DC Gentrification Displaces Bluegrass Music Radio

WAMU, the Washington public radio station owned by American University, has broadcast Bluegrass music since 1967, but that will end on New Year’s Eve 2017. On Thursday afternoon the NPR affiliate announced it will stop over-the-air broadcasts of the “High Lonesome Sound” and seek a buyer for its online music service Bluegrass Country due to “tremendous demographic shifts” in the Washington DC area.

“From 1967 through the 70s and 80s, generous support from the bluegrass community allowed WAMU to expand. Today, WAMU’s Bluegrass Country is a 24/7 bluegrass music service broadcasting at 105.5 FM, HD on 88.5-2, and streaming on http://bluegrasscountry.org . Bluegrass Country’s social media includes a YouTube channel with over 4.4 million views.”

— “WAMU Seeks New Owner for Bluegrass Country,” WAMU website (links added)

Hey buddy, want to buy a radio station? Look here. If nobody buys Bluegrass Country by the end of December, the service will close, so listen while you can, right here (click on “listen live”).

More:

“WAMU Will Sell or Close Its Bluegrass Station,” Andrew Beaujon, Washingtonian

“Bluegrass Country seeks new owners,” John Lawless, Bluegrass Today

Related:

“Washington D.C., The Bluegrass Capitol – The Story of Bluegrass in Washington, DC,” a film by G.T. Keplinger [24:27]

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NPR Demographics

“As NPR came of age in the 1980s, its audience matured with it. Three decades later, that is starting to look like a problem.

Many of the listeners who grew up with NPR are now reaching retirement age, leaving NPR with a challenge: How can it attract younger and middle-aged audiences — whose numbers are shrinking — to replace them?”

— “NPR is graying, and public radio is worried about it,” Paul Farhi, Washington Post

“Though NPR is seeing some listening gains on digital platforms, particularly with podcasts, its broadcast audience has dropped. Average–quarter-hour (AQH) listening during morning drive time has dropped 11 percent in the past five years, and afternoon drive audience has declined 6 percent. The only age bracket that has increased listening to NPR stations is the 65-plus audience.”

— “Drop in younger listeners makes dent in NPR news audience,” Tyler Falk, Current

More:

“Who Isn’t Listening to Public Radio,” Justin Fox, Bloomberg View

“WNYC is leading public radio’s transition to public podcasting,” Jack Murtha, Columbia Journalism Review

“Why I Left NPR,” Stephen Henn, Medium

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Image (“NPR Demographics, after Norman Rockwell”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Tom Magliozzi, 1937 — 2014

Tom Magliozzi, co-host of NPR’s “Car Talk” brother act, died on Monday at the age of 77. Besides joking and giving car repair advice, he and brother Ray ran a garage and a self-help car repair facility in Cambridge MRA, their hometown. A graduate of MIT, Tom also taught, worked in industry, and played bass in a Bluegrass band.

Tom and Ray Magliozzi put their weekly Car Talk radio program up on blocks in September 2012, and NPR has been recycling the good parts each week since then. The program ran for 10 years as a local feature on Boston’s WBUR-FM before being picked up by NPR stations nationwide 27 years ago.

Tom and Ray received a Peabody Award in 1992 and have been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. More importantly, they have been honored by the Martin Guitar Company with a special edition Click and Clack Martin Guitar (great muffler inlay on the fifth fret).

Car Talk Will Be Towed to the Junkyard

Tom and Ray Magliozzi will put their weekly Car Talk radio program up on blocks in September. The program ran for 10 years as a local feature on Boston’s WBUR-FM before being picked up by NPR stations nationwide 25 years ago. Tom Magliozzi is turning 75 this year and, according to his brother Ray, has decided that even one hour’s work a week is too much.

“Car Guys” Tom and Ray received a Peabody Award in 1992 and have been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame. More importantly, they have been honored by the Martin Guitar Company with a special edition Click and Clack Martin Guitar (great muffler inlay on the fifth fret).

Car Talk’s drive train may be shot but, like any old beater, it’s still got some decent parts. The show’s archivist and editors will bolt them together and test drive them on public radio starting in October.

NPR Sells Web Services to Stations

National Public Radio execs are on a road trip to demo web services to the network’s 268 affiliated U.S. radio stations. The roadshow is also an effort to calm stations upset by earlier indications that purchase of expensive digital services would be required of all affiliates. NPR recently bought the Public Interactive web services company from Public Radio International.

Proof Radio No Longer Matters

Proof radio no longer matters: Congress finally passed the Community Radio Act authorizing broadcasting by more low power FM (LPFM) nonprofit stations. After a decade of stalling it by making proponents jump through hoops, the broadcast lobby now applauds the act’s passage. Broadcasters and publishers are simply too busy working the hyper-local Web and cell phone angles, and figure no one listens to radio if they aren’t driving anyway. Even community radio blogs seem more concerned with Net Neutrality than this long-running radio issue.

Juan Time Too Many

Until he was fired yesterday, Juan Williams was a News Analyst on NPR (formerly National Public Radio). Before that, he was an NPR News Correspondent, a reporting position. For the past few years, Mr. Williams has also held a second job as a Fox News commentator. His statements there are more unconstrained, more about opinion than reportage of fact.

We don’t know if Fox commentators have a code of ethics, but NPR journalists do, and it specifically instructs them to avoid public appearances in situations that “encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis.” When Mr. Williams crossed that line before, in 2009, he admitted it. He had done it the previous year, too, and NPR responded by changing his job duties from “Correspondent” to “Analyst.” NPR also asked Fox to stop identifying Juan Williams as “NPR Political Analyst” on their telecasts.

NPR. It stands for … NPR.

National Public Radio has announced it will now be known as NPR. The Public broadcaster joins other image-conscious nonprofits in adopting a self-referential abbreviation, chief among them AARP. “Radio” sounds so old-fashioned, just like “Colored People” and “Retired People.” The “just-call-us-NPR” network is trying to emphasize its sizeable mobile, podcast, and web presence because the NPR radio audience largely comprises … retired people.

Anthropologists in Afghanistan

The U.S. Army’s Human Terrain System (HTS) program surfaced on Bob Edwards’ radio program this weekend. The HTS sends anthropologists to Afghanistan in order to minimize cultural misunderstandings between the U.S. military and Afghanis. Three social scientists have died in the effort.

While it sounds noble and straightforward, the program is controversial within academia for ethical reasons, and questions have been raised concerning the capabilities of the HTS leadership. 

The Marines also utilize HTS scientists, and there is a film about the program.  Vanessa M. Gezari  reported on the Human Terrain System last summer (more here).

 

Image by Mike Licht.

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Start Celebrating Early in DC!

Washingtonians: Want to really declare your independence? Start celebrating Independence Day tonight, July 3rd at 9 PM.  Tune your radio toWAMU-FM 88.5 and listen to a special Independence Day edition of American Routes with Ponderosa Stomp, the Del McCoury Band, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. It’s not the same old Sousa.

The program features portions of live concerts from New Orleans’ French Quarter. The Ponderosa Stomp is dedicated to the “unsung heroes of rock ‘n’ roll” and their rockabilly, soul, country and R&B classics. Then the Del McCoury Band cooks up hot Bluegrass in Preservation Hall, mother church of hot jazz, along with the resident masters, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.  Program details here.

Declare your independence from HD radio, too. Tonight’s broadcast is on “real radio,” WAMU-FM’s main frequency, 88.5, not WAMU’s HD2 channel, where show is usually heard in Washington (Saturdays 8 PM-10 PM).  If you  are among the millions in the Washington area without an HD radio, this is a rare chance to hear American Routes on something that sounds better than your laptop.