Mary McCaslin's Roundup

September 28, 2007

THE FALL "NEW YEAR"
Every September it feels to me that the New Year is really beginning. This is probably because of the conditioning we all receive as children and never outgrow: the new school year starts around this time. Also the new television season starts and the outdoor festival season is over. Upcoming music and cultural events are scheduled for indoor venues.
One of the many treats awaiting us is the UC Arts & Lectures Series. Beginning on October 7th, this series offers everything from one person performances, such as Daniel Beaty's solo tour-de-force, "Emergence-SEE," and Joe Spano's, "R. Buckminster Fuller The History (and Mystery) of the Universe" to ensemble performances such as "Music from the Crooked Road (HWY 58 in Virginia)," Ravi Shankar's Festival of India, the Anonymous 4, Hugh Masekela and the Chissa All-Stars and the Borromeo String Quartet.
The aforementioned are only the tip of the iceberg of this year's wonderful selection of performers. The folks at Arts & Lectures take pride in presenting a variety of performances for an eclectic range of tastes and interests. Aside from spoken word and music from around the world this year's schedule features an array of internationally renowned dance companies including Ailey II, Hawaii's Kahekili Dance Company and the Ballet Folklorico.
For a complete listing of all of the Arts & Lectures shows go to www.events.ucsc.edu/tickets. To purchase tickets call 459-2159 or email tickets@ucsc.edu.

THE BUSINESS OF FOLK RADIO
In the current issue of Song Out! Magazine Scott Alarik writes a piece called "The Business of Folk Music in the New Millenium." It touches on several topics and aspects of this part of the music business. Overall, the prognosis is very encouraging, however there is some concern over the fate of folk shows on public radio.
It seems that folk music, though doing well in CD sales, is losing ground in public radio. Alarik spoke with University of Massachusetts radio station WUMB's director Pat Monteith, who explained that there is a strong drive for single format radio. This is due to the need for funding from big sponsors and advertisers. These sponsors generally want to know the overall numbers and the cumulative hours the average person listens per week. Monteith went on to say that in ratings-speak this is called the "cume", and the cume is not kind to diverse programming.
For instance, even if a folk show that runs two hours a week does very well, it is not necessarily seen as something good, because very often that is the only time those listeners tune into that station. Those folk listeners actually pull down the overall average by tuning in. That program's success lowers the cume. Monteith continues, "It's a big problem when going to big corporate sponsors, because all they want to hear is the cume."
Many National Public Radio (NPR) affiliated public stations have discontinued local programming to carry all NPR programming, which is "supported" by corporate underwriters. And yet, they are still called "public."

Email Mary McCaslin at roundup@marymccaslin.com.