WGBH buys WCRB
This is probably only of local interest, but …
The state of classical music radio has been going downhill in Boston in recent years. We used to have a number of good choices. WBOQ gave up and switched to oldies in 2003. WHRB at Harvard still plays some classical (notably the orgies during finals), but it has really been down to WCRB and WGBH in recent years. That wasn’t a bad pair. WCRB was commercial, but played classical 24 hours a day. WGBH was public and did news and jazz, but when they did classical, it tended to be more diverse than WCRB (esp. back when Robert J was there). It seemed like a stable situation, because WGBH was one of the more successful public stations and Ted Jones had locked up WCRB in a trust that would keep it doing classical for 100 years.
Then a couple of years ago (after Jones died) the owners hired some lawyers, broke the trust, and sold the station. They sold it to a company from New Jersey who switched the big transmitter over to a country and western station they owned and moved the classical music to a dinky little transmitter in Lowell that is very hard to pick up in most of the Boston area. The handwriting was on the wall at that point.
Today they announced that WGBH was buying WCRB. This means that they’re going to eliminate classical music on WGBH and only have it on WCRB. So much for choices.
Oh well, I guess it’s time to load up the iPod and turn the radio off.