KBYU dropping Classical Music

[dspete]

Found this story interesting in the Deseret News...
Also KBYU TV dropping PBS

www.deseretnews.com/article/900002688/byu-to-drop-pbs-and-classical-music-pursue-new-national-strategy.html

[CAwasinNJ]

Thanks for the news Dana.

Wow.

Dropping the PBS affiliation from KBYU-TV (whatever it will be called now) makes some sense since they've been a secondary affiliate for forever, but dropping the classical format from 89.1 doesn't make a lot of sense. KBYU-FM would be somewhat competitive in the commercial band realm. The fact that it does that well in the non-comm band with a format that doesn't even exist in a lot of markets is a strong indicator that it's a strong station. I think they'd be much better off buying another station and launching the BYURadio on FM project there rather than scrapping something that clearly works.

[amanuensis]

I wonder how this will affect the tv and FM subchannels. BYU tv was already available locally OTA as one of Channel 11's subcarriers, and the same thing for BYU radio. So what will they replace BYU tv and PBS Create with on the television side? For radio, my guess would be what is now known as Mormon Channel audio streams. www.mormonchannel.org

[amanuensis]

No information about the announcement yet on the Channel 11 website. Based on the Deseret News article, I would expect that to change once the formal announcement is made later today. As of right now, there has been only one press release posted in all of 2017. And the "about the station" page is seriously dated, speaking of the Harris Fine Arts Center as being its current home. www.kbyutv.org/about/press/

[David]

Here's a more in-depth article about the changes coming to BYU broadcasting from RadioInsight:

radioinsight.com/headlines/120513/salt-lake-city-lose-classical-byu-consolidates-operations/

[seattlefollower]

Here is the Salt Lake Tribune's article.
Does BYU Broadcasting realize that over-the-air classical music is unavailable in Salt Lake County (no K-USU signal!)? I guess if things got really bad at KCPW they could replace some or all of their schedule. :-\

www.sltrib.com/news/2017/10/23/kbyu-tv-will-no-longer-be-a-pbs-station-in-2018-and-kbyu-fm-will-abandon-classical-music/

Edit: I didn't realize that UPR had dropped classical as well except in overnight hours.

[David]

KUER HD3 carries classic music programming 24/7. Of course, you have to invest in an HD radio to receive the signal, but the Insignia tabletop sells for around $40.00 at Wal Mart, or as little as $25.00 on eBay if you're not averse to buying an open box unit. I have the Insignia NS-HDRAD2 tabletop model, and it works quite well with just its whip antenna at my location in NE Ogden which is at least 35-40 miles from the nearest HD signal(s).

The impression I've gotten from reading the various articles on the web about the changes at BYU Broadcasting is that the managing director (Michael Dunn) wants to cater their programming to the typical BYU student, at the expense of alienating its longtime supporters and older viewers and listeners. I personally think they're making a big mistake, but maybe they'll have to see how much their contributions decline and fall flat on their faces before they realize that programming their radio and TV stations to cater to BYU values isn't a wise move.

[CAwasinNJ]

I think what ISN'T being said here is almost as important as what is, at least as far as the TV side goes. Let's look at what this means for KBYU-TV 11. Right now the station has: 11.1 - the PBS affiliate in HD, 11.2 BYUtv in HD, and 11.3 BYUtvi in SD. Consolidating into one video service means there's enough bandwidth for at least another HD station (assuming giving each HD ideal bandwidth) or 2 HD's and an SD (keeping the bandwidth allocations the way they are now). What do they plan to do with that extra bandwidth they're freeing up and does this have anything to do with the callsign change they've referred to? Nobody in Utah (as far as I know) took advantage of the reverse spectrum auction, but would it be possible that some other station is going to channel share the spectrum with 11 and give them an infusion of cash? Cold they even make the new OTA BYUtv a commercial license?

IBOC subchannels are a non-starter, so we don't even need to consider that.

I definitely agree with David that there should be a lot of consideration about how this will affect the contributions, which is a huge deal if they don't go commercial (and I don't think they're going to do that.) Will the LDS faithful now consider the Church and the BYUtv programming similar enough that they would only want to contribute to one but not both? It's a very different story contributing in Church and then again to a PBS station or a classical music station than to two much more closely aligned entities. Does BYUtv even solicit donations now?

I think we still have more questions than answers.

[David]

If the comments on KSL's site are any indication, there's a lot more people fuming about the loss of Classical 89 than KBYU-TV dropping its PBS affiliation. That actually makes sense, because about 90% of the KBYU TV programming is just a duplication of what's on KUED. KBYU-FM has been the only classical station in the Salt Lake metro for at least a decade now, and I believe it's one of the top 10 classical music stations in the U.S. in terms of its listening audience.

[David]

Follow-up article in today's Deseret News about the impact of the loss of Classical 89 to Utah's local arts community. I had no idea the station has been on the air for 72 years!

www.deseretnews.com/article/900002947/what-cutting-kbyus-classical-89-could-mean-to-utahs-local-arts-community.html