[78-L] Too late to circle the wagons

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "simmonssomer" <simmonssomer at comcast.net>
> 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.
>
This seems (to me) to be one of those courses where somebody in the field
of education realized "Hey, we can offer a degree in "how to be a disk
jockey!" and get more PAYING students?!" I was always amazed by the
number of university students who were simply trying to get "A DEGREE"
in something, while also trying to avoid actually "LEARNING ANYTHING!"
I used to amaze my instructors, by actually being interested in the courses
I was taking and trying to learn stuff while there...?!

I assume, based on watching current society, that 21st century students
are even MORE successful at avoiding actual lrarning...the whole point
of university/college is getting that DEGREE, and then getting some sort
of  "respectable" upper-level position...?! Even if factories still existed 
in
North America, most younger folks would prefer not working therein...?!

I spent about six or seven years studying to become a high-school math
teacher...and then moved to Canada, found out I would need a couple
more years in school...and finally wound up becoming a service tech in
cable tv...?! The job paid well...but I HATED it...?!

Steven C. Barr
> 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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