How Many Commercial Sponsored classical Music Radio Stations are left ?

[DavidKaye]

Who are the top-selling classical artists today? Andrea Bocelli, Chris Botti, and Josh Groban. Not necessarily the ones getting airplay on classical radio. So while classical radio sticks with the war horses, their version of Stairway to Heaven, there is an audience for CHR classical, as it were. But it is still way smaller than the more mainstream formats available to radio.

This is an excellent point. I attend live music concerts and have put on a lot of them over the past 13 years. Nearly all feature performers in their 20s and 30s. Quite a number of bands play classical or jazz/classical or Balkan/classical mash-ups. This is stuff you'd never hear on a KDFC. You'd probably not even hear these folks on the hip NPR classical daily show, "Performance Today", because so many radio programmers are still stuck reading yesterday's news.

One of these is Classical Revolution, a group that began playing at the Revolution Cafe on 22nd Street in SF's hip Valencia/Mission area. Now, they've spread to other cities around the country. Especially check out Aaron Novik's composition on the page for Sqwonk, a bass clarinet duet. URL: http://www.classicalrevolution.org/

And now name me ANY classical radio station that would even touch this stuff. I can't think of any.

 

[TheBigA]

This is stuff you'd never hear on a KDFC. You'd probably not even hear these folks on the hip NPR classical daily show, "Performance Today", because so many radio programmers are still stuck reading yesterday's news.

I once asked a classical programmer why he didn't play the more popular stuff, and his answer was that it was "watered down pop classical." Sort of like Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood are pop country. But country is now one of the strongest radio formats around, while classical is on the way out. So the choice is do you want to preserve musical purity, which the classical programmers want, or do you want to attract a larger audience and ensure your format will be around for a few more years? I think the choice is pretty obvious.

 

[semoochie]

That sounds like something that would have come out of Greenwich Village 50 years ago!

 

[DavidKaye]

That sounds like something that would have come out of Greenwich Village 50 years ago!

Actually, there's a much better group, also using bass clarinets, in fact 4 bass clarinets. It's called Edmund Welles, and they blow the socks of just about anyone. They're definitely not Greenwich Village 1961. URL: http://www.edmundwelles.com/

 

[TheBigA]

Which one's Edmund?

 

[Ai4i]

the hip NPR classical daily show, "Performance Today"

APM, not NPR.

 

[recto101]

6

We are already up to 17 15.
WCN: kboq, kxtr, wbqk, wcri, wcvt, wfcc(main station)
W-Bach: wbqi, wbqw, wbqx
others: kdb, kdfc, khfm, king, wccc, wclv, wfmt, wrr

are the WCN stations and W-Bach stations automated like BA's Smooth Jazz Network was when KKSF was a smooth AC station and are the playlists bad?

 

[Ai4i]

Who are the top-selling classical artists today? Andrea Bocelli, Chris Botti, and Josh Groban. Not...the ones getting airplay on classical radio.

This is an excellent point...Nearly all feature performers in their 20s and 30s. Quite a number of bands play classical or jazz/classical or Balkan/classical mash-ups. This is stuff you'd never hear on a KDFC...because so many radio programmers are still stuck reading yesterday's news.

I want to throw in a plug for a classical crossover show I try to catch every Saturday at 4pm Pacific time and Sunday at 8pm Pacific time called Boundaries, on SiriusXM Pops. Many years ago, we had a guy at a station in Miami who's favorite Bach was PDQ.