WMRA and WEMC Public Radio
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Virginia Insight

Civic Soapbox

Classical Music

Acoustic Café

Blues Valley

Dick's Friday Classics

Bob's Record Shelf

Mostly Mennonite, Mostly Acapella

AM Daybreak with Alexis Morehouse

Mel Lee's Songbag

Jan's Jamboree

Wavelength with Ted Grimsrud

Jim Bishop's Friday Night Jukebox

Centerpiece with Harvey Yoder

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BBC News, Discussion, Jazz, World Music and more.

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New Programming

Questions and Answers

Classical Music in Our Area

WMRA and WEMC have launched new program schedules.

On WMRA, we’re pleased to be able to supplement our flagship news programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, with programs that will continue the focus on news, issues and culture so valuable to our listeners. Many listeners have been asking us for Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation and other information programs over the years. As events and problems touch us more closely, the need to understand the world better has become more pressing in many people’s lives. We believe the time has come for WMRA to participate more actively in fulfilling that need.

WMRA’s call-in program, Insight, has had a good run for almost two years, with fresh shows two or three times per week. We will maintain that commitment to the examination of local issues as much as we can with the resources we have. Renamed Virginia Insight, it now airs Mondays at 3:00, with intelligent conversations about state and regional issues that affect the citizens and families of Virginia. This change will give the program’s host Tom Graham more time to join with Martha Woodroof in increasing Virginia news reporting in within Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

The daytime and late night classical music is now on WEMC 91.7 in the central Shenandoah Valley. We know that many listeners outside of WEMC’s service area who enjoy our mid-day classical music will no longer be able to hear it over the air. WEMC is streaming in high fidelity at wemcradio.org, and we invite you to tune in there when you can. Other public stations also provide classical music in the Charlottesville, Lexington, Winchester, Staunton and Farmville areas. Evening classical, including Bob’s Record Shelf and Dick Jamison’s Friday Classics will stay on WMRA.

We remain commited to continuing our support and promotion of cultural events and arts organizations throughout our service area. We believe that people who care about the issues and challenges the world faces are also among the most active participants in the cultural and artistic lives of their communities.

We always welcome phone calls or emails, too. You can reach me, General Manager Tom DuVal, at (800)-677-9672 or duvalte@jmu.edu.

Thank you for listening to public radio. I hope you will continue with us as we move into this new dimension of public radio service to our communities.

Sincerely,

Tom DuVal, General Manager

Questions and Answers
Our Mission: To foster informed, engaged and culturally-enriched communities.

Why have you added these new programs on WMRA?

We have an opportunity to offer more diversity of programming to most of our listening area, giving people a choice between music and information throughout the day. Almost all of our classical music listeners will still be able to hear music on another station during the midday, whereas most of them could not hear midday information programming.

What do you hope to gain from these new programs?

Foremost is increased public service, indicated by more people listening to public radio with this additional choice available to them. We are excited by the prospect of better fulfilling our mission by having a larger impact on the civic discourse in the communities we serve. We anticipate, of course, that serving more listeners, and serving them better as they listen longer, will turn into fundraising success so that we can provide even better service. Our long range plans call for increasing our community involvement, more coverage of Virginia news and issues, and expanding Virginia Insight to a daily live program once the resources are in place.

Did you ask listeners if they wanted these new programs?

We conducted a listener survey in 2006, with nearly 1400 responses. Almost half requested more information programming, while less than 10% requested a decrease. 25% requested more and 40% requested less classical music. Although this was not the entire basis of our decision, it was a revealing result.

Where can I now hear classical music?

We now offer classical music from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays, and overnight beginning at 10 p.m. on WEMC 91.7 from Harrisonburg. WMRA airs classical music from 7-10 pm weekday evenings, including Bob’s Record Shelf on Mondays and Dick’s Friday Classics. Other stations air many hours of classical music in most of the WMRA listening area, and there's a map below showing their coverage areas and classical music schedules.

I’m in the WEMC coverage area on the map but I can’t pick it up well.

The mountainous terrain in the Valley makes radio reception uneven. Often an external antenna can make enough difference. Contact us and we can advise you on various antenna options.

Why is this needed since Radio IQ is already available in Charlottesville?

Radio IQ serves a very limited area on two translators — low power repeater stations that are not protected from interference by other stations. WMRA will be offering a new option to tens of thousands of people who cannot receive Radio IQ.

There’s plenty of talk on commercial stations. Why add more?

Public radio talk programming is very different from talk programming on commercial radio. Listeners have commented over and over about the intelligent, non-sensational approach to discussion of issues, an approach that welcomes and, importantly, respects many different opinions, that challenges listeners to think more deeply about things. Our consistent goal is to inform and advance the vital civic discourse of the community and the nation, and to foster better informed citizenship, not simply to entertain with sensationalism or to criticize those whose opinions differ from the show host's.

Aren’t you abandoning the arts and culture?

In a word, no. NPR gives considerable coverage to arts and culture in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Our new midday programs devote even more time, particularly Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Our own talk show, Virginia Insight, will occasionally address Virginia arts and culture, and we will continue to feature Virginia arts and culture in our own station reporting. As we have for years, WMRA will sponsor and promote many arts and cultural activities in our communities, including classical music. In fact, we expect to be more effective in promoting these events as our audience grows. We believe that people who care about the issues and challenges the world faces are also among the most active participants in the cultural and artistic lives of their communities.

Is this a step toward eliminating all classical music eventually?

Although we cannot make promises about the continuation of any particular programming, we are not currently considering the elimination of the evening classical programming, since WMRA is the only source for music at that time of day for the vast majority of our population.

Have other stations done this, and how did it work for them?

Several dozen public radio stations have made similar changes over the past twenty years. We have read case studies and had conversations with many of them. With a single exception, WETA, the stations experienced growth in audience, time spent listening and financial contributions.

Why didn’t it work for WETA?

The management of WETA acknowledges that their situation was quite different. They tried to counter-program against a very successful, long-established news station (WAMU) with a weaker program schedule. The change stopped but did not reverse WETA’s long, steep decline in audience and revenue. When commercial station WGMS changed from classical to rock, WETA had the opportunity to become the market’s only classical music station. Their 24/7 classical schedule has been much more successful than their earlier news/classical hybrid format.

Was WEMC’s schedule over the past year not successful?

Just the opposite. The information programming on WEMC has been received very positively. We want to extend this programming to more people.

Why now?

Several factors converged. We began operating WEMC, giving us the opportunity for complementary programming between WEMC and WMRA. Classical stations have become more widely available in the past year. WETA changed to all-classical. WVTF increased the power of one of their Charlottesville stations and added repeaters in several other communities. We took the time to test the listener response to the news/talk format on WEMC before making the final decision.

What problems is WMRA having?

The audience for WMRA has not grown over the past 5 or 6 years, despite a rapidly growing population. In the past year and a half, the audience has actually declined significantly, particularly during the middays. On top of that, the average time spent listening has also declined. We have seen the effects of this on our fundraising. The number of members has decreased, and although the average gift has grown, the trend is not a sustainable one. We came up short of our goals in most of our recent on-air fundraisers, and have had to add a third fundraiser in recent years. We had to cancel some programs and reduce staffing two years ago. Because almost half of our operating budget comes from listener contributions, successful fundraising is essential to our being able to provide a quality service.

Why didn’t you tell us that you were having problems fundraising classical music? We would have stepped up.

Experience at WMRA and most other public radio stations has proven that fundraising messages that say that fundraising is going poorly are counter-productive. We tried to focus on the benefits of the classical programming in our fundraising. As frequently requested by our listeners, we devoted more of the fundraising time to playing music rather than asking for money. We tried fundraising with a single Power Hour during the classical day. Nothing we did reversed the downward trend. A one time "rescue" campaign might have worked, but would not be sustainable.

Aren’t you forsaking your mission in pursuit of audience numbers?

Ratings and listener support are the only objective ways we have of knowing whether we’re serving our mission. Put another way, when fewer people are listening, the public service is less. And when they make their decision whether or not to support the service, they’re indicating how well it is serving them.

How will you measure success/progress?

Listener feedback is always vitally important. We receive semi-annual audience estimates from Arbitron that will show us changes in the numbers of listeners, how much they are listening, and how loyal they are to the station. Our fundraising results will also be an important measure. And we will survey listeners to get a sense of how valuable they find the service.

How long will you stay with this if it’s not succeeding financially?

We are committed to giving this enough time to succeed, while keeping other options open after a reasonable period. Historically for public radio, there is about a two year lag between when someone becomes a regular listener and when they become a contributor. We will allow at least that much time for the new programming to prove its value.

Why couldn't you have a different program schedule in Charlottesville, Lexington and Winchester and just have news and information available in Harrisonburg?

FCC rules will not allow us to do this. These "network" stations must be 100% repeaters of the originating station in Harrisonburg.

Does the FCC need to approve these programs?

The FCC does not have authority over stations’ programming choices.

Why has Insight been reduced to one day a week?

Insight is our most expensive programming on an hourly basis. Although response to it has been very enthusiastic, we have decided that we can accomplish some of its goals with a weekly program, now called Virginia Insight. Our long range plan is to make it a live show five days a week, as the resources become available to adequately staff it.

Will you be producing more local news coverage?

Tom Graham, the host of Virginia Insight, had a long career as a broadcast journalist before joining WMRA. He has already begun producing news reports that are heard within Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Martha Woodroof will continue in her full-time position as a reporter and will still produce WMRA’s Civic Soapbox. All Things Considered local host Bob Leweke may eventually be producing occasional news interview as well.

Why is there less world music on WEMC?

Some time after WMRA took over the operation of WEMC, we learned that the station no longer had the broadcast rights to several of the programs that were being aired, and those rights could not be obtained. We have cancelled the unauthorized broadcasts.

Why did you move Democracy Now! on WEMC to 9:00pm instead of earlier, and why did you drop the Friday 6:00pm broadcast?

We had a number of requests to move it earlier than 10:00pm just for the sake of bedtimes. We believe that 9:00pm is a reasonably early time for most people. Making it easier to hear five nights a week made the earlier Friday airing less important, and allowed us to have Fresh Air every weekday at 6:00pm, as well as making room for an additional hour of BBC news at 5:00pm.

Why don't you air more news programs at night on WMRA, instead of playing classical music?

Most of the communities in our service area do not have another source for evening classical music on the radio. Also for cost reasons, if we aired news/talk in the evenings, it would have to be repeats of daytime programs.

How can listeners request programs?

We always welcome suggestions of specific programs and types of programs that you would like to hear, or would prefer not to hear. We discuss programming options several times per year, and include listener comments and request in those deliberations. The best way to submit your requests is by email to wmra@jmu.edu.

Classical Music in Our Area

The map below shows public radio stations airing classical music. They can often be heard beyond these contours, depending on topography, type of radio and other factors.

Classical Music Schedules:

WEMC 91.7
9am to 4pm M-F
11am to 4pm Sunday
Every night 10pm to 6am

WVTF 89.1 / WVTW 88.5 / WVTU 89.3 / W238BN 95.5 / W270BJ 101.9 / W230BD 93.9
9am to 4pm M-F
Noon to 5pm Saturday
Midnight to 5am M-F

WTJU 91.1
6am to 9am Sun-F
5pm to 9pm M-W
2pm to 9 pm Sunday

WAUA 89.5 / WVEP 88.9 (West Virginia Public Radio)
9am to 4pm M-F
5am to 7am & 8-9:30pm Sunday
9pm to Midnight M-Th
Midnight to 5am M-F

WETA 90.9
23 hours-a-day (exc. 7-8pm) M-F
24 hours-a-day Sat-Sun

WCVE 88.9
9am to 3pm M-F
Midnight to 8am & 2pm to 4pm Saturday
4am to 8am & 7pm to Midnight Sunday
Overnights 10pm to 5am M-F

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