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Endangered Classical Format
Another commercial classical FM flips to noncom.
The classical format on commercial radio moved from "endangered species" closer to "extinct" over the past year, when prominent standard-bearers WQXR New York and WCRB Boston were sold to public broadcasters who converted them to noncommercial operation. Another leading commercial classical voice, the Lutheran Church-owned KFUO-FM in St. Louis, is embroiled in legal and political battles stemming from church leaders' attempts to sell the big class C0 signal to a religious broadcaster. Now Seattle's KING-FM (98.1) is laying the groundwork to end more than half a century of commercial classical radio in the Puget Sound area. "With all the changes in media in the United States, commercial advertising is no longer a fit for KING," said Christopher Bayley, president of the board of the community nonprofit group that's operated the station since its founders, the Bullitt family, donated it as part of the dissolution of their King Broadcasting group in 1995. + What's next for KING-FM. Bayley says there's a lot of work to be done before KING-FM makes the switch to listener-supported status. The "Beethoven" group, which has been operating the station for the benefit of the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera and ArtsFund, has to create a new non-profit corporation to own the station, win FCC approval for the flip to noncommercial status, join the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ramp up a fundraising campaign to begin collecting listener dollars, and wind down the commercial ad sales, which have been conducted on KING-FM's behalf by Fisher Communications. If all goes according to plan, KING-FM will play its last commercial on June 30, 2011. Barring more format changes or sales between now and then, that will leave only a handful of commercial classical FM stations remaining around the country. + Who's left? Once KING-FM takes its big voice noncommercial (it's a 66-kw/2320' full class C from the West Tiger Mountan master-antenna site), it will leave just four big-market commercial classical stations in the US. Two have noncommercial owners: city-owned WRR, Dallas (101.1) and Chicago's WFMT (98.7), which operates commercially but is owned by Chicago public broadcaster WTTW-TV. Then there's Robert Conrad's venerable WCLV, Cleveland, which downgraded to a rimshot facility almost a decade ago. That leaves Entercom's KDFC-FM, San Francisco (102.1) as the last of a dying breed of full-market, fully-commercial classical FMs. Entercom also runs classical programming on an AM in Kansas City (KXTR 1660), where it's also heard on the HD2 subchannel of one of Entercom's FMs. You don't need much more than two hands' worth of fingers to count the rest: Mapleton's KBOQ (103.9) in Monterey, CA; foundation-owned KDB, Santa Barbara (93.7); American General Media's KHFM, Santa Fe, NM (95.5); Judson Group's WCRI, Block Island, RI (95.9); Ken Squier's WCVT, Stowe, VT (101.7); Sandab's WFCC (107.5) on Cape Cod; Davis Media's WBQK (107.9) in the Norfolk, VA market; and three Nassau "W-Bach" outlets on the Maine coast. By contrast, when the first edition of the "M Street Radio Directory" (ancestor to The Radio Book) came out in 1989, it listed 32 commercial classical FMs and more than half a dozen commercial classical AMs. |
Endangered Classical Format
In article ,
"Jim" wrote: Another commercial classical FM flips to noncom. The classical format on commercial radio moved from "endangered species" closer to "extinct" over the past year, when prominent standard-bearers WQXR New York and WCRB Boston were sold to public broadcasters who converted them to noncommercial operation. Another leading commercial classical voice, the Lutheran Church-owned KFUO-FM in St. Louis, is embroiled in legal and political battles stemming from church leaders' attempts to sell the big class C0 signal to a religious broadcaster. Now Seattle's KING-FM (98.1) is laying the groundwork to end more than half a century of commercial classical radio in the Puget Sound area. "With all the changes in media in the United States, commercial advertising is no longer a fit for KING," said Christopher Bayley, president of the board of the community nonprofit group that's operated the station since its founders, the Bullitt family, donated it as part of the dissolution of their King Broadcasting group in 1995. + What's next for KING-FM. Bayley says there's a lot of work to be done before KING-FM makes the switch to listener-supported status. The "Beethoven" group, which has been operating the station for the benefit of the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera and ArtsFund, has to create a new non-profit corporation to own the station, win FCC approval for the flip to noncommercial status, join the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ramp up a fundraising campaign to begin collecting listener dollars, and wind down the commercial ad sales, which have been conducted on KING-FM's behalf by Fisher Communications. If all goes according to plan, KING-FM will play its last commercial on June 30, 2011. Barring more format changes or sales between now and then, that will leave only a handful of commercial classical FM stations remaining around the country. + Who's left? Once KING-FM takes its big voice noncommercial (it's a 66-kw/2320' full class C from the West Tiger Mountan master-antenna site), it will leave just four big-market commercial classical stations in the US. Two have noncommercial owners: city-owned WRR, Dallas (101.1) and Chicago's WFMT (98.7), which operates commercially but is owned by Chicago public broadcaster WTTW-TV. Then there's Robert Conrad's venerable WCLV, Cleveland, which downgraded to a rimshot facility almost a decade ago. That leaves Entercom's KDFC-FM, San Francisco (102.1) as the last of a dying breed of full-market, fully-commercial classical FMs. Entercom also runs classical programming on an AM in Kansas City (KXTR 1660), where it's also heard on the HD2 subchannel of one of Entercom's FMs. You don't need much more than two hands' worth of fingers to count the rest: Mapleton's KBOQ (103.9) in Monterey, CA; foundation-owned KDB, Santa Barbara (93.7); American General Media's KHFM, Santa Fe, NM (95.5); Judson Group's WCRI, Block Island, RI (95.9); Ken Squier's WCVT, Stowe, VT (101.7); Sandab's WFCC (107.5) on Cape Cod; Davis Media's WBQK (107.9) in the Norfolk, VA market; and three Nassau "W-Bach" outlets on the Maine coast. By contrast, when the first edition of the "M Street Radio Directory" (ancestor to The Radio Book) came out in 1989, it listed 32 commercial classical FMs and more than half a dozen commercial classical AMs. Then there is CHINOOK CONCERT BROADCASTERS KLEF 98.1 MHz 25 KW Anchorage Alaska. -- spell 'usenet' backward for e-mail |
Endangered Classical Format
Jim wrote:
Another commercial classical FM flips to noncom. The classical format on commercial radio moved from "endangered species" closer to "extinct" over the past year, when prominent standard-bearers WQXR New York and WCRB Boston were sold to public broadcasters who converted them to noncommercial operation. Another leading commercial classical voice, the Lutheran Church-owned KFUO-FM in St. Louis, is embroiled in legal and political battles stemming from church leaders' attempts to sell the big class C0 signal to a religious broadcaster. Well, here's the problem: it's the music. We have here in Williamsburg, VA. a local commercial classical station that opened up just a couple years ago, and which seems to be doing very well. You can turn on WBQK any time and hear Pachelbel's Canon or Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The thing is, there's only a limited number of times I can listen to the Four Seasons without going off my nut. The playlist is as short as a typical Oldies format station. They advertise themselves as having "relaxing classical music," in such a way that they seem to be positioning themselves in the market as a sort of upscale easy listening station. Now, from a profitability standpoint this might be effective, and it's possible that it's the only way to keep classical music profitable over the long term. But I think it doesn't do justice to the music at all. For the most part, what is interesting about classical music is that it isn't relaxing at all. Unlike easy listening music, it's music that you are supposed to listen carefully to. Treating it as a utility product is not promoting the music and it's not promoting the importance of the music. two hands' worth of fingers to count the rest: Mapleton's KBOQ (103.9) in Monterey, CA; foundation-owned KDB, Santa Barbara (93.7); American General Media's KHFM, Santa Fe, NM (95.5); Judson Group's WCRI, Block Island, RI (95.9); Ken Squier's WCVT, Stowe, VT (101.7); Sandab's WFCC (107.5) on Cape Cod; Davis Media's WBQK (107.9) in the Norfolk, VA market; and three Nassau "W-Bach" outlets on the Maine coast. By contrast, when the first edition of the "M Street Radio Directory" (ancestor to The Radio Book) came out in 1989, it listed 32 commercial classical FMs and more than half a dozen commercial classical AMs. What's happening is that kids aren't listening to classical music, and I think some of that is because kids aren't really listening to _any_ music, they're just letting it pour into their ears twenty-four hours a day without really paying attention to it. I blame the lack of music classes in schools for some of this, but that's not all of it. It's a genuine cultural shift and it's going to hit _all_ radio eventually. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
Also WRR, Dallas, WCCC, Hartford, KLEF, Anchorage. WFMT is actually a special case because of their programming distribution network. Did you read about how K-Mozart going country in LaLa land caused KUSC to be flooded with more money in contributions than they were prepared to handle? My moral dilemma is that I like to listen to a bunch of non-coms on line but can only afford to support one in a decent mannor, so I visit my local APMG station twice a year. What is happening in St. Louis can not bother me too much because three years ago, a christian school sold their station to APMG which became my classical music station in Miami, so these things go both ways.
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Endangered Classical Format
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Endangered Classical Format
In article ,
Mark Howell wrote: Over and over and over again, longer playlists have equaled plunging audience shares. When people say they want more variety, what most of them really mean is they want to hear their favorite songs more often. If you really give them variety, they're gone. KBAY (the original, real KBAY at 100.3) sported a playlist of over 3000 selections. That's amazing for an "easy listening" station. Even more amazing was the fact that KBAY was the only station able to routinely trounce KOIT in the book. For several years, they were neck and neck. Until ARS worked its magic and destroyed the station, KBAY was a major force to be reckoned with. -- John Higdon +1 408 ANdrews 6-4400 AT&T-Free At Last |
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Endangered Classical Format
In article ,
ai4i wrote: Does it matter with background instrumentals? Do people really "listen" to the music, or is it just -there-? I actually found KBAY to be a foreground station. It played original popular hits as well as selected covers. It dipped into KKSF territory with pop jazz pieces. It even played an occasional show tune. It was borderline eclectic. Apparently, people listened closely enough for the station to do well for its advertisers, many of whom had been with the station for years and years. It was always sold out. The station was frequently characterized by people who never bothered to listen to it as "elevator music". It would have had to have been some pretty hip elevator. -- John Higdon +1 408 ANdrews 6-4400 AT&T-Free At Last |
Endangered Classical Format
On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 12:40:02 EDT, John Higdon wrote:
In article , ai4i wrote: Does it matter with background instrumentals? Do people really "listen" to the music, or is it just -there-? I actually found KBAY to be a foreground station. It played original popular hits as well as selected covers. It dipped into KKSF territory with pop jazz pieces. It even played an occasional show tune. It was borderline eclectic. Apparently, people listened closely enough for the station to do well for its advertisers, many of whom had been with the station for years and years. It was always sold out. The station was frequently characterized by people who never bothered to listen to it as "elevator music". It would have had to have been some pretty hip elevator. During the time I lived in Ukiah, I worked for KLIL, an "easy listening" station. I and my friends often "DXed" KBAY. It was amazing to pick it up (for us), being over 150 - 200 miles distant, and Ukiah being in a rather deep valley. Never-the-less, we got it quite well using a cheap-o Radio Shack 4 element FM beam. I and many others even picked it up as we drove around town in our cars, although it was spotty in places. We listened a LOT to KBAY, everything John tells you is true ! It was one heck of a station !! Warren |
Endangered Classical Format
John Higdon had written:
| | I actually found KBAY to be a foreground station. It played original | popular hits as well as selected covers. It dipped into KKSF territory | with pop jazz pieces. It even played an occasional show tune. It was | borderline eclectic. Perhaps a little less eclectic, but something more than a background music station was the old KCFM in St. Louis up until the late 1970s. It managed to hold its own for a while against KEZK, which was on the old KDNA, and AM station WRTH. Around 1978, KCFM went to what we would now call a AAA format, calling itself "The Natural Sound." While moderately successful, and quite beloved of some people even to this day, the station's founder decided to retire and sold to Gannett. Gannett, which ruined almost every radio station it ever touched, promptly switched it back to a beautiful-music format, this time much more formulaic and a lot less interesting. It bombed. Classical KFUO-FM was, at the time, still running tapes from Parkway. -- Mark Roberts - E-Mail address is valid but I don't use Google Groups If you quote, please quote only relevant passages and not the whole article. |
Endangered Classical Format
Art Clemons had written:
| | | Actually in general, the commercial classical stations were making money by | attracting advertisers who wanted access to the classical audience. That | being said, what really happened in places like Philadelphia was that | station owners could get really high offers for the station and opted to | sell. The format likely could have continued earning some rate of return | indefinitely in most of those same markets. That's what happened with the Florians' WNIB in Chicago, and relatively late, too. Obie Yadgar, who was the morning announcer, went back to Milwaukee but, as I understand it, no longer is on the air. There just isn't much demand for classical announcers. -- Mark Roberts - E-Mail address is valid but I don't use Google Groups If you quote, please quote only relevant passages and not the whole article. |
Tight playlists (was Endangered Classical Format)
Amid this discussion of how broad station playlists are, I was in
a cafe yesterday picking up a sandwich for lunch when I heard the Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why." I immediately recognized it as one of the songs that KYUU (KNBR's FM sister station in San Francisco) was playing when I worked there in the summer of 1980. I counted the carts once and figured there were about 400 songs in rotation. Even in those few months, I heard each of them so many times that they now jump out at me 30 years later as being "KYUU songs." :-) Patty |
Tight playlists (was Endangered Classical Format)
In article ,
Patty Winter wrote: Amid this discussion of how broad station playlists are, I was in a cafe yesterday picking up a sandwich for lunch when I heard the Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why." I immediately recognized it as one of the songs that KYUU (KNBR's FM sister station in San Francisco) was playing when I worked there in the summer of 1980. I counted the carts once and figured there were about 400 songs in rotation. Even in those few months, I heard each of them so many times that they now jump out at me 30 years later as being "KYUU songs." :-) When ARS took over the original KBAY, they gutted the format. It turned into ARS' version of a KOIT sound-alike. The playlist was tightened to less than a couple hundred songs, which of course were played over and over. That was in the mid-nineties. To this day, when I hear ANY of those songs, I cringe inside, recalling the corporate destruction of the station where I had worked for twenty-three years. -- John Higdon +1 408 ANdrews 6-4400 AT&T-Free At Last |
Tight playlists (was Endangered Classical Format)
Patty Winter wrote:
of the songs that KYUU (KNBR's FM sister station in San Francisco) was playing when I worked there in the summer of 1980. I counted the carts once and figured there were about 400 songs in rotation. Even in those few months, I heard each of them so many times that they now jump out at me 30 years later as being "KYUU songs." :-) And KYUU was a very popular station at the time. So, 400 songs is about 30 hours of music without repeats, though most playlists repeat some songs more than others. It goes back to that mythical waitress in the 1950s playing the same 5 songs from the 200 selection jukebox that was the supposed inspiration for Storz top 40 format. |
Tight playlists (was Endangered Classical Format)
On Fri, 9 Apr 2010 17:28:55 EDT, John Higdon wrote:
When ARS took over the original KBAY, they gutted the format. It turned into ARS' version of a KOIT sound-alike. The playlist was tightened to less than a couple hundred songs, which of course were played over and over. And of course, 200 songs is the opposite extreme, and would be considered by almost any music programmer, except those aiming at teens, to be too small a list. As discussed elsewhere, 400-500 songs is a sweet spot for most commercial formats, and some of those songs will be heard more often than others. There will also be some rotating in and out of such a list. But the key thing is, they will ALL be hit songs among the station's target audience. Mark Howell |
Endangered Classical Format
In article , Jim wrote: Another commercial classical FM flips to noncom. Now Seattle's KING-FM (98.1) is laying the groundwork to end more than half a century of commercial classical radio in the Puget Sound area. There was a mention of KING in an article about classical-music public-radio stations in yesterday's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/bu...a/26radio.html Most of the article is about, no surprise, WNYC. But a few other stations are also discussed. Patty |
Endangered Classical Format
Hurray...there is hope!
"Patty Winter" wrote in message ... In article , Jim wrote: Another commercial classical FM flips to noncom. Now Seattle's KING-FM (98.1) is laying the groundwork to end more than half a century of commercial classical radio in the Puget Sound area. There was a mention of KING in an article about classical-music public-radio stations in yesterday's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/bu...a/26radio.html Most of the article is about, no surprise, WNYC. But a few other stations are also discussed. Patty |
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