NEA Shows Little Love for Classical Radio

In what was a surprise to virtually all the major producers of classical radio, the National Endowment for the Arts has taken a hard left turn, and diverted long-standing television and radio funding to gaming, mobile, and web projects. A detailed and scathing article in the New York Times gives examples of organizations that have lost some or all of their funding after years of building partnerships with the NEA.  The MET Opera, PBS, and American Public Media (Performance Today and SymphonyCast) all had their funding decimated.  Some of these organizations regularly received large grants, but … Continue Reading

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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Americans for the Arts National Convention & Three New Studies

Thursday through Saturday is the national convention of the advocacy organization Americans for the Arts. It’s being held in Seattle, and I will be interviewing attendees and presenters for the group’s website.  I also plan to report here on who’s saying what and how it might impact us in classical music radio.

There are also three new reports out that you might want to read.  One is from Chorus America that finds:

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