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WCLV Changes

1

1sttimecaller

WCLV to go non-commercial. From Cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2012/

....marks another step in a long-running effort by Conrad to ensure the future of the station he co-founded five decades ago and a place for classical music on the radio in Northeast Ohio.....

May I please say this has always been, and always will be, the biggest line of bull.

Just come out and state "We own a business, and we intend to make as much money as possible"

Nobody held a gun to their heads to sell 95.5 for MILLIONS in 2001. (95.5 with a STRONG signal and 104.9 barely audible a mile from the stick)

I'm sure with PPM advertisers aren't setting the phones on fire at Playhouse Square. $20 says WCLV puts more $$ on the books in the next two than they've made in the last five.

Don't forget to call your lawyer tomorrow and leave WCLV in your will.
 
Excuse me if this is considered a dumb question... I hope it's not. Why couldn't the station do both? Seek advertising AND have listener pledge drives and go for foundation support? I'm sure the air personalities could explain to the audience why they need their support to go along with the ad dollars.
 
It is a lot easier to operate 104.9 as a noncomm, given that Ideastream now owns it, and at some point, will operate it directly. There are certain operational issues that make it easier to make the transition, with 90.3 and 25 already there in noncomm land.

Though, I had the pleasure of meeting long-time OMW reader Robert Conrad recently, and he isn't fading into the woodwork by any means. He'll keep on with WCLV under Ideastream, and of course, has his long-term involvement with the Cleveland Orchestra broadcasts.

WCLV will continue to "sell advertising", of course, only it'll now be called "underwriting" and will be under noncomm guidelines.
 
Good move.

#1) I can't imagine it being any easier in the next few years to sell advertizing on a niche station with generally older demos.

#2) This allows WCLV to appear on a WCPN HD channel, which (as a commercial station) I don't think was allowed before. This would increase their range.

And the 104.9 signal, albeit reduced, is hardly inaudible "a mile from the stick" (!!!). I drive around a lot, and they are pretty clear in most places in the Cleveland metro, except parts of eastern Geauga, some of Lake, and spots around Brecksville-Broadview Heights.

Say what you will about cashing out, but Mr. Conrad made sure that some of the $$$ was put back into keeping WCLV on the air and well funded.

You can't say that about the commercial classical people that cashed out in LA, Philly and Detroit who took the money and told the classical audience to kiss off.
 
I applaud Conrad for being a smart business man. No question. His public relations and "spin" on the other hand...
I felt bad for him at Blossom in the summer of 2001 when he was booed by the crowd right after the move to 104.9. It was ugly.
The bank statement eased his pain I'm sure.
 
Virtually all the commercial Classical stations in the U.S. have done what WCLV is doing... becoming a public non-commercial station: WFMT Chicago, KING Seattle, KDB Santa Barbara. And several also were moved to lesser FM signals when they went non-commercial: WQXR NYC, WCRB Boston, KDFC San Francisco. WRR in Dallas is still commercial and still a full-power FM station, but it's owned by the City of Dallas, so it gets a subsidy that way.

Maybe we should start a new thread about why in 2012, commercial Classical stations have ceased to exist, even stations that had been getting good ratings in cities with a long tradition of supporting Classical music. How did WQXR New York survive as a commercial classical station, first on AM, then on FM, since the 1940s, but reached the end of the line a couple of years ago? Virtually every large and many medium markets had commercial classical stations till about a decade ago... LA, Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit, Miami, Baltimore, San Diego, Denver, Norfolk, Milwaukee, etc. all had full-power FM commercial Classical stations at one time. NYC, Chicago and San Francisco had TWO.

Is it today's young adult just not willing to listen to music that challenges them? Are corporations not willing to advertise on a high-quality radio station if the ratings aren't tremendous?
 
John Baylor said:
WCLV to go non-commercial. From Cleveland.com http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2012/

....marks another step in a long-running effort by Conrad to ensure the future of the station he co-founded five decades ago and a place for classical music on the radio in Northeast Ohio.....

May I please say this has always been, and always will be, the biggest line of bull.

Just come out and state "We own a business, and we intend to make as much money as possible"

Nobody held a gun to their heads to sell 95.5 for MILLIONS in 2001. (95.5 with a STRONG signal and 104.9 barely audible a mile from the stick)

I'm sure with PPM advertisers aren't setting the phones on fire at Playhouse Square. $20 says WCLV puts more $$ on the books in the next two than they've made in the last five.

Don't forget to call your lawyer tomorrow and leave WCLV in your will.
Click to expand...

If Conrad was so greedy, he would have dumped classical music a long time ago. Needless to say, classical is not a cash cow format. The 95.5 sale was likely done to give them enough cash to at least keep WCLV afloat.

And he could have easily just sold 104.9 to a bigger broadcaster who would change the format, but opted to donate it (no doubt with a good tax deduction) in order to keep his baby on the air and playing classical music for likely a long time to come.

Quite the opposite of greedy, Conrad is merely a radio station owner with a passion for the music his station plays.
 
Robert Conrad is one of the many class acts in Cleveland radio. He knows how to keep a station like WCLV on the air and picks good staffers for the station. The station has also remained locally-owned and operated, even after a lot of stations went under a lot of ownership changes in the late 1990's/early 2000's.

Hats off to Ideastream for their involvement with WCLV. Nice to see them committed to keeping the station active in the local arts community. I have a great deal of respect for the stations and organization.
 
Thank you Fighting Irish and Cleve Fan....love your posts.

Instead of looking for greed in Bob Conrad...who obviously could've made a heck of a lot more money with virtually any format than classical....why not look at the real culprits most of us in media realize has pretty much helped kill locally-staffed, commercial radio, and eliminated thousands and thousands of on-air and support-staff jobs everywhere: Clear Channel.

You know, the company that also owns Next-Gen (broadcast computer automation systems) and Premium Choice...a company that provides national, network programming (so individual stations don't have the the hassle of having to employ a full staff of those pesky local on-air folks).

OK...they make money...good for them. But, think of the thousands of lives CC and other chains have ruined in the process by taking away their broadcast careers? But, they make money, and have tons of political influence. Yeah, nice.
 
I can remember when it seemed that most Classical music devotees wanted nothing to do with the Pop music, considering it beneath them. Today many embrace that which they find musically compelling. For example, I attended a Boston String Quartet concert where they were performing with a high school orchestra. They played a few Pop and Rock things, including "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the seminal Grunge hit by Nirvana (1991). On one of their CDs they do The Beatles "Hey Jude". Then there's Yo Yo Ma. On his new CD he plays "Here Comes The Sun" and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Christmas Rock classic "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". I think this is all good as it may open some doors to attracting a larger audience.

On the listener side of the equation my 20 year old niece, who has had classical training and is proficient on the violin along with being a good singer who has received instruction there as well, likes a number of Classical pieces, but also enjoys tons of Pop, Country and Rock tunes as well. I guess my point is that although Classical is a niche format, there are a good number of young people who enjoy it.

From a programming standpoint, is there room for a program that features a "hip" presentation of Classical music?
 
Gregg said:
Virtually all the commercial Classical stations in the U.S. have done what WCLV is doing... becoming a public non-commercial station: WFMT Chicago, KING Seattle, KDB Santa Barbara. And several also were moved to lesser FM signals when they went non-commercial: WQXR NYC, WCRB Boston, KDFC San Francisco. WRR in Dallas is still commercial and still a full-power FM station, but it's owned by the City of Dallas, so it gets a subsidy that way.

Maybe we should start a new thread about why in 2012, commercial Classical stations have ceased to exist, even stations that had been getting good ratings in cities with a long tradition of supporting Classical music. How did WQXR New York survive as a commercial classical station, first on AM, then on FM, since the 1940s, but reached the end of the line a couple of years ago? Virtually every large and many medium markets had commercial classical stations till about a decade ago... LA, Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit, Miami, Baltimore, San Diego, Denver, Norfolk, Milwaukee, etc. all had full-power FM commercial Classical stations at one time. NYC, Chicago and San Francisco had TWO.

Is it today's young adult just not willing to listen to music that challenges them? Are corporations not willing to advertise on a high-quality radio station if the ratings aren't tremendous?
Click to expand...

I've heard many say that classical is a format that just works better as non-com. Most agency ads would sound really out of place on a commercial classical station. They would most likely have to be produced in-house. I can't see many mainstream advertisers that would even understand the classical format anyways. In addition, classical stations do feature a lot of longer pieces that would be a bit more difficult to work into a commerical clock.

I've heard that the classical music model works far better as non-com, with funding from listeners, underwriting and corporate grants.
 
Here is an open letter from Mr. Conrad to WCLV listeners:

http://www.wclv.com/page.php?pageID=1235

Re: WCLV's signal - In those areas east of Cleveland where WCLV doesn't come in very well, there's WKSU 89.7. West of Huron/Sandusky where WCLV gets interference from WIOT on 104.7, there's WGTE 91.3 from Toledo. Pretty much anywhere in northern Ohio, there's a classical station on the dial. When WCLV was on 95.5, wasn't there often interference issues with Detroit's 95.5 in the summer months anyways?
 
WCLV is a great station. Not sure why they are getting all this grief. They have been around for many years and hopefully now will be around for many more. People get excited over 87.7 which plays lousy music for the most part and don't appreciate a good station like WCLV. Clevelanders sure are picky at times. ::)
 
SonoSational18 said:
Non-com status will give WCLV the opportunity to put its signal on translators outside of its current signal footprint as WKSU does.
Click to expand...

Oooh, good catch. Now, what translators could WCLV buy/move to put on the East Side, for those who have trouble with 104.9? ;)

Just a clarification here: I have no idea of any such plans. I think it's a good idea, tho, if it's feasible technically/FCC-wise.

I do think that not long after 1/1, they'll put WCLV on WCPN HD2. HD is a niche market (and goodness knows Mr. Conrad has been burnt by it before), but so is classical.

And now that Ideastream owns WCLV, public broadcasters make more use of HD than most commercial stations, and do stuff like offer HD radios as premiums during pledge drive. ("Give us $X a month, and you'll get this great HD radio that gets WCLV's classical music!")

Just some thoughts.

And I'll echo the above. Robert Conrad is very much a class act.
 
W279BT/103.7 is part of the EMF empire.

Note that it lists Clear Channel's WKDD/98.1 as primary, presumably it'll eventually feed off of WKDD's HD2 or HD3.

I believe at one time, it listed WCVJ/90.9 Jefferson as primary (the Ashtabula area Air 1 full-power station).

I'm not sure Bob could pry 103.7 away from EMF.
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
SonoSational18 said:
Non-com status will give WCLV the opportunity to put its signal on translators outside of its current signal footprint as WKSU does.
Click to expand...
I do think that not long after 1/1, they'll put WCLV on WCPN HD2. HD is a niche market (and goodness knows Mr. Conrad has been burnt by it before), but so is classical.
Click to expand...

Though, if WCLV is on WCPN-HD2, they don't need to worry about translators being outside the WCLV signal footprint. They can use WCPN as the official primary & put translators anywhere WCPN's signal reaches.

(however, there are other good reasons to flip WCLV non-comm, immunity from license fees being a good place to start.)
 
w9wi said:
OhioMediaWatch said:
SonoSational18 said:
Non-com status will give WCLV the opportunity to put its signal on translators outside of its current signal footprint as WKSU does.
Click to expand...
I do think that not long after 1/1, they'll put WCLV on WCPN HD2. HD is a niche market (and goodness knows Mr. Conrad has been burnt by it before), but so is classical.
Click to expand...

Though, if WCLV is on WCPN-HD2, they don't need to worry about translators being outside the WCLV signal footprint. They can use WCPN as the official primary & put translators anywhere WCPN's signal reaches.
Click to expand...

Which is actually a little circular, if you think about it: in order to be on 90.3-HD2, WCLV has to become noncommercial.

(however, there are other good reasons to flip WCLV non-comm, immunity from license fees being a good place to start.)
Click to expand...

That's one good place to start; a switch to noncommercial status also makes it possible to get a main-studio waiver should Ideastream be able to acquire additional full-power signals to fill in the WCLV coverage area, among other things.
 
Scott Fybush said:
That's one good place to start; a switch to noncommercial status also makes it possible to get a main-studio waiver should Ideastream be able to acquire additional full-power signals to fill in the WCLV coverage area, among other things.
Click to expand...

Which begs the question: WHICH full power signals could be in play? Theoretically, if Ideastream/WCLV decides to do that.

I suppose it depends on how much reach they want for WCLV.
 
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