UPDATED September 9, 2011 — We’re shaking up the weekends on WDAV, starting September 1st! New hosts, new times, new days — update your listening calendar here!
Fridays
7-9 p.m. Carolina Live – Our popular co-production with South Carolina Public Radio moves to Friday nights!
Saturdays
12 mid.-5 a.m. The Early Shift with Lauren Rico
5-7 a.m. The Morning Air with Lauren Rico – we add two more hours of Lauren Rico on Saturdays and Sundays!
7 a.m. -12 noon Classical Music with Mike McKay
8:06 a.m. – Classics for Kids
12 noon-3 p.m. Classical Music with Sam Van Hallgren
3-6 p.m. Classical Music with Candice Agree – New York City radio veteran Candice Agree takes on a WDAV slot of her own.
6-10 p.m. NPR World of Opera
10 p.m. – 12 mid. Concierto
Sundays
12 mid.-5 a.m. The Early Shift with Lauren Rico
5-7 a.m. The Morning Air with Lauren Rico – we add two more hours of Lauren Rico on Saturdays and Sundays!
7-11 a.m. Biscuits and Bach
11 a.m. – Noon Davidson College Presbyterian Church Service
Noon-3 p.m. Classical Music with Myelita Melton – Long-time WDAV staffer Myelita Melton takes over Sunday afternoon music hosting duties.
3-5 p.m. Classical Music with Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr – Jeffrey’s Sunday afternoon spot now shifts from 3 to 5 PM.
5-6 p.m. From the Top – It’s a new day and time for this NPR show that celebrates the energy of America’s kids and the power of classical music!
6-7 p.m. Choral Showcase – same day and time, new personnel! Former WDAV Program Director (and Davidson musician) Theresa Woody takes over as producer and host of Choral Showcase.
7-8 p.m. Pipedreams – same start time but one hour now instead of two.
8 p.m. – 12 mid. Sunday Evening with Tom Burge – CSO trombonist Tom Burge picks up another hour on Sunday evenings, sharing his musical favorites with trademark Aussie charm.
I love the changes! Saturday and Sunday mornings are perfect for listening to classical music with no talking. I never liked the From the Top program on Saturday mornings and the Carolina Live program had music that was not classical.
Frank – Thanks for listening AND for the feedback – keep it coming!
By and large I favor the changes. I am disappointed that when I tuned in at 9:00 Sunday night I had already missed an hour of Tom Burge’s program. I don’t know how I missed the change but Tom’s take on programming is fun and I look forward to what he has to offer each week. For some reason I haven’t yet understood, his presentation of unfamiliar music just adds to my enjoyment of his show.
That’s not to say I dislike anyone else’s, it’s just his is the perfect ending to the weekend.
Thanks, John – glad you approve of the changes and of Tom’s show!
I am unhappy about the loss of an hour of Pipedreams. Why? Too costly to carry the program when you can get some local guy to spin records cheaper? Also I don’t like the security feature on your site being a commercial for some ad agency.
What happened to Symphony Cast on Sunday afternoons? Too expensive? It was my favorite program apart from Performance Today, and I looked forward to that every week.
I too am unhappy about the cutting of pipe dreams down to 1 hour. I have felt for a long time that the station in general chooses to ignor the organ. The only organ music you hear played is when the organ is playing with an orchestra. Even pieces written for the organ are only played in their orchestated version. Seems like “classical radio” should be “classical orchestra radio”. There is so much fine organ music that has been written that could enhance the listening experience.
I really feel for you, Mr. Lowery, and regret causing you disappointment. A few commentators have asked whether these moves were made because of expense, but that’s really not the motivating factor. The simple reason is to maximize the amount of listening we have as much as possible across our schedule.
The fact is that organ music, along with choral music, opera and several other genres, appeal to much smaller segments of the audience than instrumental classical music. Listener feedback and audience research bears this out. We can see from monthly surveys that the audience drops when Pipedreams comes on.
So in an effort to minimize this effect, we decided to scale back the program to one hour, an option provided by the program’s producers. Why do we need to maximize listening? Because we depend on it for our membership support, our underwriting support, and for the relatively small grant we get from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As long as we’re entrusted with a valuable public signal, we have an obligation to use it to serve as many listeners as possible, and not reserve it exclusively for a chosen few.
But we also recognize that we have an obligation as an all-classical service to present the broadest possible range of classical music, and that’s why we continue to commit schedule time to not only Pipedreams and organ music, but also choral music, opera and live concert performances.
It’s inevitable that the balance of these various elements doesn’t please all the people all the time; that’s the nature of a mass medium such as broadcasting. The best we can hope for is to try to balance the realities of the medium with our sincere desire to fulfill our mission.
As program director I appreciate all the comments, both pro and con, about these changes, as well as your continued listening.
One idea that would allow for two hours of Pipe Dreams is to eliminate the “From the Top” program. Does anybody actually listen to that program? Maybe its just me, but I have no interest in hearing youth performers telling cute little stories about their family. The focus should be on the music not the performers.
“From the Top” is one of the few WDAV offerings that really appeals to my12-yr old son. He actually perks up and actively starts listening when this one is on air…specifically because the featured performers are teenagers & young adults, have cute or funny stories to tell, are real kids – not just weird little classical music geeks, and have talent worth showcasing. My son is no musical prodigy and plays trumpet in his middle school band just for fun…but he does appreciate these talented kids and the entertaining format of this show!
Well there is one listener who perks up. Personally I shut the radio off during that program. Its my preference to listen to the music only. I don’t want to know anything about the musicians. I’m for less talk, more music.