Plug pulled on classical music broadcaster


The Concertzender Radio heard last night (you wrote about it on the 8th of September) that they are being taken off the support of the Dutch Arts Broadcast system, so they are effectively going off the (internet) air. What a huge mistake. It is one of the few excellent sources of culture in this country. Once it's gone, it will be a permanent blight on the Dutch artistic conscience.Very, very bad for Holland (and the rest of the international listening public).
Vanessa Lann
Here is the story from the Concertzender website:
On Thursday November 13th at 5:30pm, the chairman of the Concertzender Nederland organisation came to report to the employees and volunteers that the Dutch Public Broadcasting System (NPO) plans to pull the plug on the Concertzender. In the very near future, all funding will be cut.

In a studio in the MCO building in Hilversum, Bierman informed the employees and volunteers present that the NPO no longer considers the Concertzender suitable for the public broadcasting roster. The Concertzender is primarily interested in content – music – and not in the size of the audience. Despite over 135,000 Internet
listeners per month - and we're not counting the listeners via the cable, Digitenne or RadioOnDemand – the NPO's board of directors doesn't consider the Concertzender to be a good fit with their radio strategy, which primarily targets market share.

We are hereby informing our 6,000 donateurs, 125 volunteers, and thousands of interested parties and collaborators in the music sector of their decision. The music sector will be very interested to hear about this. For it will have an impact there as well. The Concertzender records around 250 concerts every year and support and promotes musical innovation. We have received masses of letters of support from all over the world (see http://czmoetblijven.blogspot.com for examples).

The future? It's uncertain. The Concertzender hopes to continue to fulfill its role as a music broadcaster by and for the music sector. Without NPO financing, if necessary, although we feel that the Concertzender is exactly the kind of broadcaster that the public broadcasting system was designed to include. We would therefore welcome a continued role within the NPO, but one that acknowledges the identity and value of the Concertzender as a whole.
Update 17/11 - Dutch Culture Minister halts Concertzender closure.

Update 16/11 - more on the Concertzender closure here and here.

Here is an example of a contemporary Dutch composer's courage.
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Comments

Otterhouse said…
I have made a very angry video about this on my webpage:
http://docent.cmd.hro.nl/otter/

I still can't beleive it....

Rolf
Can Ozmen said…
I love this radio.
Geoffrey Earl said…
For me, this is terrible news, I find the diverse music available so very unique, and the presentation of serious appreciation quite special, stopping the funding was a bad mistake

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