Posted on 12/18/2006 9:45:23 AM PST by sitetest
Bach might be back on Washington's airwaves, even if the region's only classical music station, WGMS, drops the format.
Public broadcaster WETA (90.9 FM) is considering dumping its news-and-talk programming and returning to being a classical broadcaster if the music dies on WGMS, WETA's management said yesterday.
In a special meeting Thursday, WETA's board voted to give station executives the green light to consider switching back to classical if WGMS drops the format. Dan DeVany, WETA's vice president and general manager, said the station "could move very quickly" back to classical if circumstances warrant.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ping!
Classical Music Ping List ping!
If you want on or off this list, let me know via FR e-mail.
Thanks,
sitetest
Pinging to other folks who showed interest in this topic.
WGMS -- Classical Music for People who Hate Classical Music. Hopefully WETA will be better.
It's just plain economics. Classical music does not make money. People don't listen to classical music -- and thus, advertisers do not wish to advertise on classical channels. Any station that plays classical is basically doing charity or losing money.
Boston nearly lost classical music when Greater Media bought WCRB 102.5, a longtime classical outlet. Due to FCC ownership
rules, they had to sell one of their FM stations so they
chose WKLB 99.5; new owner of THAT station, Nassau, decided
to take the WCRB classical format and call letters there
(Greater Media moved WKLB's country to 102.5)
Now the growing country listenership of WKLB has a signal
closer to downtown Boston--and classical fans have a signal
further away.
WCRB ended its classical run by airing "Rodeo" by
Copland (the one featured in the "Beef: It's What's For
Dinner" ads) then shifted to 99.5 with "Hallelujah
Chorus". WKLB ended its country on 99.5 with a country
version of the national anthem and debuted on 102.5
with Rascal Flats' "Life is a Highway" from the movie CARS.
The flip:
http://microfurry.250free.com/Switch995.mp3
http://microfurry.250free.com/Switch1025.mp3
each 2-3 minutes long.
Longer versions are posted at raccoonradio.com
Pinging to other folks who showed interest in the last thread on this topic.
All these years I have been on FR and I didn't even know there was a classical music ping list. I'll be darned.
Here in Chicago, the CSO sells out all the time as do local smaller orchestras.
Dear HarmlessLovableFuzzball,
Classical music does pretty well in Washington, DC. By all accounts, WGMS is a solid, stable, highly-profitable part of Bonneville's radio empire, with nearly $10 million per year in advertising revenues.
However, Mr. Snyder needs the signal more than Bonneville needs the WGMS profit, as his Washington-region ESPN broadcasting franchise is in jeopardy if he doesn't score a station with a decent signal. Thus, he offered Bonneville a 50% premium over the appraised value of the station.
Tough to walk away from that much cash, even if you're making money in the present.
sitetest
Not true. Even though the programming is terrible, WGMS is the 7th most listened-to station in the Washington DC media market. Its listeners are the most educated and most affluent of any commercial radio station in the area, which means it takes in a heck of a lot of advertising revenue. It is a very profitable station -- Dan Snyder just thinks he can make more money promoting his Redskins.
I hope it works out that they return classical music to WETA. They should know they can't compete with WMAL when it comes to talk radio!
It will be a good thing if the last radio station takes classical music off the air. Classical music on the radio, interrupted by a "classical DJ" and/or advertisements is nothing but savagery. Recorded classical music is only meant be heard uninterrupted in one's living room in complete darkness, and only on 6 channel surround DVD-audio or Telearc SACDs.
Who needs Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, when we have such timeless geniuses as Britney Spears, Christina Agulara, Snoop Doggy Dogg, 2 Live Crew...
LOL! I'm such a savage!!
...and Jerry Williams
(here reading A Child's Christmas in Wales)
http://microfurry.250free.com/JerryW.mp3
Who needs Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, when we have such timeless geniuses as Britney Spears, Christina Agulara, Snoop Doggy Dogg, 2 Live Crew...
***
You forgot Paris HIlton. *snicker*
Fascinating!
www.beethoven.com
I don't like classical radio, and WGMS is worse than most stations (Classical Lite? Ugh), but I couldn't disagree with you more. Some people are turned onto classical music by listening to it informally on the radio -- how else are you going to convince people to go to the symphony or buy the complete Ring Cycle on CD if they haven't been exposed at least somewhat to classical msuic?
thanks-- I guess it's been about 10 yrs. since WETA went to the alltalk format, right?
Dear gusopol3,
Actually, I think it was 2005.
sitetest
Or maybe early 2006.
Playoff?? What's that??
</redskinfan>
WETA's a "public" station, so profitability matters not.
I agree - most people aren't raised with it any more. When I was a child, we'd come back from church and Dad would stack up a pile of records on the turntable, and all during dinner I was informally quizzed - "What piece is that? Who wrote it? How do you know it's Beethoven and not Bach - what are the differences?" etc. I imagine most parents don't do that these days - if, in fact, most parents ever did.
I like classical music, but I only listen to the radio when I'm driving. And it's kind of tough to appreciate the sublime subtlety of a Beethoven symphony when maneuvering I 495. Talk radio works for driving, but not classical music.
I don't think that's their intended competition; why the two major NPR stations in the market (WETA and WAMU) should have identical programming makes no sense to me.
Dear Our man in washington,
" And it's kind of tough to appreciate the sublime subtlety of a Beethoven symphony when maneuvering I 495."
Just because I may be unable to fully appreciate it while driving doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it a great deal, anyway.
For me, listening to classical music while driving, especially if the driving is tough, can take my mind off the difficulty of the drive.
"Talk radio works for driving, but not classical music."
To each his own. I just don't enjoy talk radio.
sitetest
Dear linda_22003,
Although I'm not fanatical about that, we do that at home.
It's fun to do it from time to time, but it gets old (at least it does to the guys) if we try to do it on a regular basis.
As well, sometimes I like to play two different recordings of the same piece, and ask the guys what they think are the differences.
sitetest
Amen. Rush Limbaugh IS classical music. Here is a baritone who delivers aria after aria with great mastery, precision and skill, and humor to boot. It's a three hour opera buffa with only actor, one singer. Once in a while extras like Dick Cheney and W enter the stage briefly, but thats it.
bttt
90.9 would be just fine, providing its all classical and I dont have to listen to NPR propaganda, too. .
I'm strictly a daytime listener, since I don't live in the immediate area--is that why I'm confused--aren't they 90.1?
CFMX in Toronto is doing quite well thank you very much. The audience may not be large but advertisers love the demographic- average age that is underserved by other non-talk radio formats, well-educated and high disposable income.
Dear gusopol3,
The answer to our question is actually deep in the article:
"WETA and WGMS were rival classical stations for 35 years, but WETA abandoned the format in March 2005 for news supplied by National Public Radio and the British Broadcasting Corp."
I haven't listened to WETA in a verrryy long time, so I can only report what I read.
sitetest
Disagree. I have no problem with things being interrupted--back in the day, they would often play only partial movements at performances or do encores of a movement right after it was played. Plus radio exposes folks to new works they might not otherwise hear. I had a classical show in college that was weird, with many skits in between pieces. It became a cult hit.
The problem with classical music nowadays is that too many listeners treat it as a museum piece or as something so serious it cannot be enjoyed, only appreciated. The best classical has elements of frivolity mixed in with the soul-stirring grandeur.
My parents made fun of me for listening to classical (started when in high school).
~~~~~~~~
Curious that you should specify I-495 -- where, on a drive home, I had a bizarre/sublime "WCRB moment":
Somewhere on I-495 between Taunton and Wrentham (not too far from Great Woods) I was tooling along, listening to Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in D Minor on WCRB.
As I often do, I was steering with my left hand, and "conducting" with my right.
Suddenly, I heard a Beemer zoom up on my left and smoothly brake to match my speed. When I looked over, there was a lovely young lady, playing her "air violin" -- in perfect sync with the music on CRB -- and with my 'conducting'. We "jammed" together for for several seconds, then she flashed me a beautiful smile and bowed; then her driver put his foot down and left me in the dust...
That was a moment of pure "drivetime magic" -- on I-495 -- courtesy of WCRB!
True. It's also hard to condense a classical piece into a 20 sec sound bite for promotional purposes. And the lack of scantily clad women in classical music videos don't help either. (Now if a stark naked woman were to be shown playing Chopin's Minute Waltz on the piano, many would look (and listen) more closely into classical)
Some modern day musicians have borrowed themes from works by Pachelbel and Bach, and I'm sure others. These songs enjoyed some popularity. Plus folks do enjoy music from films such as Lord of the Rings. I think all that is required for the majority of people to embrace classical is to be exposed to it and taught that it's not snobby to enjoy it.
Haydn would be a great bridge for the uninitiated. Not only is he the Man, but his is the perfect blend of drama and light-heartedness.
I think you guys are each talking about a diff. I-495,
one in MA and one in the DC area (the beltway, right?)
Same route number but they don't connect with each other
of course! :)
I lived in Arlington 1969 -1971 and listened to WGMS. I remember you could get a Beethoven poster on his birthday if you knocked on the door of their celler studios and intoned the words, "Loodvig sent me" Their style was much better than Milwaukee's snooty WFMR.
Haydn's the MAN. There would be no Mozart without a Haydn or at least the Mozart we know, and definitely no Beethoven without a Mozart or Haydn. I never tire of listening to his later symphonies ( 80s and above). They are just so charming.
WETA is 90.9; 90.1 in the Washington area is C-SPAN radio. I listen to Washington Journal on my morning drive, and arrive at the office gnashing my teeth or laughing hysterically, depending on the topic and the callers.
Agree wholeheartedly. He was the first of my pantheon and still is there. His symphonies, his string quartets, and his oratorios rule. One of my greatest, probably the greatest, concerts I have been to is a performance of Die Schöpfung while I lived in Vienna (for study abroad).
There are still so many works of his I have yet to experience (dude was prolific as all get-out, as you well know).
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