[BC] Digital Interference

[Steve]

Robert:

Programming a Classical music station in San Francisco (as I did for Ed
Davis at KDFC in 1980 with tapes with the announcements built in) I beat
KKHI. No big deal. It's like shooting fish in a barrel to program a
Classical station in San Francisco. Those kinds of numbers can only be
achieved in San Francisco. Seattle is another easy one. Did mornings for
KING-FM for 5 years (82-87). Morning drive was 5th in the demo. Now (if I
may pat myself on the back for a moment) programming a Classical music
station in Dallas, TX is another story. But between the guy who now programs
the Classical Channel "Maestro" on WorldSpace (my former Music Director at
WRR) and myself we pulled a 3.1 share. The highest ratings the station had
ever had in it's 50 years. Now that was fun. Dallas Symphony in the Meyerson
is another sound to hear. Next to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Hall, the
Meyerson comes in at #2. I believe the new hall in Singapore is in there now
as far as acoustics.

Back to San Francisco. This might be a case of "Well, they're the only one
in the market" statement...and they are. But I would bet money that if
another came along and started with the modern stuff and added vocals KDFC
would still win.
I feel another debate coming on. I'm ducking already. :)

Steve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Orban" <rorban at earthlink.net>
To: <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 7:15 PM
Subject: RRe: [BC] Digital Interference


> At 04:41 PM 12/19/2005, you wrote:
> >From: Rich Wood <richwood at pobox.com>
> >Subject: Re: [BC] Digital Intgerference
> >To: Broadcast Radio Mailing List <broadcast at radiolists.net>
> >Message-ID: <7.0.0.16.2.20051219112651.0660f8e8 at yahoo.com>
> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
> >
> >------ At 04:26 AM 12/19/2005, Robert Orban wrote: -------
> >
> > >As for classical concerts, it's hard for me to put myself in the
> > >shoes of a 15 year old listener. But I love live classical music. I
> > >go to the symphony at least 15 times per year and it never fails to
> > >strike me that symphony audiences are probably the best-behaved and
> > >most respectful audiences of all.
> >
> >Then you've never been to a Boston Symphony Friday matinee. When
> >Michael Tilson Thomas was Associate Conductor he developed a
> >"Spectrum" series featuring contemporary works. Blue haired Beacon
> >Hill matrons revolted. They'd get up, slam their seats back and storm
> >out of Symphony Hall. Michael got no respect. He and I had common
> >friends so I saw him often. It frustrated him that they wouldn't give
> >him a chance. This wasn't Cage stuff. Even Stravinsky didn't pass muster.
> >
> >Not unexpected. Most Beacon Hill matrons were pretty revolting, anyway.
>
> Drifting off-topic: MTT (who is, of course, the San Francisco Symphony's
> current Music Director) is worshipped by San Francisco audiences. He has
> programmed some very challenging 20th century works (Berio and Schoenberg,
> for example). He and the orchestra are always applauded at the end (and I
> can almost never recall an instance when someone walked out), although MTT
> is not necessarily brought back for the traditional third bow.
>
> One great thing about living in the Bay Area is that there are a lot of
> culturally literate people here. But then again, I've been told that the
> Los Angeles Philharmonic (under Esa-Pekka Salonen) also gets big audiences
> and he certainly doesn't dumb down his programming. Culture snobs in
Boston
> or New York City who thinks that California contains nothing but dumb
> surfers are kidding themselves.
>
> The one problem San Francisco has in this area is that it has a
dumbed-down
> commercial classical music radio station with no non-comm competition (at
> least for now). KDFC is very good about being involved with the local
> classical music community, but to say that their programming is not
> challenging is to put it kindly.
>
> Bob Orban
>
>
>
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