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posted by Fnord666 on Monday March 05 2018, @06:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the classical-loss dept.

The World Socialist Web Site reports

The binational and bilingual classical radio station XLNC1, which broadcast on 104.9 FM, had its last day on the air yesterday. The station, whose broadcast area covered the regions of southern San Diego County, Tijuana, and northern Baja California, announced on February 9 that it would no longer broadcast due a lack of funding.

The station was unique in that it was one the few in the world that was both binational and bilingual. Its tower was located in Baja California, and the station was known for announcing composers and titles in both Spanish and English, often using one language to introduce a piece and the other language when the piece ended. The station will maintain streaming via their online services, but radio listeners in the region will no longer be able to tune into 104.9 FM.

XLNC1 was founded in 1998 by Victor Diaz initially as an Internet radio station. In 2000, it began broadcasting at 90.7 FM. In 2004, the station nearly shut down due to signal and financial problems, and eventually moved to 104.9 FM in 2008.

Diaz stated that he created the station to educate audiences in both Mexico and the United States about classical music and its mission was "to make great music accessible to everyone." Following Diaz's death in 2004, his wife Martha Barba kept the underfunded station afloat, often with personal funds.

During its 20 years of operation, commercial-free classical music has been played on XLNC1 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wide-ranging programming includes the most popular melodies in classical music each weekday morning, the "Top 400 Hits of the Last 400 Years," and weekly broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic, as well as the San Francisco Opera during its season.

Nightly Gala Concerts are known for their diversity. For instance, this week alone, "The Greatest Video Game Music," performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, will follow "Music by Nikolai Myaskovsky" performed by the USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra.

"This is a great loss for both the community of San Diego and Tijuana," XLNC1 owner Martha Barba told the WSWS. "XLNC1's significance was to unify both the United States and Mexico by erasing borders with classical music. We hoped to better the relationship between the community of San Diego and Tijuana by bringing them together with music. We also hoped to teach future generations the importance of classical music and inspire them to pursue their passions in music and the creative arts.


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 05 2018, @01:11PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 05 2018, @01:11PM (#647946)

    In the Los Angeles Basin, it's been a mixed bag.

    At 110kW, the Pacifica station where I get local and other information is the most powerful thing west of the Mississippi (grandfathered in).
    They have repeaters in Santa Barbara, San Diego County, and China Lake.
    They have voices/viewpoints/opinions not available via any source that has ads|corporate sponsors|underwriters.
    Pacifica is 100 percent listener-sponsored, so no corporations telling them what they can put on and what they can't.

    ...and the 90.7MHz problem mentioned in TFS was, I do believe, interference with KPFK's signal on that frequency, before getting a repeater for Dago.

    N.B. Pacifica had a fifth column that tried to ruin the stations|foundation, hoping to buy up the assets for pennies afterwards.
    That has been squashed but there's still damage to be undone.
    The last pledge drive here (and in Frisco & NYC, I do believe) just ended without a lot of undo dramatics, so it appears that things are going OK.

    The (private) University of Southern California in Los Angeles has had an FM station since the 1940s and they have pros playing Classical.
    Their last (commercial) competition was decades ago. [wikipedia.org]

    The Jazz and Blues station owned by Cal State Long Beach is staffed by pros and is doing OK.

    There's a station owned by the Claremont Colleges that has my favorite show with music and other stuff you might hear on the radio from the 1920s through the 1940s.

    Cal State Irvine's volunteer-run station has a twangy music show I like (Western Swing, Country, Bluegrass, Rockabilly, Surf...) and an eclectic mix show done by someone with adult sensibilities.

    I listen to a couple of quiz shows and the successor to Prairie Home Companion on the NPR station in Pasadena. [soylentnews.org]

    There's an NPR station in Santa Monica that I haven't listened to since they unceremoniously kicked out Harry Shearer (Le Show) a decade ago.

    Some months later, the NPR station at Cal State Northridge (San Fernando Valley) picked up Harry and his show.
    Being on the other side of the mountains, that didn't do me any good radio-wise.

    The management at my Smooth Jazz station in Mission Viejo (south Orange County) was incompetent and in September their hardware became essentially a repeater for the Northridge station--coincidentally already on the same frequency.
    They play mostly a weird mix of pop-ish rock.
    When my twangy music show's host is absent at the Irvine station, I might tune into these guy's Blues show.
    Otherwise, I don't get what they're trying to do.
    I don't recognize the names of many of the acts and, as a rule, I don't find them to be talented.

    In a similar vein, all the "Country" Music stations hereabouts play what Dale Watson calls "Country Music for people who don't like Country Music".

    10 years ago, a company took control of a station here and turned that into an AOR thing (though they rarely played anything that hadn't been in the Top 40).
    They had a pretty decent thing going with several special presentations e.g. Triple-Play Thursdays, Four for the Fourth (of July), and Little Steven's (van Zant) Underground Garage..
    After another recent station acquisition, FCC rules said that they had to sell a station and this was the one they dumped.
    (Now a Jesus freak station.)

    For years now, the other AOR station in town hasn't even done a Two-Fer Tuesdays properly.
    They also fired the guy that Tom Petty had in mind when he wrote "The Last DJ" (who plays what he wants to play).

    I've got a good Blues and Rock "community radio" station within listening range most days, but there are lots of times when atmospherics aren't good and their 42 watt transmitter doesn't make the trip.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 05 2018, @03:38PM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday March 05 2018, @03:38PM (#647994)

    (Now a Jesus freak station.)

    This is probably a pretty good way to make a profit in the radio business these days. Religious nuts are always happy to spend their money on bullshit that panders to them.