Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio 
Summer 2002

      Attracting an audience…when we’re children, it starts as “Hey Mom, look at me! Hey Dad, watch this!” Then maybe we put on a puppet show for the family, act in the second grade play, play our first piano recital, march at halftime, or sing in a chorus. All of these things can be done without an audience, of course, but what’s the point? For all the millions professional athletes make, it’s still thousands of cheering fans that get the adrenaline pumping.
      In the world of the performing arts, the same thing applies. Audiences give purpose to what we do. In public radio and the performing arts, they provide much of the funding for what we do. Millions are spent trying to figure out what audiences want, how they want it presented, and how we can attract a larger piece of the listener pie.
      Yet, for all of the research, audience pol-ling, market testing, surveys, and data crunching, one of the most consistently popular albums of the last two years received almost no commercial-radio airplay and barely showed up on industry radar, at least until it won Grammys for Album of the Year, Best Male Country Vocal Performance (Ralph Stanley), Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (“Man of Constant Sorrow”), and two other Grammys, including Producer of the Year for T-Bone Burnett.
      Closer to home, think back to The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos recording Chant. How long did it take for record companies either to raid their vaults to re-master Gregorian Chant recordings or arrange a session to get one in the can? Chant was, of course, quickly followed by Chant II. 
      In radio, more and more stations are being programmed by fewer and fewer people, and formats are being defined more narrowly than ever. The prime example on the commercial side is, of course, Clear Channel.  At last check, they owned 1170 radio stations and 19 television stations in the United States and held interests in Australian and New Zealand radio stations, Spanish language radio, and outdoor advertising companies. McDonalds has come to radio! You can travel to virtually any place in the United States and hear the same thing you hear at home. As you’ve traveled over the last decade, how much shopping have you done in cities where you find a shopping center with 175 stores, 172 of which are identical to those you have at home?
      Public radio is quickly becoming the very thing for which it was to be an alternative. The only difference is that we do it with Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, instead of Aerosmith, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, and the Doobie Brothers. As we further and further narrow our formats, we move closer and closer to becoming background music. The fewer selections we allow in our “rotation,” the quicker we bore our audience.
In a recent conversation with Kristjan Järvi of Absolute Ensemble, we discussed what arts organizations and public radio stations could do to increase audience. Providing background music was not on his list. “There’s a magazine in England called Classic FM, he began. “I never understood their slogan, which is, ‘Music You Can Relax To,’ or something like that. I don’t think most of classical music is music you can relax to. It’s actually very agitating music. If you start to categorize classical music as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Telemann’s flute sonatas, that’s completely doing disservice to what that art form is. You’re taking a very short segment of time in history and only attributing classical music to that. That’s not classical music. Music has developed from banging rocks together to what we have available now, which is everything from Thrash Metal to Michael Daugherty, Rap, Aerosmith, and etc.”
      For decades, programmers and producers have tried to take a successful program or format and duplicate that success elsewhere, whether in another program or on other stations. Hollywood is probably the best example of this with seemingly endless sequels trying to recapture the success of past films. With what is available to music programmers today, Järvi seems puzzled by what has been called by some the “dumbing-down” of classical formats.
      “Everything has to be so neat and tidy for people…not so much for the listeners, but for the people who are programming. Everybody is afraid to take a risk, whether it is a radio show, a TV show, or a concert program that is untested. I feel that many, including the record companies, are falling back on the stuff that has had, like, one major hit. They say, ‘OK, let’s try that model.’ Then they’re wondering why that model doesn’t work again. It’s simply not going to work every time because people want something new. They don’t want the same thing repeated.”
      As an increasing number of radio stations are programmed by a diminishing number of people, more and more of us rely on technology to help. Computer programs can put together a day’s worth of playlists pretty quickly; but without diligence, creativity is compromised. As programmers, the worst thing we can do is let programming become something that readily sinks into the background, programming not to offend rather than to excite, uplift, motivate, and enlighten. It’s great that many of our stations provide music in offices, retail establishments, and restaurants, but that just turns public radio into a cheaper source of Muzak. While classical music is at our core, Järvi says, “I feel that initially, if the computers pick, say, the “1812 Overture,” the last movement of the Jupiter Symphony, and things like that, initially it’s going to work. If you’re going to continue to do that with small changes over months and years, it’s not going to remain interesting for anyone, and it’s not going to actually get any new listeners. It’s going to, I feel, kind of maintain the old listeners and [eventually] drive the new ones away. People get bored very easily…their attention spans are so short.” In other words, when we talk about attracting new listeners, younger listeners, this is not the way to go about it. 
      One thing we all see in mainstream formats is format changes. Let’s say you’re in a market that has no oldies station, so Corporation A decides to change the format of one of their stations. A huge advertising campaign begins. The market has been without an oldies station for years, so an audience quickly builds. Ratings go up, revenues go up, things look great. Then people begin to grow bored. They’ve heard the same handful of songs by Clapton, Stones, Beatles, Beach Boys, Neil Diamond, and Stevie Wonder so many times that they begin to look for something new. On the other hand, there is an AOR station in Dayton, Ohio (WTUE-FM), which switched to that format in the early 1970s. After nearly thirty years, they are currently number three in the market, not because they narrowed their format but because they change as music changes.
      In classical music radio, now more than ever, there is exciting new music being written by a wide array of young composers…Michael Daugherty, Eric Ewazen, James McMillan, Charles Coleman, Erkki-Sven Tüür, and many others. Every one of these composers has music suitable for classical airplay. It’s exciting, stimulating, and fresh. True, we do still get calls wanting information about the standard rep pieces we play, but most of my calls and e-mails come from listeners wanting to know about something new, something different, something that stood out from everything else. Age is not an obstacle, either. One of my most faithful listeners is an elderly woman who not only listens for the old favorites, but really enjoys the new pieces as well. She says it brings back great memories and creates new favorites.
      “I feel like we [Absolute Ensemble] owe our success to constantly re-inventing ourselves,” says Järvi. “We started out as a string ensemble which was full of students. None of them knew what they were doing. I didn’t either! Now we have a very clear idea of where we’re going.” The ensemble has just finished a new recording “based upon the rock model of what an album is. It’s not compositions by composers so much as it’s a band performing tunes [which are mostly] original. We even have mixes on there, like lounge mixes which, for an ensemble coming out of the classical realm, is completely unheard of.”
      In many ways, according to Järvi, public radio and arts organizations have similar problems, some of them self-created. “Subscriptions and these kinds of tools [such as computers] that have made life easier for organizations have, in a way, made them a bit complacent and are actually putting them out of business. To do things as a routine is very easy, but to do things as inventively as possible is not so easy. Necessity breeds creativity. You have to constantly think of ways to draw in [audiences], how to be artistically interesting and still maintain integrity, to have this kind of vision, to not become too comfortable with yourself, to constantly be moving forward.”
      Our main purpose in classical music radio is entertainment. Music education is certainly a by-product of that, but our listeners don’t turn on the radio thinking, “I’m going to tune in and learn something about Bach today.” They want to be entertained. On the other hand, introducing our listeners to new composers and performers is both entertaining and educational. Even in today’s communication-rich world, no one can ever find everything available in recordings, new and old. While entertaining our audience, it is part of our job to let our audience know what is coming out, whether in our regular format, maybe in some type of new-releases program, or even on our web sites. We can create an experience on the air that can do for our listeners what Järvi and Absolute try to do for their audience. “We are creating a type of music that can be very groove-oriented and can actually affect people on this kind of mysterious, emotional, spiritual level, which can be done by either beautiful OR ugly music. I feel there is a need and room for us to create a sonic experience which is enhanced by the intense musical performance of a band that really believes in the music it creates and performs. It kind of brings the listener out of reality. Everybody’s obsessed with, like, ‘we have to bring reality back into music.’ In my opinion, we have to bring fantasy back into music.”
      I think one of the most disturbing things a listener can tell me is, “I listen to your radio station when I study” or “Your station helps cover up the outside noise while I read.” Creating ambience is for restaurants wanting a comfortable place for you to sip coffee and chat, or retail outlets that spend time trying to figure out what music makes you feel like spending money. We work for radio stations with more music available than any other format in the world, yet we generally barely scratch the surface of what is available. That is to our own detriment and that of our listeners, whose main connection to the wonderful, stirring, moving, uplifting, sensual, peaceful, thunderous world of music is what we broadcast. Järvi seconds this. “When Absolute performs, it’s got to be an experience like no other. That’s what’s actually bringing people back and creating our audience. It’s getting to the point where rather than saying, ‘Hey, what’s on the program? Maybe I’m gonna check out some Beethoven’s Fifth,’ it’s, ‘Hey, I’ve gotta go see Absolute!’ I just feel this is the best time in music. The creativity is very, very high right now.
      According to Järvi, many musicians are trying more and more to get their music to the public in live performances, to “actually have them feel the raw effect of the music itself, rather than presenting music as some kind of very intellectual affair behind closed doors where nobody’s allowed to criticize anything.” It is incumbent upon each of us as programmers, announcers, and program producers to take the very best of what we have to offer to our audience…to both entertain and enrich. 
      All in all, Järvi sees classical music, both it’s performance and broadcast, as personality-driven entertainment…a place we can go to escape the rigors of everyday life, a medium that goes far beyond the “corporatized” version we see today.
      “Just to perform music is a nice thing. It’s kind of recreational. However, I think everything has to have a purpose, especially if we’re going to sell tickets and make money. People want to enjoy themselves. You have to look at it as the entertainment it is. Whether it’s classical or rap, it’s entertainment. [We can create] this kind of world which is absolutely beautiful, this fantasy world which has a lot of meaning, a lot of PERSONAL meaning to each one of the viewers and listeners.”
      For most of us, broadcasting is more than just a job. It is the opportunity to open up a limitless supply of musical treasures—to share with our audience the rush of emotion we experienced upon hearing the opening chords of Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto…the goose bumps we felt each time Pavarotti swept to the ending of “Nessun dorma”…the stunning virtuosity required for Mozart’s “Queen of the Night” aria…the peace and serenity of Vaughan Williams’ Tallis Variations; to share with our listeners the joy, sorrow, rapture, tranquility, and excitement to be found in each piece we play. We have a direct connection with the emotions and life experiences of composers, each of whom left a portion of their souls in their work. It is a unique pleasure to be entertained in this way. It is our honor, our privilege, and our responsibility to reveal this world to our listeners.
 

Boyce Lancaster is Broadcast Producer at WOSU Classics Network in Columbus, Ohio, and a member of the AMPPR Board of Director