Classical music penalised for being too popular


Hello overgrown path blogger, a bizarre situation has developed in the Netherlands. Everywhere in the world, classical broadcasters are shutting down, because of dropping listening figures. In the Netherlands however, the Concertzender, who many of you might know because of there splendid internet channels, has to shut down because it has become too popular...

Dutch Public radio host's the Concertzender, and working with 150 volunteers and a handful of paid staff members, they operate on a basis of 500.000 euro a year.Cable companies in the Netherlands are now opting to broadcast the concertzender, instead of the non-classical Radio 6 (operating on a budget many times of the CZ!!).Instead of looking for a good solution, the co-ordinator of radio 6 just wants to pull the plug from the Concertzender...

To make things even weirder, a message explaining the situation with a call for support had to be removed from the homepage !!! The call was mirrored on an other site, and a small flood of support letters came in, prompting the board of management of the Dutch public radio to postpone their decision.

Because the Concertzender has also a large international following, could you please write a mail to:
mening at concertzender.nl and write something like: "Please don't pull the plug from the Concertzender"!(and a "because... " after that is also an option :) For if you never heard of the concertzender: http://www.concertzender.eu/?language=en I hope I can count on your support!!

Greetings, Rolf den Otter


Rolf, thanks for drawing that important story to our attention and do keep us posted on developments. The ability of major media organisations to influence not just content itself but also access to content is a dangerous development. Here in the UK the BBC's recent purchase of publisher Lonely Planet is raising similar concerns.

Channels such as Concertzender are one of the reasons why the Netherlands has such a healthy contemporary music scene, long may it remain so.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
Thank you for posting about this. I wasn't aware of this situation. I've been listening to this station for about three years now, and really appreciate their variety of programming. I just sent an email as per Rolf den Otter's request as well as signed up to be a Friend of Concertzender. I also mentioned your post and the call for support on my own little blog. This is a very worthwhile cause.

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