The "local" classical public radio station is having their pledge drive and I am a classical music devotee. I put "local" in quotes because the whole operation is programmed from two thousand miles away in Saint Paul, MN. Even ten years ago there would have been no moral issue, but with satellite radio and web streaming, they are a last choice for me to listen to. If they went off the air tomorrow, I would eventually notice it and think, "gee, that's too bad, what a shame". If I am going to support a station that means something to me, it should probably be one that impacts my daily life. Comments, opinions?
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My moral dilemma
- Thread starter Ai4i
- Start date
R
Radio-X
Guest
Well...
I can see where you're coming from on this one. This is one of the biggest problems radio has these days.
In today's world, we have iCrap and 24/7 webstreaming. Any worthwhile marketing guru will tell you when you have competition, you HAVE TO differentiate yourself from the pack to keep market share. Instead, technology and loose rules at the fed. level have pretty much made bland easy-to-please national simulcasts (with VT's, of course) the rule rather than the exception.
Problem is, these folks were riding the crest of a big wave following deregulation and never bothered to look at how technology may ultimately render FM analog radio obsolete. They never really bothered to position themselves against this! So now we have radio stations losing listeners that aren't even going to another radio station! They're listening to online radio or their Blackberrys or whatever cool gadget kids have these days.
So, are we still morally obligated to pledge our support to stations we hardly listen to these days? Absolutely not! Had American Public Media given some thought to what the classical music listeners in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale (I'm making an educated guess here) wanted in a classical music station instead of all "Classical 24" sat. programming, there would be more listeners! I'm not kidding...how many products do you think Proctor & Gamble release without doing any focus groups, marketing studies, etc? Zero!
Now, think about how many radio formats are put on the air today haphazardly with very little planning? In the case of the Miami classical station, they put the format on the air to prevent the former listeners of the religious format from suing them.
Ten years ago (roughly) here in Southeast SC, I would have been unable to receive ANY NPR stations and only two other non-comms (both religious)...not because there are none with a decent signal, but because my house is in spitting distance of a tower with 5 FM's on it. Now, I can listen to not only the two "local" NPR stations on the web, but thousands of other non-comms around the country. And my pledge dollars don't go to the local NPR stations because I don't listen to them much! I send my pledge checks 150 miles away because I listen to that NPR station quite a bit over the net.
Radio-X
I can see where you're coming from on this one. This is one of the biggest problems radio has these days.
In today's world, we have iCrap and 24/7 webstreaming. Any worthwhile marketing guru will tell you when you have competition, you HAVE TO differentiate yourself from the pack to keep market share. Instead, technology and loose rules at the fed. level have pretty much made bland easy-to-please national simulcasts (with VT's, of course) the rule rather than the exception.
Problem is, these folks were riding the crest of a big wave following deregulation and never bothered to look at how technology may ultimately render FM analog radio obsolete. They never really bothered to position themselves against this! So now we have radio stations losing listeners that aren't even going to another radio station! They're listening to online radio or their Blackberrys or whatever cool gadget kids have these days.
So, are we still morally obligated to pledge our support to stations we hardly listen to these days? Absolutely not! Had American Public Media given some thought to what the classical music listeners in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale (I'm making an educated guess here) wanted in a classical music station instead of all "Classical 24" sat. programming, there would be more listeners! I'm not kidding...how many products do you think Proctor & Gamble release without doing any focus groups, marketing studies, etc? Zero!
Now, think about how many radio formats are put on the air today haphazardly with very little planning? In the case of the Miami classical station, they put the format on the air to prevent the former listeners of the religious format from suing them.
Ten years ago (roughly) here in Southeast SC, I would have been unable to receive ANY NPR stations and only two other non-comms (both religious)...not because there are none with a decent signal, but because my house is in spitting distance of a tower with 5 FM's on it. Now, I can listen to not only the two "local" NPR stations on the web, but thousands of other non-comms around the country. And my pledge dollars don't go to the local NPR stations because I don't listen to them much! I send my pledge checks 150 miles away because I listen to that NPR station quite a bit over the net.
Radio-X
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
radiodxrichmond said:
Coming at it from the other direction - even though I am a Christian believer - I would say they should flip to whatever format they want. From the Christian point of view - they sold the station - or sold out to NPR, whichever way you want to think about it. They have no say in how the frequency is used now, because it was their choice to sell. Lawsuits from listeners have no chance in the legal system, listeners to a particular format have no advocates at the FCC. Once sold, the frequency is owned by the new owner. If they want to turn a former Christian station into a satanist station - well - the Christians shouldn't have sold, should they?! After all, it works the other way. A former classical station in St. Louis, I believe, was sold to a Christian group. So why the outcry? The classical fans should have supported the station while they had the chance. Now - it is owned by a Christian group and they can do whatever they want with it.
R
Radio-X
Guest
rbrucecarter5 said:
Agreed. I think the big reason why they hastily put the format on was not because they were afraid to lose the license...they just didn't want the lawyer fees and negative publicity that a even an unsucessful lawsuit would bring.
And the FCC shouldn't meddle with formats...thank goodness they don't, either. The problem is that formats really aren't planned out as much as they used to be...kinda like the old saying of "flinging s**t on the wall and seeing what sticks"
Radio-X
radiodxrichmond said:
Good response.
APMG would have gone with C-24 whether immediately, the next week, the next month, or the next year
Let's everyone else please try to stay on track
I do not care about any past incarnation that this station might have enjoyed
I am looking for quick persuasive reasons why to contribute or not to contribute
I like the new listener supported WQXR and Q2
A case could be made that my hundred dollars would have more impact on a station in the umpteenth market than one in the first
Another argument could be presented that stations such as WNYC.org are the future of radio in this country
I dug down and became a member.
My latest moral dilemma and a proposal for a solution is presented here.
I spend a good deal of time listening to a bunch of non-comms on line.
I support the station that I do not cost anything (with an FM radio) but listen to a number of stations that I do cost for web bandwidth.
Here is a solution which I have been thinking of for a while.
All public radio stations would be given an opportunity to make their streams available through a player such as this.
Supporting members such as myself would register with a username and password and my IP address could also be on file.
A record would be kept of the time I spend listening to each member station and my contribution would be distributed based on proportional time.
My latest moral dilemma and a proposal for a solution is presented here.
I spend a good deal of time listening to a bunch of non-comms on line.
I support the station that I do not cost anything (with an FM radio) but listen to a number of stations that I do cost for web bandwidth.
Here is a solution which I have been thinking of for a while.
All public radio stations would be given an opportunity to make their streams available through a player such as this.
Supporting members such as myself would register with a username and password and my IP address could also be on file.
A record would be kept of the time I spend listening to each member station and my contribution would be distributed based on proportional time.
I listened to Pulse 87.7, a commercial dance station in New York City. On July 20, 2009, the station did an emergency donation drive in order to be able to stay on the air. They had a big lease payment of about $150,000 due within a week. It's almost unheard of for a commercial station to solicit listener donations. But since they had a unique format that people were passionate about, the listeners opened their wallets. I personally donated $87.70 (that's in addition to the ~$400 in stocks of the company that ran Pulse 87 that ultimately became worthless), and I heard people had donated several thousand dollars to try to keep the station afloat.
But the signal owner told Pulse 87 that they are not allowed to raise money on the air. They extended the payment deadline by a few months. Pulse 87 had to give the donations back to the listeners. They ultimately went bankrupt on the day before Halloween.
I believe they had raised or would have raised whatever they needed to pay the lease, since they got over 8000 donations in just 10 hours. Now this donation drive was a last-ditch attempt to keep the company afloat, since it was millions of dollars in debt before Pulse 87 even launched. Even if they were allowed to continue soliciting donations over the air, that money wouldn't have lasted, and they would have had to do another fundraiser within a few months or shut down.
The fact that so many people donated shows that people will support whatever they are passionate about, even though they played commercials between the pleas for donations. There are hundreds of Internet dance stations I can get on my phone, but I chose to donate to Pulse 87 because they were local and had an impact on the nightlife scene in New York City. Since I had almost exclusively listened to 87.7, I felt like I had to support them financially.
If you feel like the station you're listening to does a service to the community and offers music not available on other stations, by all means donate. If you think it's nice to have around but don't listen to it every day, donate a little to help support the station. If you listen to it for hours a day, definitely increase the size of your donation to show how much it means to you.
But the signal owner told Pulse 87 that they are not allowed to raise money on the air. They extended the payment deadline by a few months. Pulse 87 had to give the donations back to the listeners. They ultimately went bankrupt on the day before Halloween.
I believe they had raised or would have raised whatever they needed to pay the lease, since they got over 8000 donations in just 10 hours. Now this donation drive was a last-ditch attempt to keep the company afloat, since it was millions of dollars in debt before Pulse 87 even launched. Even if they were allowed to continue soliciting donations over the air, that money wouldn't have lasted, and they would have had to do another fundraiser within a few months or shut down.
The fact that so many people donated shows that people will support whatever they are passionate about, even though they played commercials between the pleas for donations. There are hundreds of Internet dance stations I can get on my phone, but I chose to donate to Pulse 87 because they were local and had an impact on the nightlife scene in New York City. Since I had almost exclusively listened to 87.7, I felt like I had to support them financially.
If you feel like the station you're listening to does a service to the community and offers music not available on other stations, by all means donate. If you think it's nice to have around but don't listen to it every day, donate a little to help support the station. If you listen to it for hours a day, definitely increase the size of your donation to show how much it means to you.
Re: I don't get it
Why would the signal owner tell them they can't raise the money. What's it to the him/her/them? As long as they get their money, shut up! Is there some sort of idiotic law saying commercial broadcaster cannot fund raise for themselves? I hope not. That would be another example of an over reaching government taking away freedom. But, I digress. I wonder if that signal owner didn't actually want to see the station fail for some reason.
Why would the signal owner tell them they can't raise the money. What's it to the him/her/them? As long as they get their money, shut up! Is there some sort of idiotic law saying commercial broadcaster cannot fund raise for themselves? I hope not. That would be another example of an over reaching government taking away freedom. But, I digress. I wonder if that signal owner didn't actually want to see the station fail for some reason.
Remember that the guys running the Pulse 87.7 did not OWN the actual license/transmitter; they leased it from another company. That parent company told Pulse they weren't allowed to fundraise on the signal. As for why not, I don't know. It's possible there is a legal rule (either IRS or FCC) preventing fundraising in situations like that. I do know that non-commercial licensees cannot fundraise for any entity other than themselves, but neither Pulse nor WNYZ-LPTV were non-commercial. Really though, depending a little on what the lease agreement says, the owner is entitled to forbid whatever they want and not have a reason for it. (shrugs)
I know WJIB 740AM in Cambridge/Boston has done some (very successful) fundraisers to help pay for music licensing fees, so while rare it's not unheard of.
"you HAVE TO differentiate yourself from the pack to keep market share."
Yes- this is basic. That's why our new station is going to play only independent artists, from around the world, that are as good or better than what is normally heard on Top 40 stations. We hand-pick each one and have almost 150 talented vocalists and musicians on our playlist.
We'll also produce our own talk programs- not merely carry the satellite-delivered content that everyone else already has.
KQLN (www.kqln.org) will be on the air this summer and not sound like anything heard before. Entirely independent. Original content, produced by other independent-thinking producers, welcome!
Yes- this is basic. That's why our new station is going to play only independent artists, from around the world, that are as good or better than what is normally heard on Top 40 stations. We hand-pick each one and have almost 150 talented vocalists and musicians on our playlist.
We'll also produce our own talk programs- not merely carry the satellite-delivered content that everyone else already has.
KQLN (www.kqln.org) will be on the air this summer and not sound like anything heard before. Entirely independent. Original content, produced by other independent-thinking producers, welcome!
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