One year anniversary of WGBH shuffling off classical to weak-signaled WCRB

[notlob]

December marks the one year anniversary of the announcment by WGBH management to go "single format" (basicly becoming a clone of WBUR) and shuffling off its classical programming to weak-signaled sister station WCRB.

The following passage comes from an article in The Boston Musical Intelligencer, "a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston" titled "One Year After Change: Is WGBH/WCRB Working?" http://classical-scene.com/2010/11/07/one-year/

This report was written on the basis of conversations with persons close to WGBH but no one at the station would speak for attribution nor would management permit BMInt to interview anyone on staff. I have known many workers at WGBH/WCRB beginning with Robert J. Lurtsema, with whom I spent many amusing hours and have also brought many artists to the studios for live performances over 25 years. As an old friend of WGBH, I have made a good faith effort to make this report fair, though regrettably without being able to confirm the accuracy of every conclusion, attribution or opinion. We at BMInt want the best for classical music broadcasting in Boston and take no pleasure in reporting again on its current state of affairs

.

This is an appropriate time to revisit the changes and reflect what they have meant for the greater Boston radio community.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

My mom, a lifelong classicial listener, could not get good reception of WCRB due to a hill behind her house that blocks reception from signals far north of Boston. It was necessary for me to buy an HD radio for her so that she can listen to the rebroadcast of WCRB on the WGBH HD-2 channel.

 

[aaronread]

It was necessary for me to buy an HD radio for her so that she can listen to the rebroadcast of WCRB on the WGBH HD-2 channel.

I assume that means the HD2 works reasonably well for her?

 

[Gregg]

I wouldn't say WGBH-FM became a clone of WBUR. Boston is lucky to have three full-power NPR stations.

Over time it was clear Boston was not going to keep a full-power commercial Classical station. We could ask why WCRB, WQXR NYC, KING Seattle, WFMT Chicago and WCLV Cleveland could survive for decades as commercial stations but had to become listener-supported stations owned by non-profit corporations to survive today. There are plenty of cities with NO Classical outlet. Most NPR stations these days only play a few hours of classical music each day while concentrating more on news-talk, or have shifted the classical content to an HD sub-channel entirely.

So now Boston has its fulltime classical station but now it's non-commercial. And since it now is owned by WGBH, that freed 89.7 to do what many public radio stations are doing these days... move to a news-talk format. WGBH and WBUR only duplicate a few hours of programming each day. NPR and Pulbic Media International supply enough programming that each station can run different shows most of the time.

WGBH differentiates itself from WBUR by doing two local daytime talk shows and by running Jazz at night. I do wonder why WGBH's ratings are so far below WBUR but maybe it takes a while for a more mature NPR audience to find its way to both stations.

Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Eli Polonsky]

It was necessary for me to buy an HD radio for her so that she can listen to the rebroadcast of WCRB on the WGBH HD-2 channel.

I assume that means the HD2 works reasonably well for her?

Yes, it works very well! The hill behind her house blocks reception of signals from north of Boston, causing poor reception of WCRB 99.5 transmitting from Andover. But, there is open terrain from her house toward Blue Hill in Milton less than 10 miles to the south, so WGBH 89.7, and its HD channels, come in strong and steady.

I wonder if any other octogenarians in the area, besides my mom, have HD radios?

 

[aaronread]

Yes, it works very well! The hill behind her house blocks reception of signals from north of Boston, causing poor reception of WCRB 99.5 transmitting from Andover. But, there is open terrain from her house toward Blue Hill in Milton less than 10 miles to the south, so WGBH 89.7, and its HD channels, come in strong and steady.

I wonder if any other octogenarians in the area, besides my mom, have HD radios?

Beats me, but I do think it's been somewhat overlooked just how ideal the "WCRB on WGBH HD2" relay really is. You've got what is a niche format to a niche audience on a huge, solid HD signal. Admittedly, it's still much harder than it should be for Joe Public to get their hands on an HD Radio, but nevertheless the situation lends itself to HD Radio because it's relatively easy for WGBH to distribute HD Radios to their listeners. (two words: Pledge Premiums!)

 

[notlob]

Boston is lucky to have three full-power NPR stations.

Please define "full-power". WUMB's Dorchester transmitter ihas an Effective Radiated Power (ERP) of 0.66kW
http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=WUMB

But I digress from the thread's topic, "WGBH shuffling off classical to weak-signaled WCRB."

 

[Rusty Muck]

We could ask why WCRB, WQXR NYC, KING Seattle, WFMT Chicago and WCLV Cleveland could survive for decades as commercial stations but had to become listener-supported stations owned by non-profit corporations to survive today.

WCLV still operates as a commercial entity, and has all along. While the station was donated to the non-profit WCLV Foundation in November 2001, Radio Seaway (WCLV's original owner) operates the station via a perpetual LMA.

What made the creation of the Foundation possible, of course, was a frequency/license swap that saw WCLV move from a full-market Class B signal to a smaller, rimshot Class A signal licensed to suburban Lorain, with a transmitter 20 miles west of downtown Cleveland.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Boston is lucky to have three full-power NPR stations.

Please define "full-power". WUMB's Dorchester transmitter ihas an Effective Radiated Power (ERP) of 0.66kW http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?call=WUMB

I think he's mistakenly referring to WCRB as being in Boston, which, by that definition, would mean three "full-power" NPR affiliated stations, WGBH, WBUR and WCRB.

WCRB is "full-power", as in an FCC "Class B" station (like WBUR and WGBH, but not WUMB), but though the Merrimack Valley is part of the theoretical "Boston market" demographically, the WCRB transmitter is nearly 30 miles north of Boston proper, resulting in a signal that is weak and spotty in the core of the market. WCRB may be a "full-power Boston market" station on paper, but in practical listening, the signal could not be described as coming in with "full power" in Boston due to the distance of the transmitter, and it's even worse in the southern suburbs of the market.

Minor correction: WUMB's Boston area transmitter is actually in Quincy, not Dorchester. (The studios are in Dorchester, not the transmitter).

 

[Eli Polonsky]

...I do think it's been somewhat overlooked just how ideal the "WCRB on WGBH HD2" relay really is. You've got what is a niche format to a niche audience on a huge, solid HD signal. Admittedly, it's still much harder than it should be for Joe Public to get their hands on an HD Radio, but nevertheless the situation lends itself to HD Radio because it's relatively easy for WGBH to distribute HD Radios to their listeners. (two words: Pledge Premiums!)

I agree, they REALLY SHOULD do that, offer HD radios as pledge premiums, if they want to demonstrate that they have concern for their contributing classical listeners in and south of Boston who can't get WCRB (clearly) so that they can listen to classical on WGBH HD-2. Though I certainly don't keep track of what pledge premiums they offer, I'm not aware of them having offered HD radios as of yet.

 

[WNTIRadio]

WERS offered HD radios as pledge premiums to promote their HD2 this past fall. I see no reason why a station with the resources of WGBH couldn't do the same.

Of course, that still leaves the one gaping hole of where people do most of their radio listening... in the car. When the local NPR outlet installs a new car stereo for me, this whole "HD Radio" thing may just take off.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WERS offered HD radios as pledge premiums to promote their HD2 this past fall. I see no reason why a station with the resources of WGBH couldn't do the same.

Of course, that still leaves the one gaping hole of where people do most of their radio listening... in the car. When the local NPR outlet installs a new car stereo for me, this whole "HD Radio" thing may just take off.

True, but niche listeners to classical music tend to listen at home as well, often leaving it on in the background while doing other things. Most of the classical listeners who I've heard from were disappointed that they could no longer hear classical at home after it left WGBH, though many of them could still hear classical in their cars on WCRB from Andover because most car receivers have better quality tuners than many home radios.

My mom has no problem getting WCRB in her car, but it comes in very poorly in her house, where she listens on WGBH HD-2. Because most car receivers can still do a fairly adequate job of pulling in WCRB in most areas around Boston, I think that, in this case, it would be much more practical to offer HD home receivers to classical listeners as pledge premiums.

 

[aaronread]

There's still stations offering home (i.e. tabletop) HD Radios as pledge premiums but it's getting harder...a lot of the tabletop models originally released have been discontinued. I know at WEOS and WXXI we give the little Insignia portable FM HD radio as a pledge premium and generally people have been pretty happy with them.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

There's still stations offering home (i.e. tabletop) HD Radios as pledge premiums but it's getting harder...a lot of the tabletop models originally released have been discontinued.

The one I got for my mom is still available, an "iLuv" brand tabletop AM/FM stereo HD clock radio, it sells for roughly $100 or so. ("You-Do-It Electronics" in Needham still has them).

I was so impressed with its FM HD reception that I also bought one for myself. MUCH more stable, steady reception of HD-2 and HD-3 channels than my Sangean HDT-1 component home stereo tuner. The HD-3 channels of some of the local stations barely even exist on the Sangean, just broken-up blips at best, but they all come in fine on the iLuv with the same type of indoor antenna.

 

[nd2023]

Don't stations stream online in this day and age? If someone can afford to donate to a public radio station, they most likely can afford to own a computer and a high speed Internet connection. No need for HD radios for home listening, just stream it online and hear it in better quality than on an HD radio. Classical music really needs high bandwidth to sound good, unlike CHR which could get by with a 32k stream for online listeners. A good pledge premium would be an uncompressed (1.5 megabit) stream of WCRB.

 

[Don Juannn]

Don't stations stream online in this day and age? If someone can afford to donate to a public radio station, they most likely can afford to own a computer and a high speed Internet connection. No need for HD radios for home listening, just stream it online

Yeah that would be great if you want to sit in front of your computer to listen....or if your house is a studio apartment.

 

[kc1ih]

There are ways to get audio from a computer into a home stereo. If you don’t want to string wires you can do it by bluetooth.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

There are ways to get audio from a computer into a home stereo. If you don’t want to string wires you can do it by bluetooth.

One of the reasons that commercial radio has abandoned classical music is because the audience tends to be largely older adults.

Many older adults do not have the latest online gadgetry. They don't want to bother with wiring speakers from their computer, learning about Bluetooth, etc... They prefer to listen to a RADIO, even one with just an extra push of a button to switch to an HD-2 channel.

 

[Don Juannn]

There are ways to get audio from a computer into a home stereo. If you don’t want to string wires you can do it by bluetooth.

I agree with Eli....yes, there's a way. Are people going to bother?

AN HD Radio can be used on the back porch, in the bathroom, on a ladder while painting.

Saying a computer stream is a better alternative is silly.

 

[Gregg]

I just checked out the patterns for WGBH-FM and WCRB on www.radio-locator.com

WCRB has its tower only a few miles from the New Hampshire border in Andover. That's good news for Classical fans in New Hampshire, where the pulbic radio network has elimniated Classical music and concentrates on News, Talk and a little Folk and Jazz on weekends. At my family's cottage in East Wakefield, NH, WCRB comes in a bit fuzzy but listenable in mono. But the primary signal misses much of the Boston market to the south and southwest, including Worcester, Plymouth, Franingham, Foxboro, etc.

Meanwhile, WGBH-FM has more power than would be permitted for a typical FM station in this part of the country, running nearly 100,000 watts, on a tower south of Boston. So its primary signal hits all those communities listed above plus does well even into Providence, Fall River and New Bedford.

So I can understand how many Classical listeners south of Boston feel disenfranchised by WGBH's switch to News-Talk and Jazz



Gregg
[email protected]