Fairbanks WKLB/WCLB & WCRB

[Rob Landry]

Try WSCS (http://www.classicalwscs.org/). I think I can guarantee you 
won't hear much talk there.


Rob


On Wed, 18 Jan 2017, A Joseph Ross wrote:

> 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
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>