Crosscut
The board that oversees 62-year-old classical music station KING-FM has decided to convert the commercially-operated station to “listener-supported” public radio format. The change will take place July 1 next year, when an ad sales agreement with Fisher Communications expires. At that time, the station will stop airing 60-second commercial “spots” and will switch to 20-second “underwriting announcements” and occasional listener pledge drives, much like those currently heard on local public radio stations KUOW and KPLU (and already heard on KING-FM’s web streams and HD channels). In the meantime, the new focus on arts education and promoting local arts groups is key to the switch to non-commercial operations, as the station must demonstrate an educational mission in order to secure and maintain not-for-profit status from the IRS. Ridewood explains: “the decrease in arts education in the schools does not help classical formats in the long run, because we need people to grow and learn to love classical music. So our mission will be restructured to think about how we can support education of new audiences.” To read the full article, follow the above link.