WCLV is joining the public radio community after 50 years of being a commercial station. Here’s the press release:
WCLV TO BECOME NONCOMMERICAL IN JANUARY
September 26, 2012 –CLEVELAND
WCLV 104.9FM,Northeastern Ohio’s Classical Music station, will begin operating as a noncommercial station onJanuary 1, 2013. The audience will continue to enjoy familiar WCLV programming with familiar voices presenting the greatest music of the past five hundred years and the rich arts and cultural resources of today.
With the transition, WCLV is following commercial classical music radio stations in New York City, Boston and Seattle that have successfully converted to a noncommercial format.
WCLV is now affiliated with ideastream, the multiple media public service organization that operates noncommercial stations WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN. Studios for all three stations are at Idea Center® at PlayhouseSquare.
The transition will allow generous businesses and organizations to support the work of WCLV, and will give individuals who appreciate hearing classical music on the radio the opportunity to provide support through donations large and small.
“For five decades, WCLV has served as a focal point and megaphone for Northeast Ohio’s arts and culture resources and activities,” saidRobert Conrad, WCLV’s President and Co-Founder. “This change to a noncommercial format will allow the station to continue serving our audience and to grow and evolve, much as our region’s vibrant arts and cultural assets are evolving and growing today.”
“The Northeast Ohio community identifies arts and culture as a primary asset of the region,” said Jerry Wareham, President and CEO of ideastream. “Because of the extraordinary generosity and good work of co-founderRobert Conrad, his partner Richard Marschner and their colleagues, the citizens of the region will continue to benefit from the availability of classical music and arts and cultural programming on the radio,” he continued.
ABOUT WCLV
Established in 1962, WCLV has gained an international reputation as a leading classical music broadcaster and producer and distributor of culturally oriented programming.
In 1965, WCLV began the Cleveland Orchestra radio broadcasts, now heard twice weekly at 104.9 and distributed world-wide. WCLV was one of the first FM-only commercial stations to carry the Metropolitan Opera live from New York. From 1969 to 2009, WCLV was the anchor station for the weekly City Club Forum broadcasts, which it continues to air. Other programs of note produced by WCLV for local broadcast and national distribution include Weekend Radio and selected concerts by Apollo’s Fire – The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra.
Local live broadcasts by WCLV include a monthly series of CIM Live programs from the Cleveland Institute of Music, wall-to-wall coverage of the bi-annual Cleveland International Piano Competition, and regular broadcasts from Baldwin-Wallace University, Cleveland State University and Oberlin College. In 2008, Jubilation, the Stuart Church Choir Festival began its annual live broadcasts, currently presented from St. John’s Cathedral. In the spring of 2012, the station aired four broadcasts from the newly established ChamberFest Cleveland. Regular delayed-broadcasts by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire – The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra and the concert series of the Cleveland International Piano Competition are also presented.
In addition to its highly regarded musical programs, WCLV keeps its audience informed with hourly Wall Street Journal Reports, four daily broadcasts of the BBC World Service News and local news reports at 7:00 and 7:30 AM, 12:06 PM and 5:00 and 5:30 PM.
Over the years, WCLV has won many honors: four Gabriel Awards, three for Best Radio Station Nationwide and one for Best Religious Program; aNAB Marconi for Best Classical Radio Station; New York Radio Festival Silver and Gold medals for Best Classical Station Worldwide; two Ohio Governor’s Award for Support of the Arts; a Gracie for best interview program dealing with women’s issues; and numerous local awards.
In 2001, to assure continuation of classical music on the radio, ownership of WCLV was donated to the community through a nonprofit corporation and transferred to ideastream in 2011.
ABOUT ideastream
ideastream is a multiple media public service organization that applies the power of media to education, culture and citizenship. It includes WVIZ/PBS, 90.3 WCPN, educational and public service cable channels, broadband interactive video distance learning, the Internet and other interactive media.
Based on careful and ongoing ascertainment of community needs, ideastream acquires, creates and delivers content that connects those who seek knowledge with those who have it.
ideastream leverages technical, creative and financial resources through partnerships with other organizations that share interests in education and public service. Support comes primarily from contributions made by individuals, foundations and corporations. Funding from state and federal agencies also plays a critical role.
ideastream has attracted national attention as a new model for public service media. The services of ideastream multiple media are utilized by more than 2.8 million people a month.
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Thanks, Marty.
And thank you, Robert Conrad, for a commercial classical station which was frankly better than its “Public” competition…for resisting the mediocre Talk-Nazis of NPR (especially after 9/11)…for maintaining professionalism in the brave quality of your playlist, voice quality of you announcers, their grammar, wit and literacy years after they’d been abandoned by most NPR outlets.
WCLV’s coverage of Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra broadcasts gave me my first glad introduction to Classical Music–I shall ever be in your debt, sir. Miss the racket myself (15+ years as a host-producer in top-30 markets), but it has peaked…Godspeed.
Here’s a thank you of my own. Working at WCLV in the early 80s was a real education in how a classical station can be a successful commercial outlet without compromising program quality. The philosophy was that programming determined what went on the air and it was sales’ job to go out and sell it. (What a concept!) And programming had a say in what kind of commercials could air… nothing could air that would destroy the sound of the station. Sales would work with a sponsor to make sure that happened. In short, it was the WFMT model but it allowed for prerecorded spots. (Bob Conrad served an internship at WFMT while attending Northwest University in the late 50s. WFMT’s policy at the time was live copy only.)
The policy for hiring on-air personnel was the candidate had to be a music person first, radio person second. The result was next to no mispronunciations and gaffes that would turn off seasoned classical music listeners. The station also had/has credibility with musicians, which says a lot. And it’s telling that two on-air folks that were at WCLV when I was are still there… John Simna and Mark Satola. Now that’s stability!
Bob also taught me something that I’m now seeing on Channel 47 here in Dallas, which has suddenly returned several retired and seasoned North Texas broadcast news veterans and many other familiar faces to the morning airwaves. Bob sought out and hired veteran Cleveland broadcasters who had retired or had been pushed out of radio because of their age. (Let’s be real. We all know it happens.) That was a win-win-win: A win for the listener…familiar voices had been restored to the airwaves that helped form an “extended family” of on-air staff. A win for the station…experienced hires that came out of retirement and were willing to worked at a rate that was affordable to a classical music station. They knew that they were joining a class outfit and each one brought their own dose of instant credibility to WCLV. And, for all of the reasons you and I already know, it was a win for the broadcaster. It was a place that one could be proud to work for.
Best wishes to all at WCLV.