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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. |
#2
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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 |
#3
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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." |
#4
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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.
Last edited by ai4i : April 5th 10 at 12:18 AM |
#5
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Endangered Classical Format
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#6
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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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#9
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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 |
#10
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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 |
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