I was a listener of WCRB from ca. 1964 until recently. At age 12 I discovered “Classical” and fortunately in 1964 there were a half dozen Classical outlets on Radio. One at 107.something (WBZ-FM?); 104.1 for the flagship station of the Boston Concert Network, WBCN. 102.5 for WCRB; 96.something for WXHR(?) that carried DeKoven–they became WJIB; 95.3 for WHRB; 90.9 for WBUR; 89.7 for WGBH. On AM there was even WCRB at 1330 and WXHR at 740.
Then the Rock tripe hit. The classical stations dropped like flies to be replaced by cookie-cutter sound alike Rock drivel–a pile driver & air compressor combo would be more entertaining and might do useful work instead of John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, etc.
Bloated salaries at ‘GBH might be the real problem. Plus having an agenda..are the 89.7 nightly jazz broadcasts a piece of Affirmative Action? Is Friday Symphony too many Dead White Males?

OK. The posts are useful, though there is too much left-wing drivel out there. Corporations are Evil while non-profits are good. Hogwarsh! WGBH/WCRB is an institutional problem and this dumbing-down of Classical is a direct result of the New Left Drivel of the 1960′s and ’70′s. Marx to Lenin to Stalin to Mao to Pol Pot to Obama is the progression of Academia.
Wonder what has become of Richard Knisely’s “projects”? I will look into that American Public Media outfit: one needs to know what Satan looks like!

In response to Edward Wagner (above) and others I would like to announce that I am developing a website that will do the same thing I did for 25 years at WGBH, only more focused on the music community of the Boston area. A wide variety of performances by local individuals and ensembles updated regularly, covering all periods without qualms about the contemporary!) in daily hosted segments, along with features and specials introducing the various music makers, artists and composers, venues, festivals, etc.

I am currently building the site and trying to drum up some backers for it.

info or comments welcome! -richardknisely2@earthlink.net

Truly, the longer I have thought about it the more I am convinced that certain institutions in Boston have made the musical community perhaps lazy and prone to take for granted that their art would always be made accessible and available to the public by the broadcasting power of WGBH or the prestige of the BSO or the conservatories. This community needs to take its fate into its own hands. The INSTITUTION of WGBH is DEAD. Everyone in the musical community from Joel Cohen to Gunther Schuller to younger musicians need to ask themselves what they would like to see in an ideal classical music, not station but disseminator, and only THEN think about the technology. Surely if all the money (from individuals or institutions)that is given to the ‘GBH empire for the sake of MUSIC and take for grated by them were to directed to clean new project, well, Mr. Cohen, let your imagination run wild.

I would like to suggest that the “Orgy” archives at WHRB might be made available somehow — they were and continue to be truly splendid examples of classical music broadcasting. Thanks Dave Elliot.

Thanks to Lee Eisman for his dedicated work.

The results after the switching WGBH/WCRB for December 2009. WBZ AM 5.6 – (for reference)
WGBH: 0.9 -
WBUR: 4.5 +
WCRB: 2.9 +

When I was broadcasting on Cape Cod WFCC full time classical(1989-1995)my weekend ratings for the Cape Cod Market were between 5 and 8.1. Why? I did not program classical music to myself, had a full knowledge of discography both historical up to current recordings, refused to be snooty(WGBH AM was “If it ain’t French it’s piano!), did not take minutes to beging speaking(Lurtsema), did not suffer from “one-lung” delivery,(WGBH 12 to 4 PM) put chamber music programming secondary, orchestral music primary. Finally, “One does not air music played by the Iceland Symphony when you can choose the same played by Munch and the BSO, for example…
It is simple to build and keep an audience when you know what to do ansd what to say and how to say it. Where I or any of my WFCC associates at WGBH instead of WFCC today, ratings would be much higher and WGBH would be full-time classical music with rating oh so much higher than 0.9%!

I run a consulting company and last few month I’ve been dealing with a large local financial institution. During the last fall if was surreal in their office – each Friday a bunch of people turned listening BSO live broadcasts. It was almost funny – how people creatively planed meetings, how they put the headphones on, how they closed doors in their offices at 1.30PM. During the broadcast intermission we: the accountants, consultants, directors, lawyers, legal assistants, data administrators, project managers, compliance officers, auditors… etc… met at coffee machine and discussed BSO play. It was a unique window in another world, the world where there is something alive and more existing then in our boring corporate institution…. This week it was like a death of a family member… People asked me “Where is your BSO?” What can I say? I told them that some anonymous WGBH corporate freak decided to shine his/her intelligence and vandalized our live BSO broadcasts. It is truly same! Some people talk about demise of FM as media but if the demise is man-made then it is not demise but murder. I ask again: is anything practical might be done to stop the people who destroy WGBH?

When I came to Boston as a college freshman in 1969 I came from a small town and a family where there was no classical music. I had some interest, but I really knew nothing about it and had heard very little. It was radio that allowed me to develop my interest. I listened to those BSO and Pops broadcasts. Knowing that the performances were taking place just down the street made the performances more interesting to me than if they had been on records or some orchestra someplace else in the world. Because of these broadcasts I eventually started going to concerts. There were many Friday mornings and Saturday afternoons spent standing in the rush ticket line.

Back then WCRB published a program guide each month, similar to what WHRB now puts out, listing all the music they would be playing. I would go through it line by line and highlight the music I wanted to hear. There is so much music that I first heard on the radio. So many recordings I’ve bought and concerts I’ve gone to because of the radio. This is what is being lost and it is a shame.

I was just looking at the blurb for WCRB at classicalwebcast.com. It is really a revolting paean to banality and as far as I can tell perfectly in line with the intentions of WGBH:
“You don’t need to know anything about our music to enjoy WCRB, the music is fresh but familiar, relaxing yet invigorating.Our program hosts are warm, friendly people, not the stodgy academics you may have heard on other stations.”
Remember that WGBH tv discontinued BSO broadcasts and now gives us endless repeats of Andre Rieu. Why should we expect them to do any differently on the radio?

On a semi-positive note, Joel Cohen (01/09/10 suggests some very exciting classical programming options. Perhaps WGBH should consider hiring him to bail them out?

What interest me is if there is any chance to provide conditional donations. The bylaws article for non-profits usually allows receiving assets in a format of free donations and also in a format of donor-imposed conditions. I am not sure how WGBH operate – I presume as they are non-profit. Still, they ran commercials and do many other things that I do not feel comfortable with. So, would it be possible to donate money to WGBH and to make sure that it would go ONLY for inreaching classical programming but not for organization of NPR’s banquets or paying off the liquidation consultants after the GBH will screw the thing to the ground? Are any lawyers out there who can clear this thing up?

Also, for God sake, can somebody advise those “professionals” to get own call sign. We have two WGBH on a dialer – it is ridicules. The “99.5 all-classical” is not a standard FM name!

Regarding the canned music issue, I raised this point after last week’s meeting with a senior member of the music production staff. He said that there was simply inadequate funding to generate individualized, locally-produced programming 24/7, thus the move towards cheaper, turn-on-the-faucet syndication.

There is plenty of depth here in Boston on the classical deejay bench. What is lacking at the station is the will to allocate necessary resources — surely quite modest by TV or big-sports standards — to consistently good cultural programming. Once again, the question of the WGBH/Lowell Foundation’s mission comes to the fore. Is that mission being honored today?

Of course, the function of a publicly funded music station in a world-class city is much, much more than spinning platters, as that used to be called back in the day of Guillaume de Machaut. The other, mainly-missing-right-now 80% — live performances, master classes, music history series, programs and mini-series on special topics, non-Western classical music, jazz and folk (yes, I believe these belong), pre-concert and intermission features, current CD reviews, blindfold comparisons, feeds from American and European festivals, a composers’ forum, a daily what’s-going-on onair journal, a young performers’ showcase minus the comedy routines, etc etc etc — also needs to be evisioned, and given room to run. We here in Boston are settling for much, much less than the best. Our public media needs to represent who we are. That is what they are there for.

A quality community radio station would play music handpicked by local experts from that community. Someone familiar with the tastes of local listeners should be playing the music. How can a taped program from Minnesota understand what works in the Boston arts groups and venues?

We don’t need WCRB to hear that taped Minnesota show, that is already syndicated on other stations and can be streamed over the internet via computer at home or iPhone in your car. Why donate to WCRB for taped music that is already easily available to us elsewhere? WCRB needs to be providing the community something unique. Cut the canned music!