KBYU-FM NEEDS TO STOP "STICK AROUND" OF MARK WAIT

Please, Mark Wait!  No more "stick around" when you want listeners of KBYU-FM to stay with you during breaks.

You may talk this way with your buddies or at home.  But "stick around" is not acceptable on air when talking to listeners of classical music.

Have some class.  "Stick around" is not appropriate when you address sophisticated listeners to classical music.

Where is KBYU's management on this?  Why haven't Eric Glissmeyer and Marcus Smith already put an end to this inappropriate expression.

NO BBC NEWS TONIGHT AT SIX: WHY CAN'T KBYU-FM GIVE ADVANCE WARNING?

Tonight KBYU-FM once again preempted BBC News for a special Carnegie Hall Live broadcast.  I think Carnegie Hall Live is a good program but why is it necessary to do away with KBYU's broadcast of BBC News at six?  Why can't KBYU's managers, Eric Glissmeyer and Marcus Smith, give advance warning to listeners that KBYU will not be airing BBC News at various times?

Moreover, why can't we have both?  Why can't Carnegie  Hall Live start at 6:06 when BBC News finishes?  And the same goes for Highway 89, a production of KBYU.  KBYU's managers surely knew that Highway 89 would preempt BBC News.  But why must it?  There is no cogent reason why Highway 89 can't begin at 6:06 on Saturday evenings.

It seems that KBYU-FM preempts BBC News every chance it gets.  Do Eric Glissmeyer and Marcus Smith believe BBC News somehow is not appropriate for KBYU's listeners?

If so, Glissmeyer and Smith are wrong and overly parochial.  Instead of cutting BBC News, I suggest they axe local news on weekday mornings and afternoons.  KBYU as Classical 89 surely does not need to broadcast robberies, murders, police actions, and other inappropriate news stories.

REAL PURPOSE OF KBYU-FM'S FUND DRIVES

A week ago, I read an obituary for Herbert Brelin in The New York Times.  Breslin was business manager for Luciano Pavarotti, and wrote a book on his sometimes-stormy relationship with the great tenor.

Daniel Wakin describes Breslin's business philosophy in dealing with Pavarotti and other classical singers:

"He put his philosophy this way: “Marketing an artist is basically like marketing a bar of soap,” adding that publicity is a waste “if it doesn’t mean higher fees, if it doesn’t mean more money in your pocket.” At its bottom, he said, classical music is a business. “Everyone is in it for the money,” he said."       

I thought of this rough realism in connection with KBYU-FM's frequent over-the-air fund drives.  Of course KBYU's managers, such as Marcus Smith and Eric Glissmeyer, would like listeners to believe that contributing monies to KBYU is the highest and purest form of altruism possible.  What could be more demonstrative of a listener's love of classical music than giving cash to KBYU? 

But Breslin's words ring true, no matter what KBYU's Marcus Smith would like everyone to believe.  KBYU is just in it for the money.  Classical music is just the bait.

STOP FUND RAISING ON AIR AT KBYU-FM UNTIL PUBLIC RECEIVES FULL FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

KBYU-FM, owned and operated by Brigham Young University, is plodding along this whole week with another tedious fund drive.  Marcus Smith, general manager of BYU broadcasting, is even taking duties at the mike to spur on listeners to send in those checks and pledges.

Hey, Marcus, when was the last fund drive?  One year ago, six months ago?  No, of course not.  The last drive was less than three months ago in February 2012.  See my post here complaining of the drive back then.

First. There are too many fund drives on KBYU-FM, at least four times a year, sometimes more, each for a whole week.  Second.  KBYU is quick to ask listeners over public airwaves for monies, but it stonewalls when it comes to making full disclosure of its finances.

What happens to all the listener donations?  Does any of it go to management salaries or other perks?  No one outside of KBYU knows.

So I say, stop all fund raising at KBYU on air until Marcus Smith and station manager Eric Glissmeyer make full disclosure of all income, expenses, amounts paid for salaries, pensions and perks.

KBYU-FM CONDUCTS ANOTHER FUND DRIVE, YET STILL NO FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE

KBYU-FM is conducting yet another fund drive this week over public airwaves.  It calls this one its "Spring Drive."

Yet KBYU and its management, Marcus Smith and Eric Glissmeyer, still refuse to divulge KBYU's finances, including how much it takes in from donors and contributors, and how much it spends on management salaries and perks.

Until KBYU and Smith and Glissmeyer come clean with KBYU's financial position, KBYU should cease and desist from any  fund drives.  The public has a right to know what a "public" radio station does with its finances.

BACH'S ST. JOHN PASSION - WHEN WILL IT END?

Today, KBYU-FM aired Carnegie Hall Live's production of Bach's St. John Passion.

Listening to this "sacred" work, I had the same feeling when I was a boy at Sunday Mass and the choir insisted on singing some 12-stanza hymn which just went on and on.  What would be fine in five minutes becomes tedious and boring at 15.  The St. John Passion takes over two-and-a-half hours.   Boring and tedious, it was!  Perhaps Bach was paid commensurate with the length of the piece commissioned.  The longer the work, the more the stipend!

It was interesting to see that KBYU cancelled Music and The Spoken Word at its normal time to allow for the Bach work.  Wow!  Someone high up in the LDS Church must consider the St. John Passion, even though sung in German, religiously significant and as important as its live-from-Salt Lake City regular Sunday morning program.

STOP FUND DRIVES ON KCPW-FM TILL PUBLIC RECEIVES TIMELY FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES

KCPW-FM is engaged in another fund drive over public airwaves.  It seems like KCPW has its announcers and volunteers ask for money and pledges every three minutes if not more frequently.

I object to "public" stations using public airwaves to solicit monies.  But I especially object to KCPW doing it.  Why?  Because Wasatch Public Media and its president, Ed Sweeney, who purchased KCPW several years ago thanks to donations by listeners, fail to make timely disclosure of the station's financials.

IRS requires KCPW to publicly disclose its Form 990 every year.  But KCPW seemingly drags this out for as long as possible. An example.  For KCPW's tax year ending June 30, 2011, a date almost nine months ago, the public still has no information about KCPW's financial results.  See KPCW's last disclosure on its web page.  It is for tax year ending June 30, 2010.

Why does KCPW drag out release of its financial statements, sometimes for up to a year after its fiscal-year end?  A suspicious mind might get the impression that KCPW's management really does not want the public to see what KCPW does with its money, or how much it pays Ed Sweeney or other management personnel.

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"?