The Democratic Primary as Classical Radio Metaphor

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Authormarty72x72 I’ve never been a news junkie before, but all of a sudden the drama of the primaries has grabbed me by throat and won’t let go. It’s an opera in the making.

The arguments in classical music radio are amazingly similar to the conflicts between the two Democratic candidates. Should we keep the old tried and true conservative model, or should we break out and take a chance (some say “risk”) with something unknown and exciting, and in the process reach a whole different demographic?

The Candidates
Barack Obama could be called the Peter Gelb of Election ‘08. Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, hired director Julie Taymor to spin Mozart. He took the opera to the people, airing it in our own local movie theaters. He launched a 24-hour Metropolitan Opera channel on satellite radio, put live streaming performances on the web, broadcast opening night on huge screens in Times Square and Lincoln Center Plaza, and offered $20 weekday tickets.

Gelb didn’t let fear of change or shrill criticisms stop him. Mary Jo Heath, who produces the Met Opera radio broadcasts, told me you can’t believe the volume of nasty emails and calls they got at first from people who didn’t want change. I’ll bet $2,300 (the maximum legal political donation) that those same “whiners” are the ones mobbing the movie theaters now.

On the other hand (full disclosure), I work for the Hillary Clinton of radio. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is a powerful legacy orchestra, a grande dame of orchestras, and we distribute our broadcasts through the WFMT network, which is an old-fashioned legacy service. They are willing to consider new ideas, but they are not risk-takers. Every idea has to be vetted before it makes the air. Not a bad policy when you have such an important legacy. They take themselves and their reputation very seriously.

The Hillary Clinton model of classical music radio has its contradictions. Clinton talked about getting us out of Iraq at the same time she threatened to obliterate Iran. Many classical radio program directors keep saying they want “fresh” programming and “innovative” ideas; yet when you ask them what they mean, they say they want interviews with artists and great live performances. Same old, same old. Then they play the Holberg Suite and Espana again.

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Radio’s future, and where classical fits in

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Authormike72x72_3 In a provocative blog post, venture capitalist Fred Wilson envisions the future of listening to music online—which, in his view, is with time going to amount to listening via mobile devices as well. The whole post is worth reading, but this excerpt gives a taste of the disruption to traditional listening habits that Fred sees coming:

I think of these web services as the new radio stations. Everyone of my generation has had their favorite radio stations. Everyone of my kid’s generation will have their favorite web music services. There will be hundreds of them. All supported by advertising, just like traditional radio stations, and all of them licensed by rights holders (eventually), and all of them paying the rights holders a little coin every time their song is played. And because these services will be free to anyone who wants to listen, they will be very popular. Never before have you been able to decide you want to listen to something you don’t currently own and then just play it. No searching on Limewire or bittorrent, no waiting for the download, you type in the name of the song you want to play and you hit play.

What he says makes sense to me, and it echoes a lot of what I hear from others in radio. People who want to hear music are increasingly turning to devices and locations besides their radios, a trend that’s expected to continue. They’re going to iPods, satellite radio and Web streams. This is part of why public stations are airing more local and NPR news—they see news as a franchise that is less threatened by new technologies.

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A Monday Morning Rant

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Authormarty72x72 Two recent articles about radio and music got my juices flowing: one was a post last week at “Inside Music Media” called Drinking Radio’s Kool-Aid by Jerry Del Colliano, whose understanding of the radio industry is both insightful and cynical. He was quoting David Rehr, CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, who said,

…being local, in and of itself, is not what defines radio’s value… It’s the accessibility and the connection with radio personalities. And it’s being everywhere and available to everyone. A radio is not a jukebox. If you’re listening to radio, you want to hear a human voice sharing that same moment in time that you are. There is power in that personal bond. A CD doesn’t have that connection. An iPod doesn’t have that. No, our model is not broken.

Jerry’s response?

WHAT? This is outrageous. If there is anything about radio that is compelling it is that radio is a local medium. It’s defined by being a local medium. Even the NAB refers to terrestrial radio as local radio. If you take local out of radio you have — well, the Internet. The world wide web. That’s not radio’s strength.

Hold that thought.

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News roundup: stations enriching their musical communities

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Authormike72x72_3 In a post last week about the CBC controversy, I asked how classical stations in the U.S. might work to enrich the classical scenes in their communities. And lo, the heavens responded (well, really, Google did).

One article in the Rochester (Minn.) Post-Bulletin points out that an area station set aside airtime for the Rochester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale to raise money for the orchestra’s general budget. The orchestra even got some help from a local partner, the Rochester Honkers—a baseball team. (I wonder how the brass section feels about that arrangement.) “Sports don’t have to be divorced from classical music,” said the orchestra’s music director. “People just have to get over the hump. Once you’ve experience classical music live, you’re hooked.” And the radio station is actually an easy listening station. A novel three-way partnership that makes me wonder why Minnesota Public Radio’s local classical station, which actually carries the format, isn’t involved.

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