Stuart Malina has a poll set up at his website where you can let us know what you thought of this weekend's concert, if you attended either Saturday evening's or Sunday afternoon's performance.Follow this link and answer a few simple questions - you can also leave any more detailed comments there (or here) if you wish.
Thanks,
- Dr. Dick
I was only able to listen to a short segment of this morning's Radio Smart Talk so the following might be redundant. I missed the HSO concert last weekend but was apprised by acquaintances the the new work by Putz (I hope I'm spelling that right) was much appreciated. So it occurred to me that it might be appreciated if HSO (and other concerts such as Market Square, etc that WITF records) could be available at some point on the web site. ThIS would benefit both the performers, the organizations that sponsor them as well as WITF. NPR does something like this as well as WQXR/WNYC in New York. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteBILL ANDERSON
Hi, Bill - a few things I can speak to regarding on-line availability on our local public radio affiliate in Central PA, WITF (where, for other readers' information, I was formerly employed).
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, there are union issues with broadcasting the Harrisburg Symphony via the internet which involved additional fees separate from "terrestrial" broadcasting.
Secondly, depending on the repertoire, this may also involve additional fees for the orchestra, particularly with works still under copyright, through the publishers and the rental licensing of the music. Even then, some of these fees permitted broadcasting only within two weeks of the actual performance date and so would not be available on-line for more than a short time.
The BBC, for instance, makes most concerts it records available for a week and then removes the content. It's likely they and NPR and stations in NYC as well as the orchestras and ensembles they record may have access to more money than would be available to WITF or our local ensembles.
Even when WITF did stream its classical music content on-line, we were unable to include the Harrisburg Symphony in streaming the broadcast of Sunday evening's "WITF Presents..."
Most guest artists and many of the visiting ensembles that performed with Market Square Concerts permitted only one on-air broadcast with or without web-streaming. At the time, we had not discussed any other form of internet usage.
Even if you go to composer Kevin Puts' website, you cannot hear an entire performance of the symphony the HSO performed last weekend, only a less than two minute clip. That is probably as much because of union regulations with the performing orchestra about broadcasting and promotion as anything else.
WITF does make available their performance module "The Creative Zone" which is recorded in their own studio and is available "on demand" after being broadcast on-air.
But producing complete concert recordings for "on-demand listening" through the web-site is something you should ask the WITF management team.
-Dick Strawser