The Classical Public Radio Network from Los Angeles and Denver
Why did CPB back another classical music service?
Pittsburgh and Boise team up to offer 24-hour service, Jazzworks Originally published in Current, March 8, 1999
By Jacqueline Conciatore
Some in public radio question the value of CPB's recent $850,000 investment in a classical music service from KUSC, Los Angeles, and Colorado Public Radio.
News of the three-year grant from the CPB Radio Program Fund broke while music directors convened in San Antonio last month, and quickly revived the old debate over modal music. The grant--fourth largest in the Radio Program Fund's history--also inspired questions about the need for another 24-hour service. "Do we really need a third choice, and is $850,000 of our money responsibly spent on developing a third choice?," asks Robert McBride, p.d. of WMHT, Albany/Schenectady.
The Classical Public Radio Network hopes to improve the presentation of classical on radio and ultimately heighten news listeners' enthusiasm for it. The goal is to increase listener support and position the stations for a future when individuals can easily access many music services via new media.
The KUSC and Colorado managers have spent years developing and using modal music research. (KUSC General Manager Brenda Pennell partnered with Colorado while at WGUC in Cincinnati and took the relationship with her when she went to L.A.) Though their playlists are still evolving, in recent years they've focused more on framing music, and that's primarily what this project will continue. The aim is to emulate the sound-rich storytelling of NPR news. To that end, the network will use the grant money to test storytelling prototypes. Hypothetical examples Pennell offers: a clip of violinist Gil Shaham discussing how he plays a piece; a pre-produced music highlight; or simply a well-researched live break. "Production is not the end, but a means to the end, which is preplanned, intensive off-air preparation," Pennell says.
All stations potentially benefit from the research on presentation because the partnership will share the results, she says.
Though research has taught public radio something about musical preferences, the announcing and other interstitial content remain a frontier, says Rick Madden, CPB's radio v.p. Presentation, he says, is perhaps the only way a station can distinguish its classical format--after all a CD is a CD is a CD. "As good as [a local service like] WETA's is, or Classical 24's service is, how competitive will these services be five to 10 years from now" against Internet, satellite radio and other services? He asks: can the partnership find the presentation-equivalent of music modalities that listeners prefer, make it as important and compelling to news listeners as are the NPR newsmagazines?
Not surprisingly, executives of the PRI-distributed Classical 24, which comes from Minnesota Public Radio, are dismayed. Classical 24's manager, Jack Allen, says the success of his service argues against the need for a new, subsidized one. With no outside grants, MPR developed a classical stream that has helped small and medium-sized stations deal with loss of governmental and institutional support, he says. The service is continually assessing station needs, and has proven to grow audience, he says. About 230 outlets carry it. He believes there isn't room for a new service, and that with a budget of more than $750,000, Classical 24 can't afford to lose 10 or 15 percent of its carriage. But Madden describes a different potential future for Classical 24: "multiple distribution opportunities--broadcast, cable, satellite, Internet. And [it] can probably put together the programmatic capacity and financing. ... "
[Public radio is also served by classical music and jazz services put on the satellite by WFMT, Chicago.]
Madden also says the KUSC-Colorado program syndication is, to him, "a by-product" of the project. "If there's someone that wants it and is willing to pay, fine," but the primary goal is to develop a kind of music programming that will hold its own in the future.
The public radio system should also benefit from the partnership's unique governance structure, says Pennell. The two stations have set up a limited-liabilty nonprofit corporation--the first in the country, according to Pennell--which allows a formal link between the two licensees and a streamlined operation. They're sharing the model with a BSU Radio/WDUQ jazz partnership that's using new production methods to yield local-sounding programming [earlier article]. The jazz project also won CPB money, and Madden says the two efforts are complementary.
Modal debate all over again
Some observers say nothing matters so much as the service's ultimate sound--how it treats classical music. Which leads to the longstanding debate about modal music research. Pioneered by Colorado Public Radio (which shares the research results with paying stations), modal is a method of selecting music based not on genre or composer but on sounds, or modes, preferred by focus-group participants. It generally results in music that's easy on the ears--"melodic, tonal, and consistent," says Allen. "The core and canon of Western music is there," as are "spice elements" such as choral.
But what about all the selections that don't make it to air? On the new network, "will a listener hear thorny, spiky avant garde music?" asks Steve Robinson of Nebraska Public Radio. "Is a listener likely to hear a piece of the enormity of Mahler's Third Symphony? Will a listener likely hear as they do on Nebraska Public Radio a living composer or internationally acclaimed soloist program an entire day of music themselves and co-host a day as we did with Libby Larsen and Yitzhak Perlman?" His guess is no.
Defenders say modal music is misunderstood, that all it does is tell programmers what music their target audience prefers. It's a tool--not a playlist, not a magic bullet, but a focused effort to give listeners what they want. If a programmer wants to serve an audience longing for Mahler's Third, fine. Says Connecticut Public Radio's John Berky: "I really hope no one questions the fact that we should be putting stuff on that our listeners enjoy."
In a new dimension to the debate, some including Pennell say initial application of modal data were overly zealous. "In the early days, we applied it narrowly," says Pennell, and the result was boring. "There was too much reach, not enough depth, and we weren't capturing people's attention and imaginations."
The first results "were seized on quickly, and probably implemented rather badly, and Denver to its credit continued to test more music," says Allen. The second research round showed listeners were open to material considered too challenging -- familiar opera arias, for example. "It allowed us to not be so rigid about, 'It's vocal music, it's organ, it's early, we can't have that.'"
One of the network's goals is to "represent the reach and depth of the classical music repertoire, including new compositions, making sure the music selection is always fresh and interesting," Pennell says. That imperative, "the mission," will undergird the new service. "We haven't been able to convince people that we mean that," she says. "But we have a huge long list of 20th century composers we play all the time. We play vocal music every day. We have evolved quite a lot in past few years."
[Both the classical music and jazz collaborations are "very detailed, long-term efforts" exploring how to enhance public radio's two major streams of music programs, said Madden. Their progress will have implications for the rest of the public radio system, he said.
All four of the music partnership stations already deliver strong services, but they also embrace the philosophy, "We've got to get better," Madden adds. "If people who are already very good are saying that, that is a powerful message."
"We not only can be significantly better in the services we provide to listeners, we have to be, if we're going to compete against the array of audio services coming down the pike."]
Pittsburgh and Boise team up to offer 24-hour service, JazzworksOriginally published in Current, Jan. 25, 1999
By Jacqueline Conciatore
In a recently formed partnership, Pittsburgh's WDUQ and Boise's BSU Radio aim to create a widely used, affordable jazz service and a cutting-edge production model for public radio.
With its forerunner--a Denver/Los Angeles collaboration, Classical Public Radio--the jazz partnership demonstrates a growing tendency of stations to look to themselves and each other for needed programming, as opposed to relying strictly on national producer/distributors such as NPR, PRI or WFMT. Its service, called Jazzworks, is now heard on four stations besides WDUQ and BSU.
Those involved say the jazz project's innovation lies in its collaborative model and use of multiple, emerging production and distribution technologies. In December, WDUQ and BSU Radio won a $390,000 Future Fund grant to further develop the latter.
"Can we find a new way to create radio?," says BSU Radio head Jim Paluzzi. "That's what we're setting out to do. Plausibly local, plausibly live, of network quality, affordable for stations in all market sizes."
Here's how the two stations divide the labor: WDUQ plans each hour of the 24-hour service, the musical selections based on modal music research findings. WDUQ digitizes the jazz and sends the files to Boise, where BSU stores the music on a hard drive. Then producers and/or announcers in Boise or Pittsburgh--but conceivably anywhere--go to their production centers, access the Boise computer via the Internet, and do the actual producing--recording music breaks, inserting interviews, etc. That audio content goes back to Boise via ISDN lines. The computer finally assembles the final show, which then goes to using other stations via satellite.
A huge advantage of the approach is that producers don't have to sit through entire songs as they play, so production time is cut drastically. It can take 40 minutes to do what previously took four hours, Paluzzi says.
Although WDUQ programs the hours, the schedule is flexible, says WDUQ G.M. Scott Hanley. When jazz pianist Michel Petrucciani died recently, a producer was able to make last-minute changes and mention the event, he says.
Paluzzi says he hopes KLON in Long Beach and KXPR in Sacramento will become production partners in coming months.
The decentralized production improves efficiency without requiring these new-program providers to make a major capital outlay, says Hanley. "Unlike perhaps a commercial broadcaster who will go ahead and build a multi-million dollar production facility for a group of 20 stations ... we're actually distributing the production facility to where the talent and the people and production technologists are."
Paluzzi and Hanley also have plans to use new satellite technology to give Jazzworks affiliates customized content. They'll use extra bandwidth to send audio that only specific station demodulators download. This might include station i.d.'s, underwriting credits, public service announcements, even weather, says Hanley.
Paluzzi says the service will turn around orders for custom content in 24 hours, unlike national distributors who take weeks, in part because both sides use mail services to send audio or scripts. But WFMT, which provides an overnight jazz service to about 140 outlets, takes issue here. If stations want something in half a day, "we'll move heaven and earth to get it to them," says radio head David Levin.
Paluzzi says his jazz project also will ease station workload by offering a service to write promos, p.s.a.'s, etc.
Jazzworks is now free to stations, but there will be a charge, as yet undetermined, in the next quarter.
Besides BSU and WDUQ, stations airing Jazzworks are WVPE, Elkhart; WICN, Worcester; KSLU, Hammond; and KCMW, Warrensburg. WMUB, Oxford, recently signed on.
WVPE Station Manager Tim Eby says he prefers the Jazzworks music mix to WFMT's, hosted by Bob Parlocha. "It's a little bit more focused" with a stronger appeal to news listeners, he says. The sound Jazzworks offers is "fairly lyrical"--definitely meant to appeal to the NPR news listener, says WDUQ Program Director Dave Becker. While he generates the broader appeal in part by removing the more "frenetic" jazz music, he says he hasn't cut out artists. "It's just that we understood from the research that it's OK to be much fussier about the songs we play."
Levin says Eby's criticism of WFMT's jazz service is atypical. "Bob [Parlocha] has a great respect in the jazz and radio communities. For him it's a true labor of love."
The WDUQ-KBSU jazz project is not the only station-based collaborative production around. Classical Public Radio (CPR) is a limited liability corporation owned by KUSC, Los Angeles, and Colorado Public Radio. Early on, the effort involved using music research to program appealing classical, but now the effort is focused more on music presentation, says KUSC G.M. Brenda Pennell. Do listeners value interviews with musicians? Anecdotes that place the music in historical context? The partnership will try to uncover the answers through EARS testing and other research tools, she says. The goal is to engender as much listener financial support for classical as news gets, she says.
Classical Public Radio is still working toward a full 24-hour stream. Currently, KUSC, Colorado and Cincinnati's WGUC take various dayparts; all take the overnight feed. Eventually, the service may be distributed nationally, but now CPR's focus is on developing quality content, Pennell says.
Outside link: Listen to BSU Radio from Boise, live via RealAudio.
Web page created March 9, 1999
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Earlier news: Led by KCFR in Denver (now Colorado Public
Radio), stations use modal research to pick musical selections.