It’s Not ALL Bad News

We have lots of news to fill you in on, and plenty of it is bad, but here’s a wonderful report from American Public Media:

Classical South Florida announced … it will use a $250,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to build listener support for its all-classical public radio station in Miami and West Palm Beach…The all-classical station, heard on 89.7 in the Miami area and 101.9 in the West Palm Beach area, was launched in October of 2007. Building a strong base of support is central to ensuring the viability of this essential community institution. The Knight Foundation grant will challenge audiences by matching listeners’ donations up to $250,000 over the next two years.

The rest of the news is less encouraging.  At Texas Tech University in Lubbock, the Student Media Department has given up on FM broadcasting.

KTXT-FM, the university’s student-run radio station, ceased its broadcasts on 88.1 FM and ktxt.net.

Control of the radio station’s FCC license, which is maintained by the university, is being shifted from the Student Media department to Texas Tech’s other educational radio station, KOHM-FM.

**UPDATE 12/19/08**  Derrick Ginter, General Manager of KOHM reports that the backlash against Texas Tech for shutting down the station has changed the minds of the decision makers there, and now Student Media is trying to SELL the license.   He predicts a religious broadcaster will buy it.

We never had a “plan” as it were should we have been given control over KTXT.  KOHM is the first HD Radio station in Lubbock, and we’ve been pursuing multicast programming with our HD channels.  We would not be able to place any mainstream network programming on KTXT without paying a drastic increase in programing costs.  We’d have to automate it since we have no additional studio space, and we certainly do not have the resources to keep it a student operation.

With NPR facing major deficits and cancelling some programs, our first priority would be to protect our flagship programming of Classical music and PubRadio offerings.  We’re not certain where we would be able to fit KTXT into that.  We would love to have that signal however, just not certain what we would do with that.

Susan Peterson, Director of Student Media says the department didn’t see a strong future for its students in broadcast media.

“The overwhelming financial demands of operating an FM radio station, coupled with the radical changes in the radio broadcast industry, made it clear that we need to rethink our definition of broadcast media and refocus our commitment to bolstering student learning,” Peterson said. “As they prepare to find jobs after graduation, our students depend on us to enhance the skills learned in the classroom. To meet that need, Student Media must adapt to the changes dictated by the industry.”

Peterson said the decision to relinquish the FCC license was based on numerous factors, including:

• Expenditures for KTXT-FM’s equipment and maintenance operations over the past four years, on average, have consumed more than 41 percent of Student Media’s financial resources. During that same time period, the station has generated less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the department’s revenues.

• Shifts in broadcast media in recent years have allowed for fewer jobs in radio broadcasting and more opportunities in new media: Webcasting, podcasting and video. This has prompted changes within Student Media, which is dedicated to promoting student learning experiences through practical applications.

In other news:

David Duff is the President of AMPPR,  the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio and on his blog, aptly named David Duff’s Classical Blog he reports on changes at three other classical stations:

1. KOSU in Stillwater, OK, which cut back its classical music offerings for more news/talk

2. KUNR in Reno, NV, which eliminated their daytime music programming for news/talk. The former classical host is now forced to anchor news programming (to be fair, I have no idea whether the host had a background in news prior to this move, or whether he’s content in that position)

3. WGCU in Ft. Myers, FL which took all classical music off their FM and moved it to an HD channel (a discussion of HD radio is for another time, but suffice it to say that HD radios are just beginning to make it into the marketplace, so for all intents and purposes, WGCU has buried classical music. I’m disturbed by this on many levels, not the least of which is that the General Manager did this as her last major act before she retired.)

AMPPR is working valiantly to keep classical music alive on the radio.  If you can spare a dime for their advocacy efforts, you can donate at Paypal. Just go to amppr.org/donations.html.  Or you can contact David Duff directly through the AMPPR website.

I hope you’re surviving the difficult weather (I’m snowed in at the moment in Seattle!) and that you have a warm and wonderful holiday.

Marty

About Marty Ronish

Marty Ronish is an independent producer of classical music radio programs. She currently produces the Chicago Symphony Orchestra broadcasts that air 52 weeks a year on more than 400 stations and online at www.cso.org. She also produces a radio series called "America's Music Festivals," which presents live music from some of the country's most dynamic festivals. She is a former Fulbright scholar and co-author of a catalogue of Handel's autograph manuscripts.

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2 thoughts on “It’s Not ALL Bad News”

  1. Help! Is KOHM at Texas Tech going to drop out as a classical station, or what? It’s not clear whether the student operation will move to the KOHM transmitter, or whether there will be a multi-channel HD set-up wiwth KOHM’s classical on one channel, and the student KTXT on another?
    KOHM is a paragon of how a college-run station should be, in my humble opinion.
    There’s more abaout KHFM, Albuquerque, but I’ll save that for another time. Thanks, though, to Danny Crafts! and happy new year.

    Best,

    Bill Dunning
    Santa Fe

    Reply
  2. Hi Bill.

    I think KOHM is fine. It’s just the student station KTXT which seems to be on the block to the highest bidder, and that apparently doesn’t involve KOHM at all. I’ll report more as news becomes available.

    Marty

    Reply

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