Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio 
Fall 2001 

Dave Bunker, music director at Maine Public Broadcasting in Bangor and AMPPR president since the New Orleans conference in 2000, has resigned both positions to head south—not way south, just to southern Maine, where his wife has taken a job in Wells. The family has packed up and relocated to that area, and Dave’s plans for his own career are being explored.

Dave brought many new ideas and plans to AMPPR, including the announcer workshops with Marilyn Pittman that have been so successful in the past year and a half. He leaves AMPPR with everyone’s best wishes and thanks for his devoted service to the organization.

As Dave Bunker leaves public radio, the AMPPR board has named Beverley Ervine to fill out his term as president. Beverley was AMPPR’s president from 1997 to 2000 and has remained on the board as vice president of sponsorships, a task she will retain as president.

Beverley is the music director at the WOSU Classics Network in Columbus, Ohio. Her term as president of AMPPR will run until the 2003 Music Personnel Conference.
 
 

Former AMPPR board member Karen Walker has been asked to return as a board member and to join the conference agenda committee. She was a board member from 1998 to February, 2001.

Karen is the assistant program director and educational outreach coordinator at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri. She returns with the gratitude of the AMPPR board.
 

AMPPR board member Laura (Harbert) Allen has been named treasurer of the organization to replace Deanne Poulos, who resigned early this summer to pursue activities outside of public radio.

Laura is the music director at West Virginia Public Radio and was elected to the AMPPR board last February in Tucson. She is a welcome addition to the officer section of the board roster.
 
 

Andrea Adelson, in The New York Times business section on July 30, reported the latest plans of the two satellite services, XM and Sirius, with dire predictions for terrestrial radio.

Although satellite-delivered music and non-music formats will be expensive for consumers who now must spend about $240 for the reception equipment, both subscription services are confident they will have a 10% market share by 2004. By that time they expect that most auto manufacturers will offer the necessary reception equipment in their new cars (Sirius will be available in new BMWs next year), thus costing end-users $9.99 to $12.95 per month to subscribe. 

Both services expect to provide commercial-free music channels and commercially sponsored news and information channels. National Public Radio will provide original material for Sirius, but only a few other channels will offer original content.

The Times article speculates that success for XM and Sirius will be difficult and that profitability will depend on each company having at least four million subscribers by 2004. If, however, these companies do stay in business, “the biggest loser may be traditional radio,” according to media analyst Robert Unmacht.