Notes From the Music Personnel Conference in Fort Worth

I’m at the national conference of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio, being held in a newly remodeled Fort Worth Sheraton.  I’m sorry for those of you who couldn’t make it, because the sessions have been very good, and the food is outstanding.

Mona has taken detailed notes, and I think we’ll ask her to write up the great advice we got on announcing from a morning session by John Dodge, Program Director at KBPS in Portland OR.  John had a very lively, engaging list of do’s and don’t’s for classical announcers, based on long experience, a keen ear, and his own personable style.

He had to leave the conference early, because it’s pledge time in Portland.

After lunch, we had a fantastic presentation from Margo Drakos from Instant Encore and Jim Selby from Naxos.  What they are doing with the internet is our future, and it’s very bright.  They’re putting together whole communities of people with shared interests.  Your station can embed Instant Encore content on its website, you can add your own content, and voila! A whole new set of tools for reaching new listeners while still serving your core. It’s  your own social network that goes out and finds friends who share your interests.  Here’s a link to Instant Encore.

It’s not a slick marketing site; it’s a real workhorse that does most of the work for you.  As Margo described it, it’s really a classical music search engine, and it’s growing quickly as all of us in the classical music world get connected.  Boy, oh boy, did we ever need this!!!!  I’m a huge fan of Instant Encore.  I think it has the potential for connecting us into a powerful “lobby” that can change the status of classical music in this country.

I had a long chat with Rick Fulker, a classical music producer at Deutsche Welle (German national radio paid for by the government), and he was telling me that the budget for Deutsche Welle is larger than that of the NEA!  The Germans have a much broader appreciation for classical music than we do in this country.

Late afternoon was a forum for the three commercial classical stations represented here.  Steve Robinson, Exec. Vice President of  WFMT,  Greg Davis, G.M. from WRR, and Gary Thorpe, G.M. of 4MBS in Australia each talked about their stations.  All three are  interdependent with the arts organizations in their cities.  WFMT has several characteristics that set it apart: one is that the ads are read by the announcers (no jingles). Two is that it broadcasts as many live performances as it can, both from concert hall and in the studio.  Third, it’s both a local station and a national network (separate entities, but with shared management and staff). There’s talk about moving the local broadcasts more toward a public radio model.

Dinner included a presentation by St. John Flynn, the charming Director of Cultural Programming at KUHF, a very healthy station in Houston.  A funny aside: the guy from the hotel who was cooking the pasta at the pasta bar, was listening to St. John and revealed that his dream in life was to be a radio d.j.

Must go prepare for tomorrow.  I’m supposed to give a presentation about blogging.  Oh, wait a minute.  I guess I am preparing by writing this post.

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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4 thoughts on “Notes From the Music Personnel Conference in Fort Worth”

  1. Marty and those interested,

    here are some points I meant to make and the articles I mentioned in my rather nervous little Twitter presentation

    * Twitter asks you one simple question: “What are you doing?” you decide what it is

    * Twitter has led to connections with people in the community…other bloggers have linked to us because of it, and I’ve answered questions and taken requests for classical music because of it.

    * I’m there to just generally raise the profile of the station and of classical music and learn about what else is going on in West Virginia and the world of classical music.

    * It’s lead to meeting with groups through “tweet-ups”–coffeehouse get-togethers of anyone reads about it on facebook, twitter, etc. At least one station (WBUR) hosts these meet-ups/tweet-ups at their station and get to know more people in their community (read about it on the Converstation: http://theconverstation.org/)

    Articles:

    – Twitter? It’s What You Make it: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue.html?em=&pagewanted=all

    – Public Broadcasting and Twitter? Engagement and Authenticity! http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2008/05/public_broadcasting_and_twitter_engageme.html

    -Daniel Schorr and Scott Simon of NPR are now on twitter–learn about their experiences there: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101265831

    * Are you trying it out? find us at http://twitter.com/wvclassical or me personally at http://twitter.com/mona_s

    Reply
  2. Deutsche Welle does more than just classical music, right? Unfortunately it’s not alone in being better funded than public broadcasting in the U.S. Many countries have public broadcasting systems that are far better supported than ours. I doubt that our system is likely to change much in that regard anytime soon.

    Reply
  3. Deutsche Welle is the German equivalent of Voice of America. It’s German radio content for countries outside of Germany. The classical music unit is just a small part of the company, and it is in a growth phase. Rick Fulker, the Deutsche Welle classical music producer here at the MPC is about to gain a new music department. I’m jealous.

    Reply

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