Thank you note from a WDAV member

An email to our Development office regarding the Yo-Yo Ma contest held during the fall membership campaign:

I was the very lucky winner of the Gold Prize in your recent Yo-Yo Ma contest! I was unbelievably excited to have won this prize and, fortunately, my daughter from Winston-Salem was able to share it with me. The concert was absolutely wonderful and we will always remember Yo-Yo as a delight to hear and to watch. His interaction with the symphony (particularly the cellists) was so gracious and will long be remembered.

We enjoyed meeting the winners of the Silver Prize who were also from Winston-Salem and they shared our enthusiasm for the excellent performance. We all agreed that this was an experience of a life time.

The stay at the Dunhill was most enjoyable and fulfilled a wish that my daughter has had for many years to stay there for a night. We were well cared for and found everyone to be very obliging and helpful. We even had brief contact with Yo-Yo Ma!

Many, many thanks to WDAV for this incredible opportunity. WDAV has been a significant feature in my life for 24 years at home, in the car and in the office and I would like you to know how appreciative and grateful I am that the Charlotte area is blessed with such a wonderful and heart warming radio station. Keep up the good work!

Sincerely,
WDAV Member

Washington Times Features WDAV

Mark A. Kellner, Technology Writer for The Washington Times, posted a reviewon November 25, 2009 of the Sonos ZonePlayer, a wireless internet music system. And what long-distance classical music station did Mr. Kellner tune to when he tested this new music gadget? WDAV, naturally!

Minutes before the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys were to square off Sunday, the strains of Frederic Chopin’s “Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise for Piano & Orchestra” drifted through the house. Then came the “Gavotta” from Igor Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella,” with clarinets and oboes in delightful harmony. Then Mozart’s “Haffner” symphony.

The game would have to wait.

The music was being played by WDAV-FM, a radio station about 428 miles south of my home. I could have listened via Apple’s iTunes and the built-in speakers of the 24-inch iMac I’ve been using, or perhaps the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, where WDAV-FM is one of my presets. Instead, I was using the Sonos ZonePlayer S5, described here a few weeks back as a portable, wireless music system that is, essentially, idiot proof.

North Carolina Station Prepares Spanish Classical Music Station

Here’s the English translation of an article that appeared in Yahoo News, produced by the EFE News Agency.

November 10, 2009

Charlotte, NC: Next year a FM radio station in North Carolina will launch the first classical music station in Spanish in the country, reported its promoters today.

Under the name “Concierto,” the station will be broadcast on one of WDAV-FM’s (89.9) high definition or HD channels. The English classical music station operates from Davidson College, located 15 miles from Charlotte, the state’s largest city.

The HD digital radio service requires a special tuner to receive the signal. It allows stations to offer specialized channels.

It will also be transmitted through the Internet via www.concierto.org.

According to Benjamin Roe, general manager of WDAV, the classical music programming will be heard in North America and around the world. It will be presented in Spanish by professionals who are expert in the material with knowledge of Hispanic culture.

“We have qualified, bilingual staff, adequate facilities, the support of an educational institution, and we are in one of the states with the largest growth in the Hispanic community in the nation,” Roe said today.

“Concierto” programming will include a repertory of classical music which was created by Latino composers and performers in an educational style and tone.

Roe, who worked for twenty years in National Public Radio, added that he is working to raise the $250,000 needed to operate the first year from donors, organizations and other sources.

“We want to offer a new audience something different so they will feel comfortable listening to classical music programming in the Spanish language. You have to start somewhere, and that’s what we are doing,” said Frank Dominguez, programming director with experience in the public broadcasting industry.

Roe hopes that once the station is on the air it will reach other markets with high concentrations of Hispanics through syndication.

Once the necessary funds are raised for the operation, “Concierto” is expected to begin broadcasting in April, 2010.

Classical music station may get Spanish channel

By Mark Washburn
mwashburn@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Saturday, November 7, 2009

Charlotte’s classical-music station, Davidson College’s WDAV-FM (89.9), is looking at adding a Spanish channel.

Called “Concierto,” it would be broadcast on one of WDAV’s HD radio channels and streamed on the Web. HD radio is a digital broadcasting service that requires a special tuner to pick up and enables radio stations to offer extra specialty channels.

“Concierto’s” programming would focus on Spanish composers and performers. Ben Roe, WDAV’s general manager, says that none of the three dozen classical stations in the nation offers such a service.

WDAV already has three staffers fluent in Spanish: announcers Myelita Melton, Lauren Rico and program director Frank Dominguez.

“We have some tremendous assets in-house that other stations would have a hard time duplicating,” says Roe, who joined the station in 2008 after a 20-year career at National Public Radio, where he was director of music and music initiatives.

Roe says he doesn’t know how big the Charlotte market would be for such a channel, but is eager to see how it would do.

“In all the years I’ve worked at NPR and in national arenas, everyone has always talked about launching a service to reach the Latin audience but nobody has done much about it … There’s a huge upside and the risk is relatively minimal.”

Symphony players take pay cut

The renegotiated contract will save the orchestra $700,000 this season; base pay shrinks more than 19%.

By Steven Brown
sbrown@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Saturday, Sep. 05, 2009

For the second time in two years, the Charlotte Symphony’s musicians have taken a pay cut meant to help fight the orchestra’s financial crisis.

The players will give up more than 19 percent of this year’s pay in a renegotiated contract they ratified Thursday and the orchestra’s board approved Friday. They sacrifice five weeks of work this season and accept a cut in weekly pay.

The revised contract will save the orchestra about $700,000 this season, said Jonathan Martin, orchestra executive director.

“The musicians have again agreed to be a partner in restoring the financial integrity of the symphony,” Martin said Friday.

When the orchestra goes back to work next week after its summer hiatus, the players’ base pay will be $975 a week rather than $1,050. Through June, they’ll work 33 weeks rather than 38.

In agreeing to the cut, the players were being “very realistic,” said violinist Elizabeth Pistolesi, chair of the players’ negotiating committee. “It’s in everybody’s best interest to survive as an organization.”

Meanwhile, over in Satellite Radio land…

Remember how concerned everyone in the public radio industry was about the threat of satellite radio? Particularly those of us purveying “niche” formats (e.g., folk, jazz, classical) whose audiences would be siphoned off by larger better-funded competition?

Well. Today’s Digital Music News reports that the now-combined Sirius XM radio has just reported its second consecutive quarterly drop in subscribers - the first declines in satellite radio history. Leaving the entire viability of the business in some jeopardy. Here’s the headline:

What happens when disposable incomes shrink substantially? The early learning is that premium access models take a hit, while ‘essentials’ like internet and mobile access are maintained. In the case of Sirius XM Radio, that is a serious problem given the large number of lower-cost or free alternatives. A seriously-bruised automobile industry is also dragging the total, especially for such a dashboard-intensive format.

Back to BKR: To be sure, WDAV – and all public media stations – face competition from all sides. But as I’ve opined before I don’t think satellite radio will ever be a serious threat. In fact, the recent layoffs as a result of the Sirius-XM merger included many of personnel involved in those “niche” format programming. The business may muddle through, but I’m skeptical that it will ever be a dominant force in the radio business.

Read the entire article here.

WDAV STAFF APPOINTMENTS

Following is an e-mail to WDAV staff sent earlier today announcing our two latest hires! – bkr.

———–

Friends: I’m very pleased to announce two new additions to the WDAV staff.

If you’ve visited the www.wdav.org website recently, you’ve probably already noticed the audio and video production work of Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr, WDAV’s first-ever (and possibly the first for a classical-music station) Multi-Media Producer. Jeffrey (whose last name is pronounced “Frime ‘n’ Wire”) comes to WDAV after 13 years at National Public Radio, where he served as an producer and editor for such programs as Performance Today, Morning Edition, and the new NPRMusic.org website. Jeff is a film-scoring graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston and attended Haverford College as well as the University of Michigan’s famed School of Music, from which he holds a Bachelor of Music degree.

Quite simply, Jeffrey is one of the most talented and innovative audio producers I have ever known. He was the driving force behind NPR’s Milestones of the Millennium – a two-year series of weekly documentaries that created “a picture in sound” of the pivotal events, places, movements, artists and musical works of the past 1000 years. Jeffrey is married to novelist Garret Freymann-Weyr, (in her own words, “the author of five Young Adult novels, one picture book, and one mercifully out-of-print novel for grown-ups.”) Jeffrey and Garret will be relocating to Davidson from their home in Washington, DC.

I am equally delighted to announce that we can now remove the “Interim” title from WDAV’s new Director of Marketing and Communications Lisa V. Gray. Lisa is a Davidson-based internet marketing consultant who launched her own practice two years ago to help area entrepreneurs and nonprofits integrate online tools with traditional marketing efforts. She has been active in the Charlotte arts community for 16 years, serving in executive positions with such organizations as Charlotte Trolley, Inc. and the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. She has acted as WDAV’s interim director of marketing since August 2008 and is responsible for planning and executing WDAV’s comprehensive marketing and public relations strategy through traditional- and new-media methods, including the complete “makeover” of WDAV’s popular – and now weekly – eNewsletter.

In the course of her interim work Lisa has impressed the entire WDAV staff with her creativity, impeccable writing skills, depth of marketing knowledge and positive outreach to the media and the larger arts community. And, it should be added, one of the sunniest dispositions on the planet and a remarkable sense of grace under the severest pressure her demanding boss can muster!

Given their backgrounds and their new job responsibilities, I feel that both Jeffrey and Lisa’s appointments will further strengthen WDAV’s march into the digital future, and our use of multi-media to engage new listeners. Please join me in welcoming both Lisa and Jeffrey to the Davidson community.

–
benjamin k roe | general manager
wdav89.9 | CLASSICAL PUBLIC RADIO
beroe@wdav.org | www.wdav.org
704.894.2989 o | 202.834.4116 c
box 8990 | 423 N. Main Street
Davidson, NC 28035-8990

a member supported service of Davidson College

You’re now approaching Paris, Texas

The Charlotte Symphony Orchestra is at a fork in the road. Where it turns is up to you.

By Lawrence Toppman
ltoppman@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Sunday, Jun. 21, 2009

My favorite cartoon shows a landscape that’s barren except for a bottle, a can, a tire, a pencil and a few pebbles. The caption reads “Life Without Mozart.”

I could substitute Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, Edith Piaf, the Beatles or Frank Sinatra, all of whom would accompany me to that mysterious desert island that always has electricity and a CD player.

The difference is, those artists were expected to support themselves financially. People who play Mozart are not.

A 60-piece symphony orchestra will always need corporate and taxpayer support. Not sometimes, always. Ticket prices would otherwise have to be jacked up so high virtually no one could afford them.

So the question this city should be asking itself, as the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra struggles to recover from its financial dilemma, is this: Do we need an orchestra at all?

On a literal level, no.

Cutbacks are front and center for arts groups

37% drop in ASC fund drive likely means reductions in jobs, performances – or worse

By Steven Brown
sbrown@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, May. 18, 2009

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/730644.html

Charlotte Symphony’s last concerts of the season, energized by jazzy music, revved up the audience and surpassed the box office goal.

Yet the orchestra and Charlotte’s other cultural groups are caught in the same recession as everyone else.

Just as social services will suffer because of a plunge in the United Way’s fund drive, cultural organizations face cuts from the Arts & Science Council beginning July 1. The ASC’s 2009 campaign brought in 37 percent less than the year before: $7 million compared with $11.2 million.

So, Charlotte nonprofits are in the same situation, whether they help the homeless or play Beethoven.

“Never before has the sustainability of that work been challenged as it is with this economic crisis,” said Michael Marsicano, president of Foundation for the Carolinas. (View a list of facilities funded by the ASC.)

WDAV to air more local flair

From the May 16, 2009 edition of The Charlotte Observer
By Mark Washburn

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/413/story/726682.html

Stations looking to cut costs are turning increasingly toward syndicated shows.

But WDAV-FM (89.9), the classical music voice of Davidson College, is turning the other way.

Beginning July 1, WDAV will drop its overnight service “Music Through the Night,” which originates from Minnesota Public Radio, and produce its own nocturnal program.

WDAV’s Ted Weiner will host the weeknights and Lauren Rico will do weekends on “The Early Shift,” bringing WDAV to 140 hours of locally originated programming weekly, or 80 percent of its schedule. That will represent an increase of 60 percent over last year.

“We’re living in a world where we need to build a bigger brand,” says Benjamin Roe, who took over as the station’s general manager last year.

“A big part of what we do in classical radio is provide you with your comfort food. We work hard to have consistent, strong voices.”

Next week, WDAV will launch a 17-day music series from the Spoleto Festival in a new partnership with South Carolina’s public radio network ETV. Beginning Friday, WDAV’s midday host, Jennifer Foster, will broadcast daily from the College of Charleston with commentary from ETV’s Marcus Overton and NPR’s Miles Hoffman.

WDAV is also planning broadcasts this summer from two of the region’s other major music festivals: the Brevard Music Center and Greensboro-based Eastern Music Festival.

And this fall, WDAV is looking at adding channels for listeners with digital, or HD, radios. It is taking delivery this month of digital equipment that would add two digital channels at its Huntersville transmitter off N.C. 115.

Roe says programming for the additional channels hasn’t been settled, but he’s leaning against merely airing other public radio sources.

“I don’t see where picking up ‘JazzWorks’ or another syndicated service is going to give people much of a reason to pick up HD,” Roe says. He’s focusing more intently on how the additional channels can bolster the station’s presence on the Web, where WDAV’s broadcasts are simulcast.