Saturday, November 14, 2009

a million watts of, what?

Something to keep an eye on- WGBH, on of Boston's two public media behemoths, has bought the only all-classical station on the dial. (Globe article here, WGBH's puff page here)

Two points- no matter what WGBH says, if they are indeed going to all talk, this is a net loss for music on the radio. (And really, we already have one all news/talk NPR station in Boston, are we dying for a second?) And more importantly, there is no mention in any of this press what happens to WGBH's jazz programming, which is still the most visible (well, audible) and most popular in the Boston area. In the past couple of years GBH has cut back its jazz programming, shifting the overnight show to a nationally syndicated jazz program. On the plus side, their new headquarters has a state of the art new studio, which they have been opening up for a lot of live performances and studio recordings. I want to take a "wait and see" attitude, but I fear bad things.

Any clarification or other buzz is appreciated.

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