WFMT Radio Network Launches 'Exploring Music' Streaming Website

The WFMT Radio Network has launched a subscription website where classical music enthusiasts can stream hundreds of archived hours of the network's internationally syndicated "Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin," a daily music-appreciation show that airs on 55 stations to a weekly audience of more than 400,000 listeners.

The new searchable, streaming website, ExploringMusic.org, advances the show's mission of classical music education, according to Steve Robinson, general manager of the Chicago-based WFMT Radio Network and WFMT 98.7 FM. He's also the show's executive producer and founder.

"The website, like the show, is unique," Robinson says. "There's no place else to hear thoroughly researched commentary, thoughtfully curated music, and Bill McGlaughlin's engaging manner of demystifying classical music."

The show, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2013, devotes a week or more of daily, one-hour weekday broadcasts to a single topic. Themes have ranged from "Artists in Exile," "Czech Out Those Bohemians," and "Nobody Ever Builds a Statue to a Critic" to general topics such as "Piano Concertos," "Tone Poems," and "Ninth Symphonies." The show has devoted entire weeks to composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré, Gershwin, and others.

More than 600 hours of "Exploring Music" are now available for streaming. About 850 hours have been produced to date. More will be added to the website each week, according to the radio network.

"It's astonishing to look back and see the body of work we've explored in our ten years on the air," McGlaughlin says. "It's the answer to a dream for our fans and for everyone who works on the show."

McGlaughlin describes ExploringMusic.org as an audio "treasure trove" of the sort he would have liked to have had as an inquisitive, music-loving youngster in his native Philadelphia, where he was a frequent visitor to the public library.

Subscription Pricing

For those who buy a $50 annual subscription, there's no limit to the number of shows they can stream during the 12-month period.

"Call it, Music appreciation, $1 a week," Robinson says.

For a limited time, those purchasing a $50 yearly subscription will become charter members, entitled to unlimited streaming for two years.

Monthly subscriptions are $7.

Two dollars is the cost of subscribing to one week's worth of five hour-long shows. This entitles the visitor to return to the site and re-listen to those five installments as many times as they want, with no expiration date.

Institutional subscriptions are available for schools and colleges, Robinson says.

Subscription revenues will help fund the website and the production of new episodes, Robinson says. Initial funding for the site came from private donations.

Website Freebies

Nonsubscribers have access to all areas of the site and can listen to the first seven minutes of any hour-long show at no charge.

In addition ExploringMusic.org presently offers all visitors free streaming of four week's worth of shows totaling 20 hours of listening. The programs include "American Masters, Part I"; "Bach Sleeps in on Sundays"; "Cello Concertos"; and "Shakespeare."

Sought by Listeners

The original impetus for the website came from listeners who have long lamented not being able to hear shows they missed on the air - an issue voiced in many of the 7,000 emails the show has received since it went on the air in 2003, Robinson says.

In developing ExploringMusic.org, the radio network decided to do more than offer a chronological online archive of shows; it decided to offer a search capability to satisfy listeners' curiosity and the needs of students and other researchers.

The new site represents an inventive mix of old and new media with its musical selections, educational content, and Web technology, Robinson says.

Like the show itself, ExploringMusic.org is for listeners and music students at all levels of musical sophistication.

"Bill is a natural conversationalist with a talent for painting pictures with words. Listeners get drawn into the musical worlds he evokes," Robinson says. "They share his sense of wonder and discovery. And the music he plays is so enjoyable that even listeners who use classical radio for background music stay tuned during his show."

Show Production and Distribution

McGlaughlin, who lives in New York, records his commentaries at local classical station WQXR-FM. His voice tracks are downloaded by "Exploring Music" producers at the radio network in Chicago, where the shows are edited, assembled, and distributed to affiliate stations.

Producers include Jesse McQuarters, Cydne Gillard, and Noel Morris, with distribution by Carol Martinez and Tony Macaluso.

The show is heard coast to coast on stations as geographically diverse as KNOM, Nome, Alaska; KHPR, Honolulu; and WXXI, Rochester, N.Y. Major market affiliates include KUHA, Houston; WFMT; WICR, Indianapolis; WUOL, Louisville; WRCJ, Detroit; WQED, Pittsburgh; and WQXR.

The WFMT Radio Network created "Exploring Music" and is its exclusive producer, marketer, and distributor. The network is the international syndication division of Chicago-based Window to the World

Communications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation which is also the licensee of award-winning classical music station 98.7WFMT and WTTW-TV, Chicago's premiere public television station. The network is one of the world's most well-regarded sources for fine arts radio programming.

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