[78-L] Too late to circle the wagons

[simmonssomer]

Well, what about letting  these college age schmoozers-in-training learn 
their trade on a closed circuit.
Then I won't have to waste my time listening to a bunch of  lazy minded 
,misfit students misinform me on a mind numbing amount of musical matters. 
Let them   narrowcast on their cafeteria speakers.
They'll look back with pleasure on their radio experience once they've 
graduated and become bankers, attorneys, venture capital interns, or in more 
cases salesmen and MacDonald managers.

In the meantime the fact remains that the loss of our single format 
classical WQXR is a major communal disaster.
It leaves a gaping hole in this community's cultural fabric and in an 
important aspect of my own life.

Al S.






From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11:55 PM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Too late to circle the wagons


> 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
>
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