If I understand correctly, CLASSIC FM, Public Broadcasting from Syracuse, NY,  WCNY-FM does not have any new signals or stations but they are just commenting on being happy to be getting new members from Canada from their station in Watertown, NY?

In other news WQXR New York Cities Classical station is buying WDFH 90.3 OSSINING, NY. They filed the fcc transfer application yesterday 5/1/2013. Currently WDFH is 476 ft. 53w DA A but the sales contract says they want to apply to upgrade WDFH to 250 watts. The WDFH website says WDFH currently serves 400,000 people in the northern New York City suburbs. Looking at coverage maps WQXR currently reaches everywhere WDFH does but the WQXR signal is weaker there. Upgrading to 250 watts should greatly help. If the FCC denies the upgrade the sales contract says the sale is off.

Also commercial classical station WBACH-FM in Maine recently added a 250 watt translator at 96.9 in Portland, ME simulcasting the HD2 full power signal from WTHT 99.9. http://www.wbachradio.com/.

CLASSIC FM, Public Broadcasting from Syracuse, NY,  WCNY-FM, has been filling the needs of classical devotees in the Kingston, Gananoque, Inverary, Brockville region and beyond for some time, now.  The tower near Watertown reaches across the St. Lawrence quite nicely, attracting listeners with whole works and a variety of eras, composers, ensembles, and announcements regarding musical events in the region.  It’s a great pleasure to serve the needs of such appreciative listeners (and now many station members!) in Southern Ontario.

Here is more information about classical music, posted on radio-info.com. This is the latest in a thread of postings, and it talks about a new commercial classical station coming on the air soon in Ontario:

… if anyone has the vision for a network/string of classical music stations in Canada, it would be Moses Znaimer, with his commercial (Classical 96) format. When you see the numbers, CFMZ/CFMX does well in Toronto (putting the boots to Radio Two), is opening up a frequency in Collingwood Ontario (interesting choice) and I know they’re interested in the crowded Ottawa market.

In Quebec, the drive along Autoroute 20 is surprisingly well covered, from the Ontario border, to well east of Quebec City with the CJPX/CJSQ siblings. Though I don’t believe Mr. Collier and company have plans to test the waters outside of Quebec (or at least in purely Anglo markets). If they ran a simulcast/repeater in the Ottawa area (Moncton NB could possibly support such a project too), like Radio Ville Marie has now done, it would make more sense than Radio Nord’s (CHLX) failed stand alone project

Here is more information on the new Collingwood, Ontario, station: The call sign is CFMO, the dial point 102.9 FM, and it is a class C1 that will operate with 23,000 watts ERP from an antenna 255 meters (about 837 ft) above average terrain. The owner is also the owner of classical CFMX 103.1 Coburg, Ontario, the original station, and classical CFMZ 96.3 FM Toronto. Coburg is about 60 miles east of Toronto on Lake Ontario; Collingwood is on the northern shore of the big peninsula formed by Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. Precisely, it is on Georgian Bay. CFMX Coburg went on the air on May 28, 1979, some 34 years ago. The website for all three stations is http://www.classical963fm.com/ One can listen online.

New station in Winnipeg, too. This appeared Monday in the professional website Upper Midwest Broadcasting (www.northpine.com):

MANITOBA:
Winnipeg will be getting an all-Classical format with the CRTC’s approval of CFEQ-FM/107.1′s flip to the format. The station will drop its Christian Hits “Ignite 107″ format, which owner Golden West Broadcasting said was unprofitable. Golden West also owns Christian-formatted CHVN-FM/95.1. 107.1′s format change may be a relief to Classical music fans, who have been outspoken nationally about the CBC’s cutbacks to Classical programming on Radio Two in recent years. (4/8/2013)

Michael Dorner

WFMT Radio Network to Launch
‘Exploring Music’ Website May 6

Subscribers Can Search and Stream
More Than 500 Hours of Syndicated
Classical Music and Commentary
Hosted By Bill McGlaughlin

Broadcast Archive Configured
for Online Music Education
at ExploringMusic.org

‘Music appreciation, $2 a week’

Editors:

• Complimentary press previews of ExploringMusic.org, with full access to the site, are available now. For pre-launch URL and login information, contact Nat Silverman, natsilv@aol.com, (847) 328-4292.
• Please note that the current landing page for ExploringMusic.org is not the subscription music streaming site launching May 6.
• The WFMT Radio Network’s Steve Robinson and show host Bill McGlaughlin are available for interviews.

CHICAGO, April 18, 2013 — The WFMT Radio Network will launch a subscription website on May 6 where classical music enthusiasts can search and stream hundreds of archived hours of the network’s internationally syndicated “Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin,” a daily music-appreciation show that airs on 55 stations to a weekly audience of more than 400,000 listeners.

The new streaming website, ExploringMusic.org, will advance the show’s mission of classical music education, according to Steve Robinson, general manager of the WFMT Radio Network and WFMT 98.7 FM.

He’s also the show’s executive producer and founder.

“The website, like the show, is unique,” Robinson says. “There’s no place else to hear thoroughly researched commentary, thoughtfully curated music, and Bill McGlaughlin’s engaging manner of demystifying classical music.”

The show, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2013, devotes a week or more of daily, one-hour weekday broadcasts to a single topic. Themes have ranged from “Artists in Exile,” “Czech Out Those Bohemians,” and “Nobody Ever Builds a Statue to a Critic” to general topics such as “Piano Concertos,” “Tone Poems,” and “Ninth Symphonies.” The show has devoted multi-week series to composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré, Gershwin, and others.

On the day of the website’s launch, about 500 hours of “Exploring Music” will be available for streaming. About 850 hours have been produced to date. More will be added to the website each week, according to the radio network.

The new site represents an inventive mix of old and new media with its musical selections, educational content, and Web technology, Robinson says. Like the show itself, ExploringMusic.org is for listeners and music students at all levels of musical sophistication.

“Bill is a natural conversationalist with a talent for painting pictures with words. Listeners get drawn into the musical worlds he evokes,” Robinson says. “They share his sense of wonder and discovery. And the music he plays is so enjoyable that even listeners who use classical radio for background music stay tuned during his show.”

The original impetus for the website came from listeners who have long lamented not being able to hear shows they missed on the air — an issue voiced in many of the 7,000 emails the show has received since it went on the air in 2003, Robinson says.

“It’s astonishing to look back and see the body of work we’ve explored in our ten years on the air,” McGlaughlin says. “It’s the answer to a dream for our fans and for everyone who works on the show.”

McGlaughlin describes ExploringMusic.org as an audio “treasure trove” of the sort he would have liked to have had as an inquisitive, music-loving youngster in his native Philadelphia, where he was a frequent visitor to the public library.

In developing ExploringMusic.org, the radio network decided to do more than offer a chronological online archive of shows; it decided to offer a search capability to satisfy listeners’ curiosity and the needs of students and other researchers.

“Call it, Music appreciation, $2 a week,” Robinson says. Two dollars is the cost of subscribing to one week’s worth of five hour-long shows. This entitles the visitor to return to the site and re-listen to those five installments as many times as they want, with no expiration date.

For those who buy a $50 annual subscription, there’s no limit to the number of shows they can stream during the 12-month period. Monthly subscriptions are $7. For a limited time, those purchasing a $50 yearly subscription will become charter members, entitled to unlimited streaming for two years.

Institutional subscriptions are available for schools and colleges, Robinson says.

Nonsubscribers will be able to search the archives and listen to the first seven minutes of any hour-long show at no charge.

Subscription revenues will help fund the website and the production of new episodes, Robinson says. Initial funding for the site came from private donations.

McGlaughlin, who lives in New York, records his commentaries at local classical station WQXR-FM. His voice tracks are downloaded by “Exploring Music” producers at the radio network in Chicago, where the shows are edited, assembled, and distributed to affiliate stations. Producers include Jesse McQuarters, Cydne Gillard, and Noel Morris, with distribution by Carol Martinez and Tony Macaluso.

“Bill’s ability to connect with listeners is the product of vast research on a given topic, combined with his ability to work without a script,” says Macaluso, the radio network’s director of marketing and syndication. “He’s a gifted improviser, and listeners respond to his enthusiasm and conversational tone.”

The show is heard coast to coast on stations as geographically diverse as KNOM, Nome, Alaska; KHPR, Honolulu; and WXXI, Rochester, N.Y. Major market affiliates include KUHA, Houston; WFMT; WICR, Indianapolis; WUOL, Louisville; WRCJ, Detroit; WQED, Pittsburgh; and WQXR.

The WFMT Radio Network created “Exploring Music” and is its exclusive producer, marketer, and distributor. The network is the international syndication division of award-winning classical music station 98.7WFMT.

The network is one of the world’s most well-regarded sources for fine arts radio programming. Chicago-based Window to the World Communications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation, is the licensee of WFMT and WTTW-TV, Chicago’s premiere public television station.

# # # # #
Press information contact:

for ExploringMusic.org/WFMT Radio Network:

Nat Silverman

Nathan J. Silverman Co. PR
E-mail: natsilv@aol.com

RAF stands for Radio Arts Foundation, a small non-profit that has been determined and dedicated to bringing back classical music to the airwaves in St. Louis.  The former classical music station, KFUO switched formats in 2010.

Thanks to a $1 million start-up grant from the Centene Charitable Foundation, RAF-STL was able to start the radio station, which is located in Clayton.

“Listeners in the St. Louis community will now have a resource on the radio dedicated solely to the arts,” said Bill Rusnack, president of the RAF-STL board of directors, in a statement. “This is a community-driven effort that we hope will bring enjoyment and enrichment to classical music fans, as well as the general community, throughout the St. Louis area.”

The station will partner with the St. Louis Symphony and Opera Theatre of St. Louis to broadcast performances, in addition to covering other cultural and local arts issues.

Former program director for Classic 99, Jim Connett, will serve at the station’s general manager.