Eddie Janusz wrote:

>But some dead white males are Benjamins.  Earlier this year, I got a
>circular from Connecticut Public Radio (which I support annually, and
>modestly).  I can't get to the exact numbers, but it was quite close
>to "45% of our airtime is classical music, which generates 17% of our
>donations." You (all "yous" herein are global; I'm not whaling on Bernard)
>can read that a few ways:  ...
>
>But 45/17 is a slap shot.  If you were running a public radio station,
>what would you do with those numbers?

I believe I would revisit my mission statement.  If the organization saw
a substantive part of it's mission to be education...

First off, I would look at ways to cut expenses.  Once you have a
station and a transmitter, your major bills are electricity, licenses,
rent, etc.  The obvious place to cut would be administrative staff.  You
need a Program Director/announcer, and a station manager and probably
an administrative assistant.  Our station managed that way for many
years.  All of the announcers were part time...many being drawn from the
University's Music School.  Announcers would often bring in their own
recordings and highlight their interests.

The market for classical music has always been relatively small.  Making
the presentation of it cost effective will likely always be impossible,
but something one should try to accomplish.

Station managers will tell you things like...we need a development staff
to raise the money to operate...well actually, they need the development
staff to raise the money for the development, membership and marketing
staff.

Am I completely against public funding for broadcasting...I'm not sure,
I do know it provides an alternative...in news in particular, but I
prefer listening to the BBC.

For me, public broadcasting has lost its way. Like almost any large
non-profit, its goals seem to be self perpetuation and not providing an
alternative.

An idea...

So, if you could program a classical radio station for a day...what would
you program...

Karl