Hi,  I was thinking of what you hear on the two XM classical stations,
apart from the Met Channel.  The announcers are just dopes who make up
garbage that passes for commentary.  The history of FM radio is full of
knowledgeable announcers who cared about what they were doing and learned
to pronounce foreign names correctly, even when they were just reading the
backs of the albums.  I can't recall all their names, but they lived in a
different world from the XM people today, who obviously are not paid very
well and have no apparent credentials for their jobs.

Best,
John


On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 10:44 AM, [log in to unmask] <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Classical music on FM radio is no different, so in my book SXM and FM are
> the same on the issue of compression.
>
> I wouldn't say Martin Goldspan is ignorant....I used to love hearing him
> on Performance Today and was saddened when he left. I do think that he has
> far less opportunity to speak intelligently about the music. The other
> announcers I haven't listened to as much.
>
> Who do you feel is/was an example of an intelligent announcer of classical
> music?
>
> joe salerno
>
> On 5/18/2014 1:48 AM, John Haley wrote:
>
>> Sirius XM is an abomination, in my view, especially the Met Opera Channel,
>> which destroys the sound quality of its broadcasts with very intense
>> over-compression, robbing voices of their natural vitality and gutting out
>> the emotional content of the a lot of the music.  Soft notes emerge with
>> the same intensity as loud ones, and a solo bassoon on minute is the same
>> loudness as a whole orchestra and chorus in full cry the next.  Not to
>> mention the outrageous noise-pumping that the monstrous compression
>> causes.
>>   The other two classical XM channels are no better, and there we get
>> annoying, ignorant announcers to boot.  The digital radio medium is a
>> great
>> one, but in practice it has been dumbed down to provide the worst sounding
>> radio broadcasts of the last several decades.  Yet another case of
>> successful operation, dead patient.
>>
>> Best,
>> John Haley
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 12:21 AM, John Vallier <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>  While it's impossible to predict the future of anything--including CDs--I
>>> do think we can say we are seeing an increase in the distribution of
>>> online-only music (and video). This presents a growing issue for
>>> libraries
>>> and archives. As more sound recordings are licensed and distributed
>>> through
>>> online-only means and are accompanied by restrictive licenses that
>>> explicitly forbid institutional ownership and such core library functions
>>> as lending, the amount of published material available for libraries to
>>> collect is slowly shrinking. It may not be a huge swell of titles at this
>>> point, but there are some significant ones: e.g., Dudamel's DG release of
>>> Brahms Symphony No. 4.
>>>
>>> U Washington and MLA have received an IMLS grant this year to look at the
>>> issue and to brainstorm possible solutions. Called “National Forum on
>>> Online-Only Music," the project is essentially a series of meetings,
>>> fueled
>>> by white papers written by leading experts in IP and other areas. The
>>> final
>>> of our three meetings will be held in conjunction with NRPB's annual
>>> meeting in DC this fall. We hope to develop approaches to the issues
>>> including a licensing scenario by which libraries may purchase and
>>> provide
>>> access to online-only music. More about the grant can be found here:
>>> http://guides.lib.washington.edu/imls2014
>>>
>>> If you come across examples of online-only music, please share them with
>>> me off-list. I'll add them to our "Online-Only Music Roster" that can be
>>> found at the above site.
>>>
>>> - John
>>> __________
>>> John Vallier
>>> Head, Distributed Media
>>> U of Washington Libraries, Seattle
>>>
>>>  -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Richard Griscom [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>>>> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2014 11:29 AM
>>>> To: MLA-L
>>>> Subject: [MLA-L] Future of CDs
>>>>
>>>> The CD might not be dying anytime soon, but there is clearly a trend
>>>> away
>>>> from the purchase of physical objects toward the purchase of digital
>>>> downloads:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/digital-and-
>>> mobile/5901188/cd-alb
>>>
>>>> um-sales-fall-behind-album-downloads-is-2014-the
>>>>
>>>> Dick
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Richard Griscom
>>>> Head, Otto E. Albrecht Music Library and          office 215/898-3450
>>>>   Eugene Ormandy Music and Media Center
>>>> Interim Head, Fisher Fine Arts Library            office 215/573-4635
>>>> University of Pennsylvania                 Philadelphia PA 19104-6206
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  .
>>
>>
> --
> Joe Salerno
>