanks for the call, Bonnie, in Brooklyn Heights. Hey, baby, we have your Little Deuce Coupe!” Call-in still drives AM radio’s numbers and success. Any road trip across the good ole USA, scanning the AM dial, will remind you of the lost “art” of live call-in radio, not to mention the vanishing regional dialects, or the rustic charm of grange hall dance notices and livestock prices. Now think about satellite and on-line services where there’s no DJ and certainly no sense of place. Great for a while, but we always come back to radio. Fairly recently, Apple learned about “iPod fatigue” (folks tire of even deep playlists they’ve created) and starting adding FM tuners to the next generation of their devices. The surprises, the companionship, the magic and yes, even the mistakes still cause radio to endure.

I recently had a call from a long-time radio producer, very successful and smart who is now charged with the success of a prominent classical, public radio station. This, for the first time in his lengthy career, means all the traditional responsibilities of a PD, including but not limited to, everything that comes out of the speakers and personally handling the host-whispering. We mused about the unique challenges of today’s economy and what its like to deal with a vast, unseen, fickle, niche-conditioned audience with myriad alternatives to our stations, and rely on them to voluntarily part with their coin for our success. I think we decided in the end, though, that in the best of circumstances – the tried and true still works.

Got Mozart? If so, you have the real deal in terms of music. You own the best potential audience in the world with that thin slice of format. It’s important to treat them with respect and dignity, which also means using wit and wisdom. That also applies to the music mix. Keep your playlists deep, broad, appealing, consistent & cohesive…with ample surprises. Allow (and cultivate) the host presentation style, to be sophisticated but approachable, always authentic and warm. This ain’t rocket science, kids, so why do so many stations struggle?

I’ll let you fill in the blanks. You know the answer and probably what to do. Don’t over complicate things. Keep it simple. Do the right thing(s). You don’t need any additional research or a consultant to come tell you. Get in your car on one of these warm summer evenings and listen to your own station.

Listen and hear. Think and adjust.

Get back to your roots and try to have some fun. Rediscover what it means to make great radio, or at least until your daddy takes your T-bird away…

Onward!

P.S. Obstacles to success and doing the right thing(s), right there in your own organization? That’s another blog…

WCLV TO MOVE FACILITIES TO THE IDEA CENTER ON PLAYHOUSE SQUARE IN DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND

It was announced on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, that WCLV 104.9, northeast Ohio’s classical music station, will be moving its studios and offices from the current Radio Ranch location in Warrensville Heights to the Idea Center on Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland, the home of ideastream, Cleveland’s public broadcasters WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN FM.

WCLV will be sharing space, currently not occupied in the ideastream facilities, with OneCommunity, northeast Ohio’s nonprofit broadband network, which will establish offices and work area for HealthNet , which connects rural and urban healthcare centers.

By co-locating, WCLV and the ideastream stations will be able to collaborate on programs and services designed to strengthen current efforts and foster new concepts. As opportunities are identified, the organizations will look for ways to work more effectively by partnering with one another.

The moves are funded by over $1.6 million in contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations. Additional contributions are being sought, and financing has been secured to cover the estimated $2.3 million cost of the development.

Work has begun and is expected to continue through the end of the calendar year. The architectural firm of Westlake, Reed and Leskosky and Turner Construction, who both worked on the original development of Idea Center at Playhouse Square, are again involved in this development.

In Columbus, Ohio a new 24 hour classical station is about to start up.  Ohio State University’s WOSU is acquiring an adult alternative rock station and relaunching the frequency in the fall as Classical 101.  WOSU at 89.7, now dual format, will become an all news station carrying mostly NPR programs.  You can read about it here, on the WOSU website.

But wait!  That’s not all.

WOSU additionally plans to turn its station 91.1 FM, WOSB in Marion, into an all- classical music service to better serve Marion County and the northern portion of Delaware County, including the city of Delaware… “I know, on a very personal level, how much our community has missed 24/7 classical music. The launch of this new station is going to be fabulous and so deeply appreciated. I have every faith it will play a critical role in sustaining our community of performing arts. This is wonderful! Lucky Columbus!” said Christine Mortine, Founder of the Columbus Bach Ensemble, active concert soprano and member of the WOSU Friends Board.

And in Sarasota, Florida a new 24-hour classical station goes on air September 15th. It’s replacing a defunct Christian station at 89.1.  Again, this allows dual format WUSF to go to news/talk and jazz, while classical will increase to 24/7.  There’s more in the region’s Herald Tribune.

WUSF General Manager JoAnn Urofsky acknowledged that last week’s $1.28 million purchase of WSMR by WUSF Public Media was… a nod to Sarasota benefactors, who account for roughly a third of the station’s fundraising revenues.  “Sarasota is a key market for us,” said Urofsky, “and we’ve had tremendous support from arts organizations.”

A key move occurred last year when University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus Regional Chancellor Arthur Guilford suggested raising money for a large new on-site performance studio. With so many musicians visiting Sarasota during the winter having to travel to WUSF’s Tampa facilities to perform for radio, Guilford told Urofsky it made sense to eliminate the transportation hassle.

Yet another classical station has popped up this week, but it needs a little more exploration.  It’s an online classical channel from Ravinia Festival in Illinois, but I think it may be all recorded music — still it’s lovely.  I’m listening to Barbara Bonney on-demand at the moment.  Check it out here.  Supposedly this is a webcast of the music and artists that are being featured this summer at the Ravinia Festival, but I’m curious about rights, as I know the Chicago Symphony, for instance, is not likely to release rights for live broadcast.  Anyone have time to figure this out and report back??

Speaking of broadcast rights, in other news the National Association of Broadcasters is pushing back this week on the Performance Royalty Act that is moving inexorably and perversely through Congress.  NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith thinks radio needs to negotiate now or lose big in the fall when Congress gets around to voting.  It’s a bit wonky, but here’s a discussion of the terms the NAB wants (from Radio-info.com):

#1, “A tiered rate of 1% or less for all net revenue (roughly $100 million for the industry) which is permanent and cannot be adjusted without changing statute or by mutual agreement.”
#2, Permanent removal of Copyright Royalty Board jurisdiction over rates for both terrestrial and streaming.
#3, Streaming rate reduction from current rates.
#4, Inclusion of radio chips – FM – in all mobile phones. (That would mean the record industry would support the broadcasters’ campaign with manufacturers and wireless carriers for “FM-in-cellphones.”)
#5, AFTRA issues to be resolved on ads that air on webcasts. (Important since the extra AFTRA fee for streaming discourages many stations from airing ads produced by union talent.)

The “tiered rate” for use of music begins at a maximum of 1% per year for commercial stations with revenue of more than $1.25 million. It would scale down to $5,000 for commercial stations with revenue of $500,000 to $1.25 million. Commercial stations with revenue of $100,000-$500,000 would pay “the lesser of $2,500 of 1% of revenue.” Commercial and non-profit stations with revenue between $50,000 and $100,000 would pay $500. Non-profit stations with revenue of more than $100,000 would pay $1,000. News, talk and sports stations would not pay for the use of music. The NAB’s goal is to head off much more onerous terms from a lame-duck Congress after the November elections.

The record industry is in such trouble they will do anything to grab more income.  Do not be fooled: any performance royalties paid by stations will benefit the record companies as much or more than they will the artists themselves.

As always, your input is welcome.

Shangrow was a popular lecturer, performer (harpsichord), and conductor in Seattle.  His radio program “Live by George” on KING-FM had a huge following before he was laid off in a controversial firing some years ago.  Shangrow directed Orchestra Seattle and the Seattle Chamber Singers.   He was a respected and popular figure in Seattle’s classical music community.  He was 59 years old.

 Jack and I have talked a lot about programming, and he feels that broadening and deepening the playlist — the opposite of “dumbing it down” – has brought in the new listeners.  At least one listener appears to agree with that philosophy .  In the comments to a post on the Seattle blog Crosscut on Wednesday, a Seattle listener vents his snark about his own local station but raves about the programming on All  Classical from Portland.  Programming is always fair game for public opinion on a public station, and Portland listeners seem to have voted with their ears and their checkbooks. 

More great news: Portland is now syndicating Edmund Stone’s fabulous film music show The Score and they have a new sponsor, Bob’s Red Mill.  Edmund is a walking encylopedia of film knowledge, and frankly there hasn’t been a good movie- music show available for a while, so I’m glad to see this one picking up steam.

In fact, I applaud All Classical for having the vision not only to improve its local footprint, but also to share its best stuff with the rest of us.  I’ve always wondered why stations don’t syndicate their best shows.  Did the big gorillas in the business steal all the syndicating juice?

I may be a little biased, but I give Jack Allen credit for being a real leader in the biz and making these things happen.

Thanks to Jeff Skibbe of KXMS in Missouri for writing a guest post on programming.   With apologies to the movie Airplane! here it is:

This past Fourth of July is a perfect excuse for an examination of what I call programming vectors and trajectories.  You may already be using these concepts without the strange appellations, which may seem unrelated to radio. But these labels may provide a new perspective on holiday programming strategies for some.

This year, the Fourth of July fell on a Sunday.  In the past, before computers, Independence Day may have called for a day of locally produced or syndicated programming with or without significant prior promotion.  In such a scenario, the vast majority of listeners were unlikely to have heard much, if any, of the holiday programming.  Some listeners may have caught a smidge of the promotional hype and said: “Yes, I know my classical station observed the holiday, it’s just that I was unable to be part of their celebration because of my busy personal schedule.”

For more industrious programmers and hosts, programming this past Independence Day was extended to Saturday 7/3, or even further back to Friday 7/2. This meant up to a 3-day vector, and, of course, a greater chance that more of your audience sampled your salute.

But whose holiday was it anyway?  Was it yours, Master Programmer, to decide on a vector of 1 to 3 days, with a trajectory that may have seen a steep ramp-up of American music, culminating in a ‘brick wall’ conclusion on Sunday night? Or, did this holiday belong to your listeners, with lives lived with long anticipation of “bonfires and illuminations,” as John Adams (the patriot, not the composer) foretold?  Was your station an actual participant in your audience’s Fourth of July?  

First off, your audience did not suddenly go into Independence Day mode sometime Friday.  They readied themselves, preparing for celebration (and maybe travel, like I did) the week before.  Some of them had to work some part of the weekend.  Others had a long, unencumbered 4-day weekend, with Monday the ‘perceived’ holiday.  Regardless, it is safe to assume that most probably did not maintain their normal radio listening habits. Even a 4-day vector, with special programming continuing into Monday 7/5, most likely escaped much of your audience’s notice. 

Factoring in these additional considerations, your programming vector could have been plotted back as early as the previous Monday, if you wanted to pull out all of the stops (organ metaphor intended), taking into account not just the holiday calendar, but also the holiday mindset.

“What, the whole week?” you ask. While this vectoring may seem extreme to some, your record library more than likely can provide a week’s worth of solid American music.  And more to the point, the chance that a significant number of your audience actually heard some part of your musical salute during their Fourth of July holiday would increase greatly.  Vectoring from Monday 6/28 to Monday 7/5, with a trajectory that arced on Sunday 7/4 and trailed away late into the next day, I contend, would complement the celebrations of your audience on their terms, factoring in the varied lifestyles of the totality of your audience.   

Vectors differ, of course, based on the day of week of the holiday and the number of days in the holiday. Here I am thinking primarily of Christmas and some Jewish observances.  While mid-December may have been a start time for Christmas fare for some radio programmers in the past, the pressure from non-classical, commercial stations that start Christmas programming on Black Friday, and temporary all-Christmas Sirius-XM channels, probably have compelled some classical programmers to stretch the vector from Advent Sunday (if not Black Friday) all the way to Christmas Day.

The trajectory of a Christmas season vector from Advent Sunday to Christmas Day might start with a few religious classical selections, increasing in number and morphing into seasonal, non-religious Christmas selections at the apex of the trajectory on Christmas Day (a brick wall for most programmers).  The closer you get to Christmas, the more you may want to accommodate those that associate Christmas with “White Christmas” and “Jingle Bells” (i.e., ‘Christmas Music of Your Life’) rather than a steady diet of classical Christmas music that can’t be easily identified as Christmas fare aside from their titles.  Yes, there are great Christmas works that only classical stations play, but there are many that also expect the radio to provide the soundtrack of their (Christmas) life.  And if that soundtrack is not broadcast by you, the IPod may do the job nicely.       

As I said at the outset, maybe you have employed these programming ideas without the labeling.  But without vectors and trajectories in service of the holiday mindset period (rather than the holiday calendar period), you may be proud of your holiday programming schedule and all of its special and clever nuances while leaving a large part of the intended audience out of your equation.

People can have different relationships with WQXR besides broadcast.  Radio isn’t just FM anymore.  Great content will find people wherever they are – we need to open up the definition of what radio is.

Graham Parker, the new VP of Classical WQXR.  Parker is enthusiastic about the variety of platforms and programming coming out of WQXR, both on the air and online.  He comes to WQXR most recently from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, an organization that has a unique philosophy of what an orchestra is.

Part of being creative is that you have to make mistakes.  Individuals have the power to make decisions and to try out their ideas,  and you have to embrace that some ideas are not going to work.   The strength is in the team and the power of the individuals.  What you end up with is the power of the collective.

Parker brings that inclusive philosophy to WQXR.  He likes the station’s practice of hiring strong personalities and letting them be creative.  He also brings a deep history of producing live performances, which dovetails with what WQXR has planned.  This year the station is hosting 65 live-to-air performances in its Greene Performance Space, building on what WNYC’s Soundcheck host John Schaefer has been doing since 1982.

Parker says he thinks great live radio begins with the relationship the hosts have with the artists, then the way the hosts manage to bring the audience into that relationship.  He also believes in the station’s emerging philosophy of getting the audience to interact more with the station through web feedback, coming into the studio for live performances, downloading podcasts, sending in ideas, and engaging directly with the hosts.

I asked Graham Parker what his ideas were for the station, and his response was, “give me time to actually get there and start my new job before I offer up my ideas.”

This interview comes on the heels of a discussion ongoing on the AMPPR Listserv.  Gabe DiMaio from WNED in Buffalo posed the question to the list of why stations choose to run (or not run) the orchestra and specialty shows.  I plan to post some of the answers on the blog next week. 

It’s interesting to me that the number one station in the country is going live and adventurous at a time when many stations seem to be doing the opposite.  The orchestra shows are of course some of the best live music you can hear, even if the shows themselves are post-produced.   I personally am working on a series of 26 American Music Festivals, and I’m absolutely jazzed by the material we are getting.  The utter excitement of the people involved and the innovative ideas they are bringing to our field is making great, great radio.   More to come.

In the meantime, welcome to our radio world, Graham Parker.  We expect a lot from you.

From the press release:

“Graham’s reputation as an innovative content producer, a champion of artists, and a collaborative manager is a dazzling match for our ambitions to make WQXR a vibrant classical music platform for 21^st century audiences on-air and online, in New York and around the globe,” said Ms. Walker.

I have an interview coming with Graham Parker on Friday afternoon, so watch this space.

Classical producer / Announcer
Details at wgbh.org/jobs
Applications being accepted now.