this is EXACTLY what I have been hoping for. -- Robert
Tom MacDonald wrote on our Facebook page:
I disagree strongly with your editorial decision [this week] to drop the NPR news feed with the President's foreign policy speech and return to Performance Today. If it was not a policy decision, but laziness or ineptitude on the part of the night shift, it is reprehensible.
We always have a dilemma about events such as this -- not every presidential speech warrants pre-empting, but some will. I believe that in the future, this will be an easier decision since 91.3 will have more room for such special broadcasts. This is one of the advantages that will be part of our launch of our new all-classical station next week.
And the cat is definitely out of the bag on that one. You may have read or heard that we’re going to launch Classical HQR, next Tuesday at 5:20 pm. This expansion has long been a goal of ours and is a fulfillment of our intention to further serve our listeners with a station dedicated exclusively to classical music. Our main signal at 91.3 FM will offer new regional and national programming during the day. In effect, we will be able to "super serve" our listeners by giving you more news and information on 91.3 FM HQR News, and our new station will be the home of Classical HQR, offering classical music 24 hours a day.
This next message doesn’t come from a usual Friday Feedback source, but it is a comment about the big changes ahead next Tuesday. The Greater Wilmington Business Journal published a story about that this week, including this comment from Mark Ward Donaldson:
let's only hope that won't play guitar, flute and baroque music all the live-long day. the only time they play anything good is when they're begging for money.
When I read that it emphasized to me that people are often very quick to form opinions of what they will or won’t like before they actually hear it. And this is one reason we’re keeping our new schedule on 91-3 under wraps until next Tuesday at 5:30. Mr. Donaldson neglected to mention the fact that he works for another radio group here in town, Cumulus Broadcasting. As I wrote in a reply, I thank him for his suggestion and am always glad to hear from a fellow broadcaster. There will be plenty of music other than guitar, flute and baroque on the new station, so I look forward to welcoming Mark as a member of the station one day.
Although we have not published the frequency of this week's test broadcasts of the new Classical HQR, listener Robert discovered that location this week. He wrote:
The signal … sounds fine on the back side of Echo Farms Golf course, where I live. I don't know about anyone else, but this is EXACTLY what I have been hoping for - full-time classical. And I like having the news every hour, too. Thanks … to all the good people there who have made this work.
I wrote to Robert:
The signal you hear is something of an experiment while we test out some programming elements -- it's officially unpublicized. We will unveil the full schedule and the new, final frequency at a celebration next Tuesday.
So be sure to listen next Tuesday at 5:20, when we’ll have a short ceremony on the air launching not only the new all-classical station, but some significant additions to the new HQR News on 91-3 as well.
We’d love to hear from you on Friday Feedback. You can always leave a message via email to feedback@WHQR.org. Our Feedback Phone is 910-292-9477. And thanks for your feedback.