WMRA -- Dropping Classical with Class

Long-time readers of this blog may recall my series of posts taking WETA-FM to task, first for dropping classical music, and then bringing it back. It wasn't so much the format change that I objected to, it was the intellectual dishonesty displayed by WETA surrounding the decision.

Despite WETA's high-minded statements about abandoning classical music to reach out to audiences unserved by public radio, kicking the format to the curb was really only about one thing -- chasing after the bigger pledge dollars pubradio news and talk format listeners cough up. WETA's return to classical was partially due to circumstance, and partially due to the fact that both listenership and pledge dollars dropped significantly after the change.

Down our way, public radio station WMRA-FM in Harrisonburg, Virginia changed over from NPR news/classical to primarily news/talk this week. And while the underlying reasons were precisely the same as WETA's, how WMRA presented their decision was very different -- and refreshingly honest.

WMRA also operates WEMC, a sister station just down the road at Eastern Mennonite University. WEMC has a weaker signal and smaller coverage area than WMRA. Basically, the two stations switched formats, with WEMC now running mostly automated classical programming, and WMRA going to news/talk.

On their website, WMRA explains the reason behind their decision. In a question-and-answer section, they lay it all out quite candidly.

We have an opportunity to offer more diversity of programming to most of our listening area, giving people a choice between music and information throughout the day. Almost all of our classical music listeners will still be able to hear music on another station during the midday, whereas most of them could not hear midday information programming.

Not quite the bafflegab proffered by WETA -- especially since WMRA didn't completely eliminate classical music. Check out the answer to the following question (emphasis mine):

What do you hope to gain from these new programs?

Foremost is increased public service, indicated by more people listening to public radio with this additional choice available to them. We are excited by the prospect of better fulfilling our mission by having a larger impact on the civic discourse in the communities we serve. We anticipate, of course, that serving more listeners, and serving them better as they listen longer, will turn into fundraising success so that we can provide even better service. Our long range plans call for increasing our community involvement, more coverage of Virginia news and issues, and expanding Virginia Insight to a daily live program once the resources are in place.

And there it is. WMRA changed the format to increase listenership and pledge dollars. But unlike WETA, they said so.

The other big difference was this: when WETA made the switch, it was consistently one of the top-rated stations in their market. WETA was making money -- it just got greedy and tried to make more money. WMRA had a much tougher row to hoe, as they themselves admit.

The audience for WMRA has not grown over the past 5 or 6 years, despite a rapidly growing population. In the past year and a half, the audience has actually declined significantly, particularly during the middays. On top of that, the average time spent listening has also declined. We have seen the effects of this on our fundraising. The number of members has decreased, and although the average gift has grown, the trend is not a sustainable one. We came up short of our goals in most of our recent on-air fundraisers, and have had to add a third fundraiser in recent years. We had to cancel some programs and reduce staffing two years ago. Because almost half of our operating budget comes from listener contributions, successful fundraising is essential to our being able to provide a quality service.

I applaud WMRA for their integrity. They could have spun it, but instead, station management chose to present the real reasons for the change. The thoughtful nature of their comments indicates to me this was a difficult decision not entered into lightly.

WMRA closes their explanation page by listing all the public radio stations in their listening area that play classical music (even WTJU gets a mention). They even provide program times, so WMRA's former classical listeners can find the music they love elsewhere.

WMRA may no longer play much classical music, but they still have plenty of class.

- Ralph

Spin Hard! Harder!

Well this is an interesting turn of events. With the eminent demise of classical music of Washington, DC commercial station WGMS, speculation about public radio station WETA’s return to the format has been rampant. While logical, in conversations with others I maintained that the switch was unlikely.

IMHO, WETA abandoned classical in a grab for the bigger pledge bucks of public radio news/talk listeners. They cloaked it in other terms, but that’s the heart of it. To return to classical after so shortly (and with so much fanfare) switching would be an admission that the leading luminaries at WETA had made a huge mistake.

My mistake was under-estimating the art of the spin -- especially in the nation’s capital. In Febuary of 2005 the station flipped formats. According to an article in Currents,

This was principally and primarily a public service issue,”[emphasis mine] said Dan DeVany, v.p. and g.m. for WETA-FM… Classical music has become more widely available in the meantime, DeVany pointed out, with the advent of satellite and Internet radio.
The board overwhelmingly approved the switch after a public comment session, when listeners and representatives from Washington-area arts organizations begged them to preserve the city’s free, noncommercial source of classical music.

Fast forward to December, 2005. Listenership is off, the fall fund drive underperforms, and in a Washington Post article, we read this:

"People were angry -- still are -- and I understand that," says Dan DeVany... "But there was an audience in the Washington area that was not being served by public radio, and we wanted to reach out to them." He's talking about breaking out of the traditional public radio audience of affluent, highly educated, older and white listeners.

Here’s how they did it. WETA reached out to non-affluent, less-educated, younger and non-white listeners with a mix of “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” other NPR news/talk shows, and BBC World Service.

And now the board that killed classical in the first place hastily meets to authorize WETA’s return to the format. If, that is, there’s no other source for classical music in Washington. So if the format is shoved off onto, say the AM station that Red Zebra owns, then WETA is off the hook.

As the Washington Post reported:

"This is a good classical music market," DeVany said. "WGMS has done very well with it. But there's something to be said for a non-commercial station carrying it."

So in nine months we’ve gone from dropping classical to better serve the public to maintaining nobody can do classical like public radio. Nicely done.

Classical programming may return to WETA –- but I repeat my caution from my previous post on the subject. Listeners of non-commercial radio need to remain active and vocal in their support (and that can include serving on a station’s board). The next format change is only a spin away.

- Ralph

Spinning the Classics

I can't resist one final observation about the WGMS/WETA story. Even after my previous post on the subject, I remain awed by the sheer intensity of the spin exhibited by WETA's public pronouncements. Perhaps it’s a byproduct of working in the nation's capital. My comments are in brackets.

In a recent Washington Post article, Dan DeVaney responded to news/talk listeners upset about the overnight format change:

"We would expect people to be disappointed, and we're really sorry about that,. As we said before, we had no intention of changing our format. [The abruptness of the switch would suggest otherwise. How many of us promptly do things we have no intention of doing?] But events ensued that made us feel it was in the best interest of the station to switch, and we did". [An unintentional bit of candor? Even the attempt to gain more listeners and bigger pledge bucks by changing to news/talk was spun as a better way to serve the listener.]

And from the press release on WETA's website, the president and CEO of WETA says:

“Classical music, in all its power and beauty, is an essential part of the cultural life of this city. [So why was it dropped in the first place?] As the exclusive home for classical music on local radio, Classical WETA 90.9 FM will celebrate classical music through our on-air programming and community involvement." [Now, would this be the same arts organizations that begged and pleaded with WETA not to end classical programming –- requests that went unheeded?]WETA changed to the classical format with the strong approval of the WETA Board of Trustees, which met December 14 to consider the changing marketplace for radio in the region. [That would be the lukewarm directive to allow the station to change -- if management felt like it.] Rockefeller noted that the decision required choosing between two strong options. [That is, the classical format they abandoned, or the news/talk format netted them less money and lower ratings.]

“We are exceedingly proud of our current format and the staff who have implemented it. [Even though they dropped the format in a heartbeat and immediately fired a significant number of said staff.] However, given the dramatic changes in the D.C. radio market, we had to consider how we should best meet the needs of our community.” [Which they did by going back to the format the community begged them not to change in the first place.]

And you thought CDs had a high RPM…

- Ralph

Parsing the possibilities

Undoubtably the best source for Washington area broadcast industry news is Dave Hughes’ DCRTV.com. DCRTV’s coverage of the WGMS debacle has been outstanding –- especially this past week. In quick succession it was reported that

1) Bonneville would kill the classical format even if Dan Snyder didn’t by the station.
2) When the story broke, Bonneville officially denied it, stating they were “absolutely commited to doing everything possible to keep classical music in this market.”

While there was some speculation that the deal was just stalled rather than dead, Snyder was quoted in the Washington Business Journal that he probably won’t buy it.

Make sure you read DCRTV’s analysis of the whole thing, it’s well worth it.

What I want to hold up for consideration is the danger of assumptions. As you read the Washington Post and the various other news and industry sources commenting on these events, it's assumed that should WGMS change formats, WETA will, too. There’s also a certain amount of wishful thinking that WGMS will remain intact.

Look at the language. Bonneville doesn’t say they’ll keep WGMS classical. Read the quote again. They’ll do “everything possible” (as defined by them) to “keep classical music in this market.”

WGMS as listeners knew it, is already dead. The staff’s been fired, services have been discontinued –- if the deal goes through Bonneville’s already in the position to flip the station to another format. Sports/talk appears to be the front runner. They could put classical on one of their other stations, but hold that thought for a moment.

The second assumption is that WETA will automatically go to classical if WGMS changes. What actually happened was that WETA’s board authorized management to consider reverting to music programming. Not quite the same thing.

So Bonneville can dump classical, and WETA doesn't have to change. Bonneville can say they did “everything possible,” but it was too difficult rebuild the station with a classical format. And besides, they thought that WETA would pick up the slack. WETA can point to Bonneville as the bad guys, and say they considered the change, but it wouldn’t serve their listeners as well as their current news/talk programming.

And no one’s done anything they said they wouldn’t.

Too cynical? Possibly. Stay tuned and we’ll find out together.

- Ralph

And what makes the picture appropriate? While everyone's watching the battle, I'm looking at the unnecessary path of destruction created by these monsters that, in the end, will just walk away no worse for the wear.

Blogging Explained - Thanks, Common Craft!

Common Craft specializes in producing short videos that explain complex concepts "in plain English." Their video on blogging is a gem.



If you know of someone who doesn't get blogging (but should), sit them down and make them watch the video!

As I watched, it reminded me of the changes in WETA's "blog."

When WETA returned to an all-classical format, they set up a blog to communicate with listeners -- very much in line with the concepts expressed by Common Craft.

To fill in some background, public radio station WETA in Washington, DC dropped classical programming to chase after bigger pledge dollars to be found in news/talk. Ratings sagged, and listenership (and pledge dollars) fell off. The sole surviving classical station in the Washington area, WGMS, was a commercial radio station whose owners wanted to flip to a more profitable format.

Seeing an opportunity to retreat from their own misstep and take over a now vacant field, WETA offered to go back to classical music, taking in WGMS' massive CD library and some of their more popular announcers.

In the early days WETA's blog talked about the change-over, the announcers, and generally took folks "behind the scenes" at the station. And it enabled comments. As things progressed, the comments became a forum for those discontented with the direction the station was taking, the programming, etc.

And then the blog changed. It's still billed as the "blog for classical music lovers," but it's not -- at least according to Common Craft's definition. It's become a music review column by Jens F. Laurson, similar to what one would find in a paper. Comments have been disabled. It's strickly a one-way conversation. Laurson reviews; you read.

Now I have no quarrel with Mr. Laurson. He's a good writer and a thoughtful reviewer, and I enjoy reading his posts. But in my opinion this isn't a blog, and for WETA to call it so seems a little disingenuous.

I consider the feedback I receive an integral part of the blogging process -- even if they're not favorable. WETA's missing the critical part of new media, and that's the conversation.

So if you're meeting with decision-makers to discuss blogging, do watch the Common Craft video. Don't use WETA's blog as a model.

- Ralph

Collateral Classical Damage

According to DCRTV.com, the sad saga of the fate of classical music on Washington DC's airwaves continues. Like Japanese movie monsters, the key players battle for position, oblivious to the havoc they wreak. As you may recall, Dan Snyder put forward the offer to buy Bonneville's commercial classical station WGMS and convert it to a sports talk format.

Now Snyder's put the brakes on the sale, claiming the frequencies WGMS operated at aren't worth the original pricetag of $45 million (plus a Clear Channel station may now be available). While the broadcast industry focuses on the Bonneville/Snyder clash of titans, let's take a look at what irresponsible behavior hath wrought.

1. Bonneville switched frequencies between their commercial radio stations WGMS and WTOP, to create. Washington Post radio. The top-ranked commercial classical station in the country (and at one time 6th ranked in the DC Metro market) lost signal power and coverage area. Result: a significant portion of the 400,000+ loyal WGMS listeners either got a poorersignal or none at all.
2. After more than three decades, public radio station WETA switched from classical to news/talk in a vain attempt to pump up revenues. Result: listeners who supported the station with pledges felt betrayed. WETA's ratings fall, as do revenues.
3. Snyder offered to buy WGMS. Result: Bonneville began laying off staff. Advertising commitments fell into limbo. WGMS' subscription-only Internet radio station Viva La Voce prepared to suspend service.
4. WETA's board gave the station permission to switch to classical – if there's no other outlet for it. Result: nothing, for now. WETA's former audience remained unserved.

While executives postured and jockeyed for position, people lost their jobs, and two formerly robust radio stations continued to suffer. WETA's experienced significant audience and revenue decline, and WGMS' fate was much worse. I don't expect WGMS to survive regardless of what happens next. If the station's sold, the format will flip and WGMS is gone. If not, the loss of staff and revenue may prove a fatal blow and the station will either go dark or go to a low-maintanence automated system – but no more classical music. A sorry end to a station that generated about $9.7 million in revenue just last year –- before these captains of industry started wheeling and dealing.

- Ralph

Man bites dog – public radio version

Northeast Indiana Public Radio (NIPR) recently purchased a commercial radio station from Summit City Radio Group – and plans to change its format to classical.

According to the station’s general manager Bruce Haines, "This will be a place that finally gives a greater voice to the fine arts in Fort Wayne. That is a voice that has been a whisper as of late."

Now consider the situation in Washington. WGMS, the commercial classical station is now seriously crippled as a result of wrangling surrounding an attempted purchase by Dan Snyder, owner of the Redskins to turn it into a sports/talk station. WETA, having already abandoned classical, has sort of offered to go back to classical if WGMS changes format – maybe.

Here’s a modest proposal: Bonneville want to sell WGMS. Snyder no longer wants to by. WETA would rather stick with their news/talk format. So perhaps WETA should purchase WGMS and make it a non-commercial classical station.

WETA would then be the good guys for saving classical programming, and still be able to keep their current format. They would also inherit WGMS’s audience, and with careful cultivation could probably hold on to most of the station’s market share.

Bonneville gets what they want, WETA gets what they want, and the listeners get what they want as well. Think it will happen?

Not in a million freakin’ years. In contrast to Fort Wayne, Indiana, no one’s interested in giving a greater voice to the fine arts in the nation’s capital.

- Ralph

Case of the Disappearing Discs

Long time readers know I couldn't let an article about WETA pass without comment. In Marc Fisher's blog at the WashingtonPost.com this past Sunday, he talked about the resurgence of classical music on the Washington airwaves, thanks to WETA's return to the format after the demise of WGMS (you can find my thoughts on the whole mess here, if you need to get up to speed).

I was heartened to see general manager's Dan DeVany's comment that he planned to "stay the course." But he's speaking for the management team that ditched three decades of classical programming to chase public radio news listeners in the first place.

Which leads me to my real point. The final paragraph of Fisher's blog entry reads:

[DeVany] says the station will move to a greater variety of pieces as it builds its CD library from 4,000 discs to more than 50,000 in the coming months.

WHAT!?!? A station in a major market that broadcast classical for 30 years only has 4,000 CDs? When I worked at Nimbus Records, I was responsible for sending releases to key stations, including WETA. WETA should have received at least 100 titles just from our little label alone. And when you add all the releases from Warner, Harmonia Mundi, Universal, Sony/BMG, EMI and all the other minor independent labels, I'm guessing the station's probably received over 500 CDs a year -- every year since the mid 1980's.

So of the 20,000 or more discs WETA should have received, where did they go? Did they throw them out when they went to all news?

And where's the WGMS library? That was supposed to go straight to WETA as part of the deal. Is that the 50,000 discs they're referring to? (It could be -- that would be quite a cataloging job).

Here's what prompted this reaction. I have about 2,000 classical CDs in my personal collection. I've been putting them to good use -- as my Wednesday morning audience on WTJU can [hopefully] attest. Still, the concept that the most important classical radio station in the Washington area has a library only double the size of mine, seems somehow odd -- and wrong.

- Ralph

Format fallout

The balloon's gone up. Bonneville flipped WGMS from classical to "George," one of those single syllable we're-crazy-we'll-play-anything (as long as it tests well) DJ-less formats. In response, WETA has returned to classical format. For the best in-depth analysis, I recommend DCRTV.

In this post, I'd like to keep the focus on the collateral damage. First off, the remaining WGMS staffers lost their jobs with the switch – a not so fitting a reward for decades of professional service and building tight bonds with listeners. But that's the biz.

At WETA, the ax fell as well, taking out Mary Cliff, host of "Traditions." This Saturday evening folk music program has been running for almost 30 years, and has become a mainstay for artists and listeners. It was a solid part of WETA's programming, peacefully coexisting alongside the classical music run on the weekdays. It also survived into the news/talk switch. Yet for WETA's triumphal return to classical, "Traditions" was terminated with extreme prejudice.

Dan Snyder wanted a sports/talk radio to help plug the Redskins. The deal fell through, and Snyder moved on. In the wake of the collapsed deal;

1) The most successful commercial classical station in the country is dead.

2) Dozens of people at two different radio stations are out of work.

3) Two locally produced programs at WETA – one dating back almost to the start of the station – are dead.

Was this trip really necessary?

- Ralph

Raining Lemons at WETA

According to a story in the Washington Post, the WETA/WGMS saga had a happy ending. WETA's total listenership is up, they've had the best pledge drive ever, and even more people have signed up to be member supporters of the station. WETA is now #5 in the Metro DC market.

One would think this would be cause for rejoicing, but remember WETA only returned to classical because their attempt to grab a younger news demographic fell flat on its face – and "rescuing" WGMS was the only way for them to save face.

Look at the remarks of Dan DeVany, WETA's general manager:

"It looks like a combination of things are working for us, People have realized that classical music on the radio resides here. It appears that WGMS listeners have found us."

"It looks like…" "It appears…" It reads like someone grudgingly admitting that something distasteful worked -- but they still don't want any parts of it. Even DeVany's picture accompanying the article communicates this conflict – IMHO it looks like he just bit into a lemon and is trying to force a smile.

Perhaps he's thinking about the other radio news – WAMU's audience is also larger. Without WETA's "me-too" news format diluting the market, WAMU now serves just about all of the public radio news listenership.

Leaping to the #5 spot with a format you couldn't wait to ditch – and watching your rival thrive with a format you couldn't get off the ground -- has got to be a bittersweet victory indeed.

It rained lemons, and WETA reluctantly made lemonade. They ought to put some sweetener in the batch and enjoy it.

- Ralph

A Class(ical)-less City

The big news in regional radio is the eminent demise of WGMS in Washington, DC. The station, which has been classical since 1948, is being sold to Dan Snyder, the owner of the Redskins who will surely flip the format to sports/talk. When that happens, our nation’s capital will have no classical music on the air.

Take a moment to think about that. Doesn’t a capital reflect the character of the nation? What would your reaction be if the last theater closed in Washington? Or the last art gallery?

The sad part is that classical music was not a money-losing format in the Washington area. Public radio station WETA did quite well with classical music for three decades. It changed to all news/talk only because it could make more money.

Part of the rationale with WETA’s switch was that, since there was a commercial classical station, broadcasting classical music no longer best served the public. WGMS saw a big rise in listenership after the format change. Although the music was watered down, and rarely did you heard anything outside the late romantic period (never mind complete works), for the classical listener, WGMS was better than nothing.

And now WGMS will be sold and changed. Did it make money? You bet. Healthy audience size? Yep, and unique, too. No danger of another station stealing the WGMS audience –- an enviable position for any radio station to be in. But as a sports station it will (in theory) make even more money.

I can’t fault commercial radio chasing the money. Like any other business, they’re supposed to make money, and as much of it as possible. But for public radio to abrogate their responsibility for the same reason is reprehensible.

Remember, classical music doesn’t necessarily mean dead white Europeans. With the format gone, the music of Americans George Gershwin, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein are banished from the Washington airwaves. So too the works of living American composers, such as Libby Larson, Philip Glass, Ellen Taffe Zwilich, John Adams and Steve Reich. Marin Alsop, director of the Baltimore Symphony, may have been awarded a “genius grant,” but you won’t hear the recordings that won her that honor. Nor will you hear world-renowned American performers, such as Rene Fleming, Joshua Bell, John Williams (the guitarist) or Thomas Hampson.

I harken back to my October 11 post about WTJU’s fund drive. Whether you’re reading this in Charlottesville, Virginia or somewhere else in the US, your local public stations need your active –- and vocal –- support. Don’t assume that what you’re hearing today will be there tomorrow. WTJU celebrates its 50th anniversary on the air in 2007. Remain complacent, and by 2008 it could all be gone.

- Ralph

(I leave it as an exercise for the reader to decipher the image's reference and it's relevence to this entry.)

Pubcasting and the HD Radio pretense

Jacobs Media just released their fourth annual study of core public radio listeners. There are lots of posts about the marked increase of tech and social media among listeners, which is something the study clearly shows.

But buried in the data is another story, I think. Consider -- according to the report:

1. HD Radio is only used 6% - a 3% decline from last year.
2. The average age for listeners who have been a contributor for more than 11 years is 63.
3. The average age for listeners who have been a contributor for less than 5 years is 50, with 19% being in the 25-34 age group (a demographic that doesn't even appear in the 11+ category).

In the olden days, most public radio stations were primarily classical music and news. Then Morning Edition and All Things Considered became the "tent poles." Both listenership (and giving) spiked dramatically when those two shows were on. So it wasn't long before stations were looking for ways to keep the magic going, by programming more news/talk.

But what to do about classical music? Everyone knows that only old people listen to classical music. They also represented the long-time (and sometimes big money) supporters of the station. But the real money -- and the younger audiences -- were in news/talk. So changes had to come.

No public radio station wants to be characterized as a culture-killer. Witness the firestorm when WETA dropped classical to go news/talk a few years ago. So rather than get rid of classical, some stations simply moved it to their HD Radio digital channel.  "No, classical isn't gone. We still broadcast it, and you can listen just as before -- if you have a special HD Radio, that is."

HD Radio has enjoyed greater usage in the public radio market than the commercial broadcasting field -- but its penetration is still dismal. And (see fact 1), it's shrinking. So for a station to claim that everybody wins when classical gets shoved onto a frequency that no one can receive seems a little disingenuous.  "No, we're not getting rid of it -- we're just putting it in the back of the attic where no one can easily get to it."

Fortunately, there's an upside to all this. Most stations that shift their music programming to HD2 also move it to the Internet. And online listening is an option that's growing among public radio listeners (just like the rest of the public).

The Jacobs Media survey shows the Internet to be the second-most used media for their study group (mobile phones were tops at 96%, Internet second at 91%). And over half regularly listen to content from their smartphone or MP3 player in the car. Sure, it could be podcasts (44% usage for this savvy group), or stored songs, or Pandora (only 18% usage). But there's a good chance that a significant part of it is content from the station -- and not necessarily their broadcast signal.

I have to admit that as much as I hate the programming of over-the-air WQXR (which I think is bland and boring), I love Q2 Music, which is their online-only alternative classical music service. It's innovative, it's fresh, it features living composers and unusual repertoire -- it's great! And it's online.

And I don't think they ever pretended it was available on an HD Radio channel.

An Arbitron Observation

I found the Fall 2007 Arbitron ratings for the Washington, DC market an intersting sidebar to the WGMS story, and the plans to turn it into a sports/talk station. According to that list, WGMS was #11 with 3.1 percent of the market (the top station had just double that). The highest sports/talk station on the list, WETM had 1.1 -- a third of the classical station's audience. And the Red Zebra sports/talk station had 0.7. Public radio stations don't show up in the official Arbitron rankings. The best I could find was a citation in Current that in 2005 WETA was around 2 percent.

So WGMS has a healthy 3.1 percent of the market. Dan Snyder wanted to buy it to convert it to sports/talk -- a format that pulls a combined pull of 1.7 percent of the market between two stations, or about half the audience size of WGMS. And WETA, which seems in no hurry to return to classical, sticks by their assertion that they went to news/talk to serve a wider audience -- an audience that seems at best to be roughly two-thirds the size of WGMS's classical listenership.

Is this making any sense?

- Ralph

One Thousand Posts --- the bottom five

Fair and balanced. I'm marking the 1,000th post to Off Topic'd with a look at our five most popular posts, and also our five least popular.

5) A Class(ical)-less City
Back in 2006, strange thing was about to happen in the nation's capital. Public radio station powerhouse WETA had dropped its classical music format in a bid to grab some rival WAMU's news/talk audience (and the $$$  that audience pledged). In the meantime, commercial WGMS was about to switch formats and drop classical music. Which meant in the capital city of the world's most powerul nation, there would be no classical music on the airwaves. It struck me as a major cultural disconnect, and it turned out to be one that didn't last long. Fortunately.

4) How do you measure "Good?"
Bose is a lightening rod brand name. People either love or hate the company's products -- but no one's neutral about them. Back in 2006 Ken and I were still writing "CE Conversations" as a consumer electronics blog. Ken addressed the issue of giving advice based -- not on what the person prefers -- but what best suits the asker's needs. And that question involved Bose.

3) Collecting in an Electronic Age
This 2006 post was also written by Ken Nail, the original co-author of this blog. He looked at his first-hand experience with eBay, and how it impacted the values of his beer can collection, and collecting in general. Six years later, his observations are even more insightful.

2) Even the Times Says So
In my very first post (back when we thought this would be a consumer electronics tech blog), I posited that MP3 players would pull younger listeners away from radio. This 2006 follow-up post presented a New York Times article Changing Its Tune that supported my claim. The digital music revolution continues apace in 2012, and over-the-air radio seems even more archaic.

And the least popular post of all time:

1) Tivo and Me
This post was part of a back-and-forth debate Ken Nail and I were having about TiVo and who was using it (and why). Our thoughts on time-shifting technologies from 2006 seem rather quaint, now. No wonder it's not read much. Perhaps someday it will be of real historical interest. And these kind of posts were one of the reasons we moved away from consumer electronics topics (and perhaps why Ken moved away from this blog).

Paying for the play

Thanks to the Internet, this is no longer a purely local post. WTJU-FM, the station I volunteer for, is having their fall fund drive. The goal is to raise $80,000 over the course of the next two weeks. So far, we've raised a little over $10,000, which is a criminally small amount when you consider how many people listen, not just within the Charlottesville area, but worldwide through WTJU.net.

Fundraising for public radio is always tough -- if a listener doesn't give, there's no perceivable consequence. They still get the same signal as the folks who contribute money to keep the station going. But there are consequences, and when they happen, they're usually major.

Sometimes its a change to a more lucrative format, such as WETA's discarding classical music to go all news/talk. In other cases, such as the sale of WVXW to the Christian Voice, its the death of a public radio station and the birth of another religious broadcaster.

For the Charlottesville market, there are three other non-commercial stations: one plays alternative rock and Americana, two run NPR news and classical. WTJU's classical and jazz programming is far more adventuresome than our focus-group programmed colleagues, and our rock and folk department -- unlike our distinguished competition -- isn't concerned about what the charts decree is hot, only what sounds good.

WTJU's getting ready to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Will it be around for another 50? And if so, will it have the same character? A lot depends on the individual listener -- and their decision to whether to pledge or not. Which is as it is for every non-commercial station.

- Ralph

Public Radio Blogs, II

Monday I tried to define what I thought made a good public radio blog, and cited a couple of examples. Purely by coincidence, the same day in one of the public radio listservs I subscribe to, someone at a station asked for examples of public radio blogs -- specifically, blogs from classical music stations. And some stations responded, including WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Now here's a station who understands how blogging can help develop relationships with their audience.

WITF actually has a family of blogs, each one specialized enough to appeal to a different group of readers. The Reporter's Notebook lets the news staff provide added detail to the stories they cover (comments enabled). There's a blog for their newsletter (comments disabled), and even a specialized one for politics -- Voter's Voice PA (with comments enabled).

And WITF has three staff blogs. Dr. Dick's Blog, by music director Dick Strawser, is about classical music from a personal view (no comments, but an email link for personal reply). Composing Thoughts is on-air host John Clair's blog about contemporary music and musicians (comments disabled). I've read this blog for some time, and I'm embarrassed I forgot about it when I wrote Monday's post.

And John Clair also writes the New Releases blog for WITF (comments disabled). At first blush, this may seem similar to WETA's "blog," but there's a significant difference. WITF's blog is talking about the new releases being played by the station.

Further, there's a pick-of-the-month feature (displayed prominently in the sidebar) with a link to Borders Books. So even though the communication is one-way, the content is about the station. And the link lets listeners respond and earn some money for the station as well. Now these are folks who "get it!"

Are there more examples of public radio blogs? I'll keep digging (and reading posts). If you know of one, let me know. My comment field's always enabled.

- Ralph

Public Radio Blog Directory

Iowa Public Radio

Minnesota Public Radio

• The LoopHole
• Polinaut
• Objects in Mirror
• The Bleacher Bums
• News Cut
• The Current Music Blog
• Updraft
• Movie Natters
• MFL Commissioner's Blog
• Classical Notes
• My Two Cents
• wavLength
• How's the Family?

WETA - Washington, DC

WFMU - Jersey City, NJ

WITF - Harrisburg, PA

• Composing Thoughts
• Dr. Dick's Blog
• Explore PA
• New Releases
• On the Flipside
• The Reporter's Notebook
• Spotlight Features
• Voter's Voice PA

WAMU - Washington, DC - No radio station blog found!

WBFO - Buffalo, NY
Xponential


WVTF - Roanoke, VA - No radio station blog found!

WWOZ - New Orleans, LA

WXXI - Rochester, NY

• David Dey's Citizenship Blog
• Brenda Tremblay's Blog
• Classical 91.5 Program Director Ruth Phinney's Blog
• Julie Levy's Education Blog for Parents and Teachers
• Mark Grube's Blog
• Scott Regan's Blog
• TV News Director Julie Philipp's Blog
• Interactive Services Blog
• Civic Sense Blog
• Volunteer Blog

Additions? Corrections? Please leave a comment.

Virtually Repeating Myself

Something curious is happening with increasing frequency. I find myself saying "it's in my blog."

No, its not vain self-aggrandizement or a pathetic attempt to build readership one person at a time. Rather, its because I've shared thoughts and opinions about various topics in this public forum -- and prefer not to repeat myself.

In a radio listserv discussion recently, someone asked about Tom, the new Charlottesville station. Instead of writing out my opinion about it and all the supporting arguements again, I simply referred to my post about it.

http://the-unmutual.blogspot.com/search?q=tom

Two weeks ago, someone who travels infrequently to Washington, DC remarked that WETA had returned to a classical format. He asked if I knew about it. Oh yes, I said, and rather than run through the whole story again, referenced my posts:

http://the-unmutual.blogspot.com/search?=weta

From time to time things that I've been familiar with for a while bubble up into the awareness of the general public. Claiming I've known about something for months when the subject comes up always seemed to me a bit pretentious -- especially if it was unsubstantiated.

Blog entries, though, provide clear documentation of exactly what I thought (or knew, or thought I knew) and when.

While perhaps not always evident, I do put time and effort into these posts, and try to provide as much documentation as possible. And that's really why I prefer to refer. Because all the links are here, and the reader can check my sources and judge for themselves whether or not my conclusions are sound.

As Omar Kayyam wrote:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Well, I'm not so sure about the last part (although I generally don't revise blog posts once they're out), but now that my thoughts about various subjects are publicly available, this finger's free to move on.

- Ralph