Fairbanks WKLB/WCLB & WCRB

[A Joseph Ross]

I think that classical music listeners want music, not talk.  I used to 
keep WCRB on in my office.  Under Ted Jones, they occasionally got into 
something where they started talking about the music for a lengthy 
period, and that occasionally caused me to tune to one of the other 
classical stations that were available then.

Since the WCRB signal got a bit dicey in 2007, when I moved my office 
from Government Center to State Street, near Aquarium Station.  So I 
started to see what I could find online.  WCRB's online signal is more 
difficult to tune in, since you have to click on several links to get 
it.  I prefer a station that I can get on Screamer Radio, which I can 
set to come on automatically when I turn on the computer.

I now listen mostly to KUSC, Los Angeles, at the University of Southern 
California.  But when they do fundraising, I find another station to 
listen to.  Fundraising is long periods of talking, which is not what I 
want.  A few commercials and back to the music doesn't bother me.  But 
long periods of talking do, especially when they repeat their pitch over 
and over.  When my mother used to nag me, I could get her to stop by 
doing whatever it was she was nagging me to do.  But you can't stop the 
nagging of radio fundraisers by making a pledge.


On 1/18/2017 3:27 PM, Rob Landry wrote:
>
>
>
> On Wed, 18 Jan 2017, Bob DeMattia wrote:
>
>> So what did WGBH do that caused the drop in share?
>
> I have no connection with WGBH, so I don't know any more about what 
> they did than any other listener. But it's clear they wanted a clean 
> break from what Nassau was doing, as they asked Nassau to sign off 
> before midnight on November 30, 2009, and turn the station over to 
> them with the transmitter shut down. Nassau asked me to do that; there 
> were no Nassau employees left in town. I was a contract engineer and 
> reported to Nassau's VP/Engineering in Princeton.
>
> I went to the site that evening, shut down the station as planned, and 
> turned over the keys. The WGBH engineers who met me clearly had plans 
> for changes, but they didn't tell me anything.
>
> Before Mark Edwards, Nassau's program director for WCRB, left for the 
> last time several days earlier, I had him record a sign-off message 
> and added one last piece of music: the movement "Gute Nacht, O Wesen" 
> from Bach's motet, "Jesu meine Freude", BWV 227. Even so, the 
> automation playlist ended well before midnight, so I ended up shutting 
> down early. I gave the keys to the WGBH guys, went home, and went to 
> sleep.
>
> Some time before 6 AM the station went back on the air. Laura Carlo, 
> the morning host, was the only ex-Nassau announcer to continue with 
> WGBH, although they added former WCRB announcers Larry King (who had 
> never worked for Nassau) and Ray Brown (who had left Nassau before the 
> sale) later. I've no idea who was choosing the music, or how it was 
> done, but I do know they went through several managers and program 
> directors before hiring the fellow who manages WCRB today, whose name 
> escapes me.
>
> I do know this: while Charles River still owned WCRB, we had Coleman 
> Research do a number of focus groups, one goal of which was to 
> ascertain the degree to which commercials induce tune-out in a 
> classical format. The participants told us that while they didn't 
> especially care for commercials, they didn't generally tune out when 
> they heard them. However, what they really didn't like, and what was 
> pretty much guaranteed to make them tune out, was on-air fundraising. 
> Charles River had occasionally done some of it for the Boston 
> Symphony, but we never did it again once we learned how obnoxious our 
> listeners found it. We replaced the BSO fundraisers with an annual 
> Classical Cartoon Festival, which I understand WGBH's WCRB still does.
>
> However, WGBH's WCRB does do on-air fundraising. This may, or may not, 
> be reflected in the station's ratings. I wouldn't know.
>
>
> Rob
>
>

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D. | 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 | Newton, MA 02459
617.367.0468 | Fx:617.507.7856 | http://www.attorneyross.com