The Well-Tempered Ear
What do you think of the ‘new’ Wisconsin Public Radio?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Is The Ear alone — the only listener who is apprehensive and even disapproving about the major changes coming to the “new” Wisconsin Public Radio?
Starting this coming Monday, May 20, WPR is about to be severely reinvented.
That is when there will really be two WPRs — an all-music channel and a separate all-news channel — and when schedules for programs and hosts will change drastically.
And, just as importantly, so will the locations the two new stations on the dial.
For more details about the new station maps and numbers as well as background to the Big Makeover, go to the newly redesigned and improved website and especially this page:
Switching stations several times each day to catch the programs that you like should be about as much fun as resetting your clocks and digital timers for going on and off Daylight Saving and after a power outage.
Only you will be doing it non-stop.
No more one-stop shopping from morning to night.
Might just be enough to make some people tune out.
Or maybe withhold donations, even with what seems an increasing reliance on matching gifts by “generous friends” of WPR.
Of course the promotions and YouTube video from WPR’s recently hired director Sarah Ashworth (below) say the changes will be “exciting” and come after two years of research and analysis. She says the changes will make it easier for listeners around the state to listen to WPR, but they sure sound inconvenient more than user-friendly.
Excuse my doubt.
I like the mix of news and classical music. Always have, alway will.
I like waking up to NPR’s “Morning Edition,” which is my comprehensive morning news briefing. It’s great to listen to while driving to work or resting in bed.
I love the transition to classical music at 9, when I need beauty and am ready to listen to some music. (Below is Stephanie Elkins in the studio where she masterfully hosted the now-defunct “Morning Classics.”)
And after six hours of music, I love hearing “All Things Considered,” one of the few broadcast news programs that take culture seriously in addition to politics, finance and world events. I also love catching Terry Gross’ interviews on “Fresh Air” and financial updates from “Marketplace.”
I have loved the news-music contrast and combination ever since I came to graduate school in Madison and first tuned in to WPR.
The station has always reinforced the astute observations made by the great American poet William Carlos Williams who said: ‘“Beauty” is related not to “loveliness” but to a state in which reality plays a part”’ and “It is difficult/to get the news from poems/though men die miserably every day/for lack/of what is found there.”
Beauty and news belong together — integrated, not segregated. (The all-music channel will still have hourly headlines.)
Hard to tell if the changes will take WPR, now over a century old, to greater success or put it on the path to slow suicide.
Other things might have helped increase listenership .
One that comes to mind is playing less second- and third-rate music that is thoroughly boring and forgettable, and then trying to pass it off as important. More of an emphasis on great music — you know, the kind that first made us all fall in love with classical music — and less of an emphasis on obscure musicology and identity programming might have helped.
Another is implementing faster solutions to mechanical problems — including missing online listings, frequent instances of dead air, and chopping off parts of news and music programs.
Anyway, we need to give the new changes a chance. So Monday I will tune in and see how it goes and hope for the best before passing final judgment. But I am not optimistic.
What do you think of the changes?
What would you like to see WPR do more of or less of?
Please leave a comment, however brief.
The Ear and surely the entire staff at WPR want to hear.
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Classical music: Composer Philip Glass, 78, writes a fascinating memoir of his training, struggle and acceptance as a “minimalist” musician.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Not a lot of musicians write well. It’s probably because they prefer to let their music-making do their communicating.
But one notable exception is the “minimalist” composer Philip Glass (below), whose new volume of memoirs is being praised for its insights and for its engaging, articulate style. (A good sample of his speaking, composing and playing is in the YouTube video at the bottom.)
Recently, Glass did a 46-minute interview for Terry Gross and her “Fresh Air” program on NPR (National Public Radio.) He discussed his early days composing and performing as well his training with famed French teacher Nadia Boulanger.
The NPR story has the interview plus some highlights from the interview and also some excerpts from the book “Words Without Music.
The Ear thinks that Glass, now 78, emerges as a very thoughtful and perceptive man who is also droll and self-deprecating.
See what you think.
Here is a link to the NPR story:
And here is a highly positive review of the book that appeared in The New York Times:
What do you think of Philip Glass and his music? His memoirs?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Aftermath of World War II, Arts, Chamber music, Classical music, Compact Disc, Einstein on the Beach, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, Jacob Stockinger, Madison, memoir, minimalism, Music, Nadia Boulanger, New Music, New York City, NPR, Philip Glass, Piano, Ravi Shankar, Terry Gross, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, YouTube
Classical music news: Maurice Sendak loved classical music, especially Verdi and Mozart, and, yes, he was gay.
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ALERT: Just a reminder that today 2-6 p.m. is the FREE and PUBLIC “Curtain Down Party” and Open House at the Wisconsin Union Theater. Here are links to news releases and stories about the event. My own thoughts about the WUT’s history and future were in yesterday’s posting:
http://www.news.wisc.edu/20660
http://www.thedailypage.com/theguide/details.php?event=283665
By Jacob Stockinger
Ever since he died this week at 83 of complications from a stroke, the famed children’s book writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak (below) has been featured in many tributes in the old and new media — and rightfully so.
I love listening to his voice, his articulate conversation and quick thinking. Just listen to the hour that Terry Gross and “Fresh Air” on NPR devoted to old interviews he did.
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/08/152248901/fresh-air-remembers-author-maurice-sendak
And The Huffington Post compiled some of Sendak’s most memorable and self-effacing quotes:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/08/maurice-sendak-quotes_n_1501095.html
But other sources, with less of a high-profile, also discussed other aspects of Sedak and his art.
One is the famed classical music radio station WQXR in New York City, where Sendak was born and lived his whole life.
Sendak told a blogger at WQXR how much he loved classical music, especially Mozart and Verdi. He even collaborated on various musical projects including one with contemporary British composer Oliver Knussen.
Here is a link:
http://www.wqxr.org/#!/blogs/wqxr-blog/2012/may/08/classical-music-fueled-maurice-sendak-muse/
And the question I kept hearing was whether Maurice Sendak was gay.
Well, it took him a long time to make a public statement, but he did it recently on The Colbert Report. Take a listen not only to Sendak’s wit and humor but also to absolute candor.
Here is a link to JewishJournal.com. Be sure to listen to the blog but especially to listen to the clip from the Colbert Report at the bottom:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/oy_gay/item/gay_jewish_and_imaginative_-_maurice_sendak_20120508/
That kind of emotional honesty, I am convinced, was also one of the qualities that permeated Sendak’s own books and accounted for his popularity and prestige.
We adults are The Wild Things and we are sad at his passing,
Even more than children, it is adults who will miss Maurice Sendak. He embodied the kind of cosmopolitan intelligence and tolerant creativity that we see too rarely in our increasingly anti-intellectual society.
In honor of Sendak and his musical taste, here is the finale from Verdi’s opera “Falstaff,” a character who seems as lusty for life and as larger-than-life as Sendak himself:
Tags: Colbert Report, Huffington Post, Maurice Sendak, New York City, NPR, Oliver Knussen, Sendak, Terry Gross, Wisconsin Union Theater
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