For all of my emphasis on Pop music, half of my CD collection is Classical. A few years ago, Boston’s commercial radio station with Classical music, WCRB, switched frequencies to a weaker signal to make way for a Country music station. Today there’s the news that the other Boston radio station with Classical music, non-commercial WGBH, is buying WCRB.
I don’t know what to make of this move. There’s no obvious logic behind it, except perhaps a strategy to consolidate Classical music on Boston’s airwaves to ensure its survival. It’s estimated that a successful Classical CD sells only about 5,000 copies. (The same is supposedly true of Blues and Jazz recordings.)
WGBH, which is one of the country’s premiere PBS TV stations, has been mismanaged for some years. It built an obnoxiously luxurious new studio with an ill-advised, and unreliable, giant TV that faces the Mass Pike. And now the overhead of financing and operating the new facility is dragging down WGBH. The radio station is the much smaller part of the organization, and it’s always had a mixed format that switches to Jazz in the evening, through the night.
If ‘GBH uses ‘CRB as its Classical music outlet, I’m not sure what it can do with its frequency, other than to try to expand its news offerings. But another public radio station, WBUR, which itself was mismanaged in the past, already has that covered.
With the underground station WBCN now gone, Boston radio is really in turmoil. Through all of this, the only station that I listen regularly, that keeps on keeping on, is WBZ-AM. And earlier this year ‘BZ made the huge mistake of letting go of overnight talk show host Steve LeVeille, then having to reverse that decision thanks to listener outrage.
It’s not cutting edge. It’s just edgy. And it does cater to the lowest common denominator. You’re right, Joan! We witnessed the spectacle of this back when TV talk shows turned to sensationalist, ridiculous topics like “Men who prefer diapers… And the women who love them!” Brawls breaking out on the TV sets between panelists. Crap that made money for the sponsors, the TV stations and therefore the talk show hosts, but which was criticized by Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey, who wanted to hold the line and feature more substantial topics.
The sad thing is, anytime you have a for-profit broadcast station (as opposed to PBS, for example), there’s going to be that temptation there to stoop to a level where it is easiest to scoop up the money. Rather than trying to inspire, educate, edify and elevate the audience while still keeping their interest through entertainment.
What’s even sadder is, that’s not just limited to the realm of TV and radio. The motivation of making as large a profit as possible often overrides appropriate respect and concern for the welfare of others. I’d really like to see comparisons of for-profit vs. non-profit hospitals and nursing homes. To the best of my knowledge, the elderly still generally receive better care in nursing homes run by religious organizations. I guess it’s like “Hebrew National” Kosher hot dogs, which don’t contain the typical meat “fillers.” Like their commercial says, they “have to answer to a Higher Authority.”
But, but, but, — our currency says “In God We Trust.” HA!
I’d rather get into freelance writing or publishing and computers now-where you are not required to gross out and offend your audience. By the way-in my past comment I meant to say “care about” the audience. It’s crap to have a R/T degree and have radio and TV now catering to the lowest common denominator-but I took several writing courses too! =)
It’s a shame radio is in the state it is now. I miss the days of the variety programming and announcers worth listening to. In the old days you had people who cared abov the audience-not trying to gross them out or disgust them like now. What the hell is so quote “cutting edge” about that anyway? I miss not having a big band station to go along with the only oldies station that’s left. It just sucks now.
That’s a major reason why Doug and I don’t work in radio anymore, Joan! Too much instability. Always has been. Program formats can literally change overnight, and the poor hapless deejays get very abruptly laid off. The overwhelming majority of deejays are not well paid, either. The day of music personalities like Cousin Bruce and Wolfman Jack went out with their era.
Notice the operative word in that last sentence is “music.” There are big bucks to be made in talk radio, if you do it right – which means to be outrageous (like Howard Stern, Don Imus), or controversial enough (like Rush Limbaugh). It means pushing the limits of public acceptance, in one way or another.
Since that’s the recipe for attracting a big radio audience and garnering a big salary, the obvious question arises: do those guys really think or do all the things they talk about, or is a substantial amount of it just grandstanding for the sake of the show? That may be relatively harmless if you’re talking about sexy women (think Howard Stern) or sports (think Don Imus), but it’s a lot more treacherously manipulative when the subject is politics (the specialty of Rush Limbaugh). While “El Rushbo” is raking in the cash and spellbinding his listening audience, the self-proclaimed “Ditto Heads” are being whipped into a frenzy by his proclamations. Their hysteria casts a long shadow over Congress – whose number one objective, of course, is to be re-elected.
Radio is thrashing around the same as TV, cable, and newspapers. I play WBZ 1030 on my netbook and broadcast it through the house with an FM transmitter. I do the same with BBC Radio 2. Eventually, I’ll get a WiFi radio, when I find a model that’s exactly right. One problem is that not all stations, including the CBS stations like ‘BZ, have a URL address.
What is going on with radio? Here near Philly in about 3 years we had a smooth jazz station at 106 that turned dance/disco and the smooth jazz went to 97.5, then became Top 40/Hip-Hop, and is now an FM simulcast of ESPN Radio on 950 AM. There is also a station that was Adult Contemporary for decades and is now Alternative. A Christian station went to rock and back to Christian again. It’s just been a hodgepodge of changes all over both AM and FM.
To quote the Shangri-Las: “Look out! Look out! Look out! Look OUT!” 😉
Yep, time to turn to texting while driving…
There goes another preset on the radio…
There’s nothing in the story about WGBH-TV, although I’m aware there have been budget cuts and layoffs.
Hmm. Weird move. And losing either WGBH’s music format, or CRB’s, would be a loss. They fill different niches, in my opinion.
WAIT! What about WGBH TV? They used to produce some damn fine TV shows for PBS. This is insane!