Scanning The Dial

Lois Bent

Very sad news — Lois Bent of Yellowstone Public Radio passed away yesterday after an 18-month battle with cancer.  Here’s a brief article from the Billings Gazette.

Is there anyone in classical radio who didn’t know Lois Bent?  Lois was always interested in the ideas of others and the new programming they came up with, especially anything choral.  She showed up at every radio meeting and made it a point to meet the newbies and greet her old friends.  She was delighted about everything in our crazy business.

I know you all have stories to share, so let’s hear ‘em.

Tough Being a Stand Alone Classical Station (Anywhere).

Stations are still not out of the woods. Not In Chicago or in any city for that matter. Revenue realities are coming into focus, but what about expense realities? We’re in fiscal-year-end mop up mode with a mini-June drive here in Portland, closing a revenue gap. It will indeed be interesting to watch as KING in Seattle moves to a listener support model.

More From AMPPR – Part Deux

Some continued reporting from AMPPR attendees.  Valerie Stains is a freelance producer who spent many years at NPR doing a variety of jobs.  She reports on two sessions:

FRED  CHILD, host of Performance Today (Air Talent Training)

As he has done for past radio conferences, popular PT host Fred Child had sent out a pre-conference call for sample air checks to be critiqued at his session, “Air Talent Training.”  When absolutely nothing arrived before the gathering,

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More from AMPPR

I asked some of the attendees at the AMPPR conference in NYC to write reports for this blog.  Here is the first of two installments:

From John Pitman, Music Director at All Classical in Portland OR:

While visiting the facilities of WQXR/WNYC, I felt like I was walking the halls of some vast intergalactic public radio space station:  multiple floors, corridors, elevators, seemingly uncountable staff… it was most impressive.

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In Search of Chopin

Back in 1992, I spent 3 days in Warsaw, not really thinking much about Poland or Chopin, but intent on wrangling a visa to get into Russia. It wasn’t easy at the time. Warsaw was the back door. Those 3 days turned out to be life-changing for me. Yes, Chopin just happened to be my “desert island” composer, but my focus was a quick transit to Moscow to explore joint-venture opportunities in a newly open, former Soviet Union. Don’t ask. In any event, I was completely caught off guard – Warsaw charmed me.

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CQ, this is your son. Come back?

Remember the 1997 film, Contact directed by Robert Zemeckis? I was reminded of the film upon watching the new series Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking airing on the Discovery Channel. His now already famous quote, “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans” is an early gem from the series.  Hawking’s grim yet grounded opinion about what would happen if aliens landed on Earth made me nostalgic for the feel-good, hopeful opinion crafted by Zemeckis into the Jodie Foster film.

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The Rising Tide

A dear old friend of mine, long since gone, used to say when offered ice with her whiskey, “No thanks, that stuff sunk the Titanic, I’ll keep it neat.” She was a Belfast gal from way back.

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Uh-oh. Pay-for-Play in Seattle

It was too good to be true.  One of the local TV stations in Seattle, KING 5 started a local arts show.  But it turns out, this is not really a news/feature program, but rather an infomercial paid for by the 5th Avenue Theater to promote its own shows.  When the theater doesn’t need the airtime, it ”rents” the airtime out to other arts groups.  And of course, it’s expensive so the only groups that can afford it are the largest ones.  The disclaimer about this being paid advertising is virtually hidden, and the content is treated like feature reporting.

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WQXR/WNYC: Report from the Music Personnel Conference

The Music Personnel Conference is not just a chance for those of us in the radio biz to get together with old friends.  It’s also a place to discuss best practices in our industry and to refill the well when  the daily grind has depleted it.  UPDATE: Here’s a timely article in the NY Times.

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Blogging from WQXR/WNYC

Hello,

A quick note from the Music Personnel Conference in New York City.  Today was the first day of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio annual conference.  Despite the difficulties in the industry that Jack wrote about yesterday, the mood is very positive here.  

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