24/7 Classical Music on Philadelphia radio, will it happen?

[Jul]

Most likely not.

Julius, as I always say, buy CDs or get an iPOD or listen to classical music online.

There are so many sources for music these days, even inexpensive ones. You obviously have the internet. Hook up some speakers and play basically whatever music you want while online.

I just wanted to talk about this to get your opinions on this. I don't really care if this format comes back or not full time on Philly radio.

 

[musicbox]

This is a big part of the problem. Limited bandwidth in the non-commercial FM band is cluttered up student radio stations and hobby stations like WRDV. WRDV calls itself a "public radio" station, which it is not since it does not qualify for CPB funding. It's a small group of volunteers with arcane musical tastes indulging those tastes. Student stations are expensive toys for kids in rich school districts to play with, offering no educational benefit. Get rid of these stations and make room for more true public radio.

WRDV-FM has been on the air for over 25 years. The format are formats that the commercial stations don't play. Remember that Pennsylvania has a very large senior population, yet there are very few radio stations that will play anything that seniors would want to listen to. And all seniors are not in rocking chairs with dementia. At least there is one station, if you are fortunate enough to be in the listening area, that is not a clone of the choices up further on the dial. The daytime volunteers play the Big Band format. Former WPEN listeners have found WRDV, meanwhile, WPEN now resides at the bottom of the ratings. If around 50 people are considered a small group of volunteers, then they are providing programming that is appreciated by the listeners who support the programming with their dollars during the once a year fund drive. True public radio is radio that is serving it's audience. If it wasn't, the funding, the majority of which is from listeners donations, would have dried up by now, if they were not being served.

 

[rdcuffpa1]

I meant the other top 9 markets in the USA I think has a 24/7 classical music station. I'm not sure.

Nielsen markets and Classical radio:

New York -- WQXR
Los Angeles -- KUSC
Chicago -- WFMT
Philadelphia -- No
Boston -- WCRB
San Francisco Bay Area -- KDFC
Dallas -- WRR
Washington, DC -- WGMS
Atlanta -- No (WABE airs Morning Edition & ATC)
Houston -- No (KUHF airs ME, ATC, Marketplace)
Detroit -- No. WRCJ is programmed similar to WRTI.

There are many decent live classical webcasts out there; many of the public radio stations mentioned above offer classical 24/7 on a second HD-only FM service.

My own personal favorite is Naxos' classical "radio" service, http://www.naxosradio.com. 60 different, simultaneous channels, most of them classical. $20 annual subscription fee, IMHO, is worth it.

It is quite easy to set up a tape recorder or install digital audio recording freeware on your PC to capture some of the audio that's out there, for those times in the car where we can't catch classical music over the air.

WWFM used to have a translator in Society Hill but I don't see it on Radio Locator any more.

As others have suggested, I would agree that the future of FM is probably New Jersey 101.5...

Richard / Allentown, PA

 

[8638]

WWFM used to have a translator in Society Hill but I don't see it on Radio Locator any more.


It's off the air. WRNB (formerly WSNJ, moved in from Bridgeton, NJ) shifted from 107.7 to 107.9 MHz. I don't think there are any available freqs for a replacement translator.