Scanning The Dial

Sandow to the MPC

David Duff, President of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio (AMPPR) writes to say 

Greg Sandow, former critic for The Village Voice, Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, will speak at this year’s MPC. His upcoming book will be titled “Rebirth: The Future of Classical Music.” Greg will address the reasons he thinks classical music will re-engage with the culture, and how–and how that relates to what we do as broadcasters. 

 In case you’re not a radio insider, MPC stands for Music Personnel Conference, and you can find out more about this year’s meeting here.   The host of the 2010 MPC is the new WQXR in New York City.  The meeting will be held in the station’s beautiful Greene Performance Space.  If you haven’t been to an MPC lately, I hope this will be the year you decide to come.  The benefits of the national meetings include the chance to reinvigorate your enthusiasm and share your energy and expertise about best practices with those of us in the field.

Just sayin’.

We’re drowning in a river of words: blogs, emails, text messages, tweets, comments, speeches, oratory, rhetoric, verbal engineering, commentary, and spin, spin, spin.  Sure, we contribute our fair share right here on Scanning the Dial, but our contribution to the torrent hopefully sets just the right tone, is just clever enough and feels just right. *wink*

There are good words, hate words, and comic words. When you think of good communicators, who comes to mind? President Obama? Jesse Jackson? Jon Stewart? What kind of words tend to capture your imagination? Depends on our mood and needs, doesn’t it.

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Brooklyn Rider, and Hope Springs Atonal

When my grandfather was in his 80s, he would go every two weeks to get a vitamin B-12 shot.  For about two days he would be energized and full of the dickens.  Well, a great concert or a fascinating piece of music can do the same thing for you. 

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WUOL in Louisville, For Example

Those of us in the biz have studied at length how classical radio can survive, or even thrive, when its main proponents are in serious decline.  Alex Ross posts a scary graph in his Feb. 3rd article in the New Yorker. 

Every classical organization in America should print out this graph, pin it on the bulletin board, and ponder what is to be done. If the light-gray line doesn’t reverse direction in the next ten years, those organizations may begin to fold.

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Kicking the tires of philanthropy.

To give or not to give, that is the question.

Not-for-profit radio stations around the country are entering into the spring fund-raising season, facing the same challenges as last year and the year before that, and the year before that. The perennial challenge is engaging the listener in a conversation about the relevance of the station in peoples’ lives and the need for voluntary contributions to cover the station’s expenses. There’s a cause and effect dynamic at work. Programming causes listening, good programming causes loyalty, loyalty causes giving. In theory. Is that all there is to it, do the best we can with creating content and then ask for money – and we shall automatically receive?

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All-Music (But Not Classical) at WKNU

After the bad news about WETS dropping most of its music in favor of talk, David Duff, President of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio, writes:

WNKU–which serves the Cincinnati market–is changing their format to go all music. WNKU is a AAA station, but Cincinnati is already served by WGUC, a 24-hour classical outlet, and WVXU, an all-news outlet.

 Claiming a victory when I see one.

 The AAA format will include indie rock, world music, alternative rock, alternative country, and blues.  Not classical.

WETS in Johnson City Switches from Classical to Talk

WETS, a real stalwart on the classical scene for 34 years is switching over its weekdays to all talk, according to station manager Wayne Winkler.  You can read about it here.  Winkler says you can get music from so many sources: CDs, MP3 players, satellite radio…

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“In this economy”

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a hundred times, “We’ll be lucky to achieve our goals in this economy”.

We’re all in the same boat, this challenging economic boat – in the doldrums yet relatively secure, generally insulated, and comparatively safe – not untouched mind you, but our lifestyles are barely altered – we’re afloat. We may be thinking greener, driving less, recycling more, watching household expenses, packing lunch, eyeballing boxed wine for the first time and generally curbing our consumption but at a pace that  could be characterized as a stroll. No real urgency.

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“Almost Insane Operagoer” George Jellinek Dies

WQXR opera host George Jellinek has died at age 90.  Jellinek was on the air in New York for 36 years, and internationally he was often a guest on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts as part of their intermission panel. The New York Times has a fascinating obituary posted today.

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Using the Airwaves to Raise Money for Haiti

The National Association of Broadcasters is encouraging stations to use the power of their airwaves to help with the Haitian relief efforts, but if you are a public station be warned that you can’t just do on-air fundraising without FCC approval.

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