ROSIE STEVENSON OF KBYU-FM - OUTSTANDING CLASSICAL ANNOUNCER OF 2012

I would like to nominate Rosie Stevenson of KBYU-FM as Outstanding Classical Music Announcer of 2012.

It's not often that I can unreservedly praise a classical music announcer.  Some I find provincial and banal in their comments and seemingly disinterested in classical music, like Mark Wait, also on KBYU.  Others I fault for their pronunciation and sloppy diction, like Fred Child of Performance Today who thinks "live from Lincoln Cener" is acceptable.

But with Rosie Stevenson, aficionados of classical music have someone who has an encyclopedic knowledge and familiarity with the classical genre;  someone whose life experience has touched on many contemporary musicians and composers;  someone whose comments about classical music are always insightful and meaningful.

In thinking about nominating Rosie Stevenson, I considered other classical announcers who also do a wonderful job.  I think of Jim Cunningham of WQED, the voice of the Pittsburgh Symphony Radio.  Also Carl Grapentine and Kerry Frumkin of WFMT in Chicago come to mind.  But apart from these, Rosie Stevenson has little competition as the outstanding classical announcer currently on American radio.

KBYU-FM'S JOB REQUIREMENTS FOR CLASSICAL ANNOUNCERS - HOW DID IT EVER HIRE MARK WAIT?

KBYU-FM announces that it is looking for a part-time classical music host and announcer.  It requires  that a successful candidate have public speaking skills as well as a pleasing personality.

"This position falls squarely in the realm of artistic talent and public performance. Credibility before a broadcast audience hinges on strong public speaking skills and a developed, respectable rhetorical style and interpersonal persuasive ability. . .

"The poise, composure, and confidence of a polished actor or public speaker are essential. . .

"An excellent, aesthetically pleasing radio voice is of course essential."

What I want to know is, given these lofty requirements, how did KBYU ever bring itself to hire Mark Wait?

Mark Wait loves to talk about anything that makes him look authoritative and superior.  For example, I receive the impression that he often tries to catch and surprise people that he has on as guests, especially if they are younger than he is, and make them look bad, so that Mark Wait looks witty and superior.  One time, he asked a young married female guest, "when are you going to have children?"  I deemed that offensive to the guest's privacy and inappropriate.  His inability to interview guests and accord them what I consider due respect shows little in interpersonal ability.  At least that is my impression.

Furthermore, when it comes to classical music, Wait seems to be out of his league.  Has he ever made any relevant comment about classical music repertory?  I don't think so.  All he seems to want to do is talk about inane and insipid news stories, such as discovery of 500 additional fairy tales, or movies or cartoons that he has seen, or about his own personal experiences, such as meeting his missionary son to escort him back to Utah, all of which to me are frankly boring and quite out-of-place for a classical music station.

WOULD WE LIKE MUSIC IN "YELLOWSTONE: CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA" JUST AS MUCH IF CALLED "NEW JERSEY LANDFILL CONCERTO"?

KBYU-FM aired Jeff Hitt's "Yellowstone: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra" today on Friday Favorites.  When I first heard the piece, I was taken by its lyricism and melody, which I wrote about in this blog.  See link here.

But today, hearing the work for a second time, it struck me that perhaps Yellowstone 's popular appeal comes as much from visions conjured up by its name as from its musical composition.

So I pose this question.  How much would we like Jeff Hitt's work if he had called it "New Jersey Landfill Concerto"?

KCPW-FM GOES SILENT ON BBC RADIO NEWS LAST NIGHT FROM 9PM ON

What happened to BBC Radio News on KCPW-FM last night?  From 9 PM, no signal, just dead air.

My guess is that someone was asleep at the switch, maybe not literally but close to it.  Who was the KCPW announcer who signed off last night at 8:59 PM.  Why did he or she not wait around to make sure that KCPW was broadcasting BBC at 9:01?

KBYU-FM SHOULD ALERT LISTENERS WHEN IT PRE-EMPTS BBC NEWS

No BBC Radio News on KBYU-FM tonight at six o'clock.

Why can't management at KBYU, owned and operated by Brigham Young University, give adequate notice to listeners when it peremptorily and dictatorially cancels the broadcast of BBC News?  Surely Eric Glissmeyer, program supervisor, and Marcus Smith, general manager, knew about by-passing BBC News tonight days if not weeks in advance.  Why did they not instruct KBYU's announcers to note the coming omission of BBC News and warn listeners?

It would be another matter if KBYU were to cancel "Music and the Spoken Word," an LDS religious program on Sunday mornings.  Then, I am sure, Smith and Glissmeyer would have done everything in their power to warn listeners ahead of time.  Why?  Because otherwise they would have taken lots of criticism from LDS Church authorities.

KUED-TV AND KBYU-TV CONTINUE SECOND WHOLE WEEK OF PLEDGE DRIVES

Fund drives at two of Utah's public TV stations have now entered their second week.  I talk about KBYU-TV, owned and operated by Brigham Young University, and KUED-TV, owned and operated by the University of Utah, a state school.

Imagine!  At four or more fund drives per year, that means that a full eight weeks are devoted to pitches to viewers for pledges and donations!

And yet, KBYU makes no financial disclosures whatsoever of its finances, or what it does with pledges/donations received.  KUED does make public its annual balance sheet and income statement, but even here, more transparency is needed when it comes to salaries, perks, travel expenses and bonuses especially for management.

There must be a better system than these perpetual and disruptive fund drives.

I SWITCH FROM KBYU-FM TO KUER-FM TO HEAR BBC RADIO NEWS AT 3 PM

If you listen to classical music on KBYU-FM in the afternoon, ever notice how announcer Mark Wait runs right through three o'clock by starting a piece at about 2:55 and running until 3:05 or 3:10?

This seems like a transparent attempt to keep listeners from switching to KUER-FM to hear BBC Radio News.

If you are like me, you will want to get the latest in solid international news, notwitstanding Mark Wait's attempts.  So be aware that you can hear BBC News at both 3:01 PM and 3:31 PM on KUER, FM 90.

KBYU-FM FAILS ITS OBLIGATION TO BE CULTURAL LEADER AND EDUCATOR IN ITS CLASSICAL BROADCASTS

Anthony Tommasini writes in The New York Times on March 4, 2012, about Alan Gilbert, music director of the New York Philharmonic, seeming to play it safe as far as programming for the 2012-2013 season.

Writes Tommasini:

"Ideally, being the music director of a major symphony orchestra involves more than planning seasons and conducting concerts: it offers a chance to be a cultural leader and educator. Alan Gilbert’s predecessor at the New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, showed scant interest in those aspects of the job. Since arriving in 2009 Mr. Gilbert has embraced them."

But Tommasini has complaints about Gilbert's programming for the upcoming season.  He is disappointed:

"Too many programs plug new works or novelties into unremarkable groupings of standard repertory. In a special concert at Carnegie Hall, for example, Renée Fleming will sing the premiere of a song cycle by the Swedish composer Anders Hillborg. But two overperformed staples frame the new piece: Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome” (which Mr. Gilbert will already have conducted in an unadventurous fall gala to be televised on PBS) and the Mussorgsky-Ravel “Pictures at an Exhibition” (which he recently conducted with the Philharmonic)."

According to Tommasini, Gilbert has a chance to be "a cultural leader and educator," but seems to choose to water down his influence in the next season by scheduling run-of-the-mill classical war horses.

In reading this critique, I feel the same about the music programmed on KBYU-FM.  Too much of it is the tired old repertory scheduled, I think, only for the purpose of hooking new listeners to classical music so that there will large reservoirs to tap at fund-raising times.

But where is KBYU-FM as a cultural leader and educator?  What has KBYU done to publicize contemporary composers of classical music  -   those composers writing since 1960?  A listener will find very few of them aired on KBYU.

And why has KBYU not devoted an hour a week to new classical music?  Why the fear and the aversion?  Instead the station under Marcus Smith and Eric Glissmeyer puts on a new program on Saturday evenings at six featuring music from the cinema.  Another example of disregarding the role of being a cultural leader and educator and choosing the least common denominator instead.

COULD ANY FEMALE STUDENT AT BYU EVER AGAIN VOTE REPUBLICAN?

I follow the doings and policies of KBYU-FM a lot in this blog.  KBYU-FM is wholly owned by Brigham Young University, and that brings up some thoughts not quite on the subject of public radio stations like KBYU.

I think rather of the storm ensuing after Rush Limbaugh recently called a female law student sexual names after she mounted opposition to Republican plans to carve out exceptions to mandatory insurance coverage for contraceptives.

When he calls Sandra Fluke a prostitute and a slut, Limbaugh shows not only how he feels about women who disagree with him, but he also exposes the disdain that some Republicans, especially some Republican men, have towards intelligent independent women. 

More germane to academic institutions like BYU, a great and prestigious university, how could any BYU female student or any BYU female professor vote Republican?  Limbaugh tried to trash Sandra Fluke in the meanest possible way, attacking her in sexual terms, all because she disagreed with him about contraceptives.  Imagine if the underlying rule, attack someone personally if he or she disagrees with you, was the modus operandi at BYU or any other university?!

It is clear that Rush Limbaugh functions as mouthpiece and spokesman for many Republican legislators if not for the Republican Party itself.  After what Rush Limbaugh said, how could any woman in the United States possibly vote Republican?  A vote for Republicans is an approbation of Rush Limbaugh and his vile attitude towards women. 

STOP PUBLIC TV STATIONS ENGAGING IN FUND RAISING OVER THE AIR!

Both public TV stations broadcasting to Salt Lake City and Utah have begun another round of fund-raising last night.  The awful part of it is that both KUED-TV and KBYU-TV carry on this outrage for the next two weeks.  Two whole weeks!

I am sick of the likes of Wayne Dyer, the Irish Dancers, the Four Tenors, lectures on personal finance such as those of Susie Ormann, and sessions on good nutrition conducted by physicians who have written diet books.

There must be a better way for public television to finance itself than disrupting normal schedules for two whole weeks and substituting continuous pleas to viewers to send in checks and/or pledges.