From the Boston Globe — 11/20/2011

Ron Della Chiesa, 73, voice of the BSO, sounds off on musicians from Beethoven to Lady Gaga

Over your 50 years in radio, which job has been your favorite? My MusicAmerica show at WGBH.  Starting in 1978, it ran for 18 years. I played an eclectic blend of music, incorporating live interviews with people like Dizzy Gillespie and Andre Previn. I could never have done that show in a commercial setting.

Who was your best interview? Tony Bennett, [talking] about his painting, philosophy, the business. He’s a renaissance man.

Your worst? Eartha Kitt. I was playing this rare recording of “Lilac Wine,” and she said: “It was stupid of you to play that. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever done.” I couldn’t go to black; it was live. She had a reputation for being tough.

What did you learn from writing your new memoir, Radio My Way? It was very therapeutic. Reflecting back helped me deal with the loss of so many people: Stan Getz, Rosie Clooney, Mel Torme. There’s a lot of history I wanted to tell about these great careers.

How long will you stay on as WGBH’s host of the Boston Symphony Orchestra? As long as I can. I feel energized. I walk for miles along Nantasket – because the ocean is music, in a How do you listen at home? I prefer to listen to one CD all the way through. I think young people are fascinated with iTunes because they can program their own shows, but I’ve done that all my life.

What do you get from classical music? It guides you through traumatic times in life. I think you can grieve through Madame Butterfly, Mozart’s “Requiem.” Can you grieve through heavy metal or rap? Through Lady Gaga? I don’t know. Maybe you can.

Do you recall the first symphony you attended? [Charles] Munch conducting the Boston Symphony when I was around 13. . . .  And my father and I were in the hall when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Erich Leinsdorf made the announcement. We all stood up, and the orchestra played Beethoven’s Funeral March from “Eroica.” Interestingly, they came back and finished the program. Talk about grieving through music.

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If you had your radio dialed to 89.7 FM most any weeknight over the past three decades, you probably heard the mellifluous baritone of Eric Jackson intone that signature phrase. This week Jackson, 61, celebrates 30 years hosting his jazz program, “Eric in the Evening” (changed a couple of years ago to “Jazz on WGBH With Eric Jackson’’), with events tomorrow and Friday at Scullers and Arlington’s Regent Theatre, respectively.

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Public radio not only wants taxpayer dollars to back it up. One local station manager also wants a monopoly….

Any business would be happy if its rivals disappeared. But those wishes run up against an economic reality called capitalism. Competition is its core underpinning. It leads to fierce fights everywhere, especially in the world of Boston media….

Some listeners are apparently gravitating to WBUR’s new rival because WGBH is offering more local programming, including talk shows. That’s not a bad development. It illustrates how starved the Boston area audience is for serious, news-driven conversation about important local issues. Competition only helps their cause.

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WBUR-FM 90.9 has long been a Boston Goliath, with a news-and-talk schedule that’s been a model for public radio nationwide.

But now it appears that thousands of listeners are leaving WBUR and tuning into WGBH-FM 89.7, which last year replaced music programs with news and talk shows very much like WBUR’s — sometimes running the same National Public Radio shows at the same time. …

Since January 2010, when WGBH changed formats, to this past January, the WGBH audience grew by 16,000 listeners, or 6 percent, to 269,000 people, according to the Arbitron ratings service.

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Shortly after stepping up to the microphone, nearly every performer peered into the crowd, staring down at the edge of the stage. Some of them winked, others gestured with a hand or mouthed a thank-you. Jonatha Brooke expressed her gratitude quietly, as if it were a private moment.

“I love you, Dick.’’

“I love you, Jonatha,’’ came the faint response from the third row.

That would be Dick Pleasants, the beloved radio host whose 40 years on the local airwaves — first on the Cape, then at WGBH, and now at WUMB, among other stations — were being celebrated at Sanders Theatre Friday night. Seated dead center with a single crutch just in front of him (Pleasants was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2003), he was finally stepping into the spotlight that he’s shone on others for so long.

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“A series of new TV ads … are part of [WBUR]’s new marketing campaign aimed at differentiating itself at a time when it faces fierce competition from WGBH (89.7 and 99.5), another NPR broadcaster. Analysts say the aggressive advertising campaign, which includes TV ads and billboards along Interstate 93 and the Massachusetts Turnpike, is a rarity for public radio….

“Indeed, the two public broadcasters have been engaged in a battle — for listeners and donors — since last December when WGBH reinvented 89.7 FM to a full-time, news-talk format and began running syndicated NPR programs that WBUR carries. WGBH also launched two news-talk shows: ‘The Emily Rooney Show’ and’The Callie Crossley Show.’ In response, WBUR expanded its weekly local news magazine show, ‘Radio Boston,’ to a daily program last May.

“WBUR still leads in Boston public radio. In November, the station ranked 11th in Boston with a 3.9 percent share of listeners, according to Arbitron. But WGBH is expanding its share of the market: The station ranked 20th last month with a 1.1 percent share of listeners — up from 24th in October.”

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A founding member of the Juilliard String Quartet, Robert was chairman of the Brandeis music department from 1969-76, and retired from the university’s faculty in 1983. He also taught at Tel Aviv University and Harvard. Robert’s other activities included lecturing on music in a 40-part series for WGBH-TV. Robert passed away in 1985 at the age of 86.

Reviewing the Haydn Quartets series in FM Sub-master control (click to enlarge).

Robert Koff (left) and NSJ editing the Haydn Quartets (click to enlarge).

• From Nat Johnson

 

• From Nat Johnson

More images from Nat Johnson’s collection. Click on thumbnails to see a larger version.

From left to right: Nat Johnson, Dee Dee Doren, Ed Thoman.

From left to right: Ed Thoman, Rick Hauser, an unknown person, Joan Sullivan, Norma Farber, Jean Harper.

NSJ Audio, director Ed Thoman, PA Dee Dee Doren in WGBH FM Sub-Master Control.

• From Nat Johnson