Scanning The Dial

A quest to understand the classical radio listener

How should music directors and program directors at classical radio stations decide what to play? What do listeners most appreciate about their services?

These sound like pretty important questions, right? But put yourself in the place of one of these programmers (assuming you aren’t one) and think about how you’d answer those questions. You’d have piles of Arbitron ratings at your disposal, but those only show you when listeners tune in and out. Ratings don’t tell you why they listen or what makes your station valuable to them — at most, you can only infer answers to those questions from ratings.

But since 2002, a group of public radio programmers has been commissioning research to address these concerns. In a series of studies, the Public Radio Program Directors Association (PRPD) has surveyed listeners to various public radio formats, including classical, to deepen the field’s understanding of the value their services deliver. Their results have given programmers a new vocabulary to apply to their work and, in some cases, fed debates about the role of research in programming and public radio’s overall approach to classical music.

Some Mother's Day Thoughts

Mother's Day is not just a Hallmark holiday. As a mother, I can tell you it's about wanting your kids to be safe -- not fighting in Iraq, for instance. You want them to be educated, and happy, and kind to others. Honest and fair in their dealings. You want to protect them from liars and charlatans. You want them to have discernment and not fall for the crap that passes as popular culture.

And you want them to appreciate the the transformative nature of great music, something that is easy for our generation but a lot harder for young people in today's cultural climate.

In an article in the Wall Street Journal Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, was quoted as saying

The decline of arts education in the U.S. and the paucity of international cultural exchanges will take decades to repair.

You can see a copy of the article here.

I confess to a little bit of hero worship of Dana Gioia. Here is a man who grew up as an immigrant in L.A., the first one in his family to go to college. He didn’t fit the usual demographic of a cultural consumer, but he defied the stereotypes and developed a mad passion for the arts.

In his speech at the Stanford University commencement last June, Gioia pointed out that we’ve become passive consumers of culture instead of active participants. And he blames it partly on a decline in arts education:

At 56, I am just old enough to remember a time when every public high school in this country had a music program with choir and band, usually a jazz band, too, sometimes even orchestra. And every high school offered a drama program, sometimes with dance instruction. And there were writing opportunities in the school paper and literary magazine, as well as studio art training. I am sorry to say that these programs are no longer widely available to the new generation of Americans….The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.

The whole speech is worth reading. Click here for a copy.

Station profile: Classical WETA 90.9 FM, Washington, D.C. (continued)

Second of two posts

After WETA-FM became the sole classical radio outlet serving Washington, D.C. — you can catch up on the back story here — the benefits of claiming the city’s classical franchise were immediate. In the first Arbitron ratings book after the switch, WETA’s market share jumped to a 4.9 — more than double its 2.1 prior to the change. That took WETA from 17th among the market’s radio stations to fifth.

The station went on to average a 4.5 share last year and had a successful fundraising drive in February. “Public service is being transacted here,” says General Manager Dan DeVany, “because people are listening.”

WETA aims to present a mix of classical music that appeals to a broad audience — “anywhere from those who would be considered aficionados of classical music to those who enjoy it but don’t necessarily know much about it,” says DeVany. “Being broad-based in our appeal has certainly been an effort on our part, and it’s paid off.” The station couldn’t sound like the old commercial WGMS-FM “even if we wanted to,” DeVany says, because the lack of 20 minutes of ads an hour offers more programming freedom.

Is Radio in a Coma? Nah, It's Just Resting.

Is the country ready for change? Is the radio world ready for change? Some interesting posts this past week (all of which I, a middle-aged woman read online) bear on the future of classical music radio.

First is a post by Todd Feinburg, who despite his inane political blather has made some intelligent observations about the current dilemma radio finds itself in. He says radio is in a coma. In an article titled Is Radio Headed For Extinction? Feinburg writes

The radio industry is in shock. An absolute coma.

Radio sees the enemy bearing down and closing in, but it doesn’t know how to respond. It’s frozen in place, unable to move. No defense is being offered, no counter attack.

The foe that has radio folks terrified is the Internet. New technologies are encroaching on radio’s traditional domain with the same speed that the auto and airline industries once pounded the railroads into near extinction. And radio is mimicking the railroad industry’s response to its death knell — whether from arrogance, fear, or institutional inertia, radio is failing to see that it must embrace the future rather than resist it or run from it...

The radio industry needs to learn that it’s in the audio distribution business...But the fear that radio feels over the encroachment, and the revenues lost to the Internet, are causing radio to pull back rather than to be aggressive. In the short term, this means tighter budgets and fewer jobs. This is exactly the wrong response, of course.

Younger listeners and classical; new home for CBC Orchestra?

A writer in Oklahoma State University’s student newspaper gives a thumbs-up to the format change at KOSU-FM in Stillwater, Okla., which recently cut back on classical and added more news and talk. The author writes, “The new music programming is also exciting. On Friday and Saturday nights, instead of tuning in to hear classical music, listeners may find jazz, blues, bluegrass and Celtic music greeting them.”

Though just one voice, this editorial does point to another concern among station programmers in public radio — appealing to younger listeners. At public radio conferences I’ve attended, getting younger listeners to tune in (and in public radio, “younger” means “under 40”) is generally talked about as a Good Thing. Some argue that if public radio doesn’t start cultivating a younger audience, its current listeners will keep aging with no one lined up to replace them. But no one quite knows how to go about doing it, and there’s no tried-and-true approach. Some shows such as This American Life have succeeded in generating buzz among young folks, but no one’s suggesting that stations switch to host line-ups of Ira Glass clones 24/7.

Station profile: Classical WETA 90.9 FM, Washington, D.C.

First of two posts

WETA, the powerful all-classical public radio station serving Washington, D.C., has attained its biggest audience in years by claiming the city’s franchise in classical music radio. Its arrival at this stage in its 38-year history has been hard-won, however. In just four years, WETA has endured great change, from a news/classical mix to all-news to today’s steady stream of classical.

“If you had asked me a few years ago if I would have gone through this — two format changes in a period of three years — I’d have said it would never happen,” says Dan DeVany, WETA’s g.m., when I interviewed him last month in his office at WETA’s headquarters in Arlington, Va. “And here we are.”

The first jolt to WETA’s status quo came in February 2005. Like many stations, WETA was struggling as it tried to attract an audience to its dual format of NPR’s newsmagazines and midday classical music. Its ratings in fall 2004 were the worst in 15 years. Fewer listeners were donating, and while news programming was drawing underwriting income, classical was less successful — a common pattern in public radio. WETA’s position was further complicated by competitors in the D.C. market that shared its formats — WAMU, another well-established NPR affiliate but one that specialized in news/talk, and WGMS, the city’s commercial classical outlet and one of the most successful in the country.

“It was clear that we had an identity problem,” DeVany says. “We didn’t stand for anything in particular.”

Oklahoma station cuts back on classical; Canadian MP sticks up for CBC Orchestra

KOSU in Stillwater, Okla., joins the ranks of stations cutting back on classical in favor of more news and talk programming. My guess is that they dumped the dual format, but I’m not sure (the most recent incarnation of their previous schedule that I could dig up dates to almost a year ago). Their website calls the station “the New KOSU.”

This article in the local Journal Record includes background from the station’s new general manager, who mentions a survey the station conducted that helped inform the decision. (Use Bugmenot.com to skirt the registration prompt.) The survey involved input from 500 listeners. Compare that to the station’s weekly audience of 24,400 listeners as of Fall 2007, according to the Radio Research Consortium. That’s about 2 percent. KOSU also cites other factors such as public forums and an advisory board’s input.

The Democratic Primary as Classical Radio Metaphor

I’ve never been a news junkie before, but all of a sudden the drama of the primaries has grabbed me by throat and won’t let go. It’s an opera in the making.

The arguments in classical music radio are amazingly similar to the conflicts between the two Democratic candidates. Should we keep the old tried and true conservative model, or should we break out and take a chance (some say “risk”) with something unknown and exciting, and in the process reach a whole different demographic?

The Candidates
Barack Obama could be called the Peter Gelb of Election ‘08. Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera, hired director Julie Taymor to spin Mozart. He took the opera to the people, airing it in our own local movie theaters. He launched a 24-hour Metropolitan Opera channel on satellite radio, put live streaming performances on the web, broadcast opening night on huge screens in Times Square and Lincoln Center Plaza, and offered $20 weekday tickets.

Gelb didn’t let fear of change or shrill criticisms stop him. Mary Jo Heath, who produces the Met Opera radio broadcasts, told me you can’t believe the volume of nasty emails and calls they got at first from people who didn’t want change. I’ll bet $2,300 (the maximum legal political donation) that those same “whiners” are the ones mobbing the movie theaters now.

On the other hand (full disclosure), I work for the Hillary Clinton of radio. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is a powerful legacy orchestra, a grande dame of orchestras, and we distribute our broadcasts through the WFMT network, which is an old-fashioned legacy service. They are willing to consider new ideas, but they are not risk-takers. Every idea has to be vetted before it makes the air. Not a bad policy when you have such an important legacy. They take themselves and their reputation very seriously.

The Hillary Clinton model of classical music radio has its contradictions. Clinton talked about getting us out of Iraq at the same time she threatened to obliterate Iran. Many classical radio program directors keep saying they want “fresh” programming and “innovative” ideas; yet when you ask them what they mean, they say they want interviews with artists and great live performances. Same old, same old. Then they play the Holberg Suite and Espana again.

Radio's future, and where classical fits in

In a provocative blog post, venture capitalist Fred Wilson envisions the future of listening to music online—which, in his view, is with time going to amount to listening via mobile devices as well. The whole post is worth reading, but this excerpt gives a taste of the disruption to traditional listening habits that Fred sees coming:

I think of these web services as the new radio stations. Everyone of my generation has had their favorite radio stations. Everyone of my kid’s generation will have their favorite web music services. There will be hundreds of them. All supported by advertising, just like traditional radio stations, and all of them licensed by rights holders (eventually), and all of them paying the rights holders a little coin every time their song is played. And because these services will be free to anyone who wants to listen, they will be very popular. Never before have you been able to decide you want to listen to something you don’t currently own and then just play it. No searching on Limewire or bittorrent, no waiting for the download, you type in the name of the song you want to play and you hit play.

What he says makes sense to me, and it echoes a lot of what I hear from others in radio. People who want to hear music are increasingly turning to devices and locations besides their radios, a trend that’s expected to continue. They’re going to iPods, satellite radio and Web streams. This is part of why public stations are airing more local and NPR news—they see news as a franchise that is less threatened by new technologies.

A Monday Morning Rant

Two recent articles about radio and music got my juices flowing: one was a post last week at "Inside Music Media" called Drinking Radio's Kool-Aid by Jerry Del Colliano, whose understanding of the radio industry is both insightful and cynical. He was quoting David Rehr, CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, who said,

…being local, in and of itself, is not what defines radio's value… It's the accessibility and the connection with radio personalities. And it's being everywhere and available to everyone. A radio is not a jukebox. If you're listening to radio, you want to hear a human voice sharing that same moment in time that you are. There is power in that personal bond. A CD doesn't have that connection. An iPod doesn't have that. No, our model is not broken.

Jerry’s response?

WHAT? This is outrageous. If there is anything about radio that is compelling it is that radio is a local medium. It's defined by being a local medium. Even the NAB refers to terrestrial radio as local radio. If you take local out of radio you have -- well, the Internet. The world wide web. That's not radio's strength.

Hold that thought.