Bill Kling Stepping Down

Big news in the radio world: Bill Kling, the man who started American Public Media and who hired Garrison Keillor, is stepping down  in June after 45 years at Minnesota Public Radio.   Kling began a small regional station in Minnesota in 1967.  From that he has created a media conglomerate that now employs 700 radio professionals broadcasting on 44 stations.

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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.

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Classical Music Radio Should Be Listed As An Endangered Species

Two recent news items ought to make your head whirl. The first is from current.org which is the online arm of Current, the pubcasting journal.

The latest analysis from public radio’s Grow the Audience project identifies a “short list” of market factors that drive performance of individual NPR News stations–namely education levels, competition within each market for NPR News listeners and the presence of key psychographic segments.

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