Bummer, dude. Wilmington is losing the 24-hour classical station it gained in 2011 when Davis Media bought the frequencies 95.9 FM and 1180 AM and renamed the combo Bach Radio. Wilmingtonbiz.com reports that
Not everyone was in favor of the move, however. 95.9 FM and 1180 AM were both home to Bach Radio, the only station in Wilmington that played classical music exclusively. The change means that Wilmington no longer offers a station that consistently plays classical music…
This will be the third time in two years that both 95.9 FM and 1180 AM have undergone a makeover. Bach Radio’s classical content was the same as Davis Media airs on WBQK BACHfm 107.9 in the Williamsburg-Yorktown market…
“We’re excited to launch our new radio station in response to overwhelming requests from listeners,” said Beau Gunn, general manager of Hometown Wilmington Media, in an interview with Port City Daily. “There’s a lot of excitement about the new station. We’ve heard people talking about it for years, and we’ll soon be bringing it to our listeners.”
Talk, talk, talk. Just what we need is more talk media. Folks in Wilmington will have to get their classical music online.
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Wilmington, NC does not have to get there classical music from just online. WHQR 91.3 HD 2 has classical music 24 hours a day from classical 24. That was far better than the commercial classical station. This is just me but I will not listen to a commercial station because I hate commercials. I would listen online or satellite radio before I would listen to a commercial station but that is not necessary because of WHQR HD 2 in Wilmington.
Where I live in Springfield, IL WUIS HD 2 is classical 24 24/7 and I like it and is good enough for me. I like classical 24 the best. When I travel to Peoria, IL to visit family WCBU 89.9 HD2 is also classical but I do not like them as well because they air a variety of classical programs that are not as good as classical 24. For example when they air local productions many times it is opera and vocal works which I do not like or just too much talk between the music like Performance Today.
In addition WHQR 91.3 HD1 airs classical music about half the time and there was also an article posted on this site earlier this year that WHQR was looking into buying a second station to move the classical music too. I have not heard anything since about that.
For people who refuse to buy HD radios to receive stations like WHQR 91.3 HD 2 it would help if those NPR stations looked at buying translators to repeat the HD2 programming on the analog band. Unfortunately I am not seeing that happen. NPR stations maybe because of decreased funding are rarely looking to expand these days with new stations or translators. Instead the talk in the broadcast industry is all about translators for AM stations which I am not in favor of because AM stations rarely air classical music and if they do its commercial radio which I do not like. The opportunity will be missed because new LPFM’s and new translators for AM stations will then use up most of the remaining band width.