[78-L] Too late to circle the wagons

[Michael Biel]

From: "Bud Black" <banjobud at cfl.rr.com>
> Don't you guys have NPR (National Public Radio), or a facsimile
> up there?  Down here in central Florida we have WMFE public radio
> which plays nothing but classical music 24 hours a day, with a
> few programs thrown in like Prairie Home Companion and Car Talk
> on the weekends.   Bud 

First of all, I like classical music and I grew up listening to WQXR. 
And I am speaking as someone who has been involved with Public Radio for
45 years -- since before it was called "Public" Radio (that phrase was
invented in the late 60s by the Rockefeller Commission on Educational
Broadcasting).  I've been involved with about six public stations and
managed two.  So I speak from experience.  A 24-hour classical music
format is the easiest, cheapest, most mindless, meaningless, and
absolutely misguided and worthless programming format that a Public
Radio Station could do.  Making a public station an all-ANYTHING station
is a total waste of the resource.  Speaking as a long-time broadcast
educator, if the station is related to an educational institution -- and
most of them are -- having a single-format station is the worst possible
use of what could be an important teaching tool, and if that format is
classical music, it is of no use and no interest to the students.  It
serves a minor audience, and it makes the college's president and the
chair of the board of regents happy -- and nobody else.  It is a format
that provides absolutely no educational purpose in training broadcasting
students.  Of course the rap format of my daughter's college station was
not any better, but at least the kids were interested.  SOME of the kids
were interested.  My daughter had to break format to do her program, and
she eventually was manager of the station.  A COLLEGE RADIO STATION IS
NOT THERE TO SERVE A LISTENING PUBLIC, IT IS THERE TO PROVIDE TRAINING
FOR BROADCASTING STUDENTS.  ANY COLLEGE RADIO STATION WHICH DOES NOT
TRAIN A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF STUDENTS, BUT INSTEAD HAS A PROFESSIONAL
STAFF, IS A TOTAL WASTE OF THE SCHOOL'S MONEY AND SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN.
     

The stations I managed at Temple and Northwestern were open-format
(including classical music programming produced by students who wanted
to do classical music), and had huge student staffs.  WRTI-FM at Temple
became an all-jazz station the year after I left, and when the last
classical station in Phila close down they hired that professional
staff, became half jazz and half classical, and moved the studios
essentially off-campus, becoming totally worthless for teaching.  I
would say that during the four years I was there and the one year after
when my roommate managed it, we had more student staffers in those five
years than all of the 40 years that have passed since combined.  

I'm not saying that there should not be any classical radio stations,
only that it is not appropriate to waste a college radio station license
on a single-format station.  

Professor Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com