Jim Svejda (born 1947) is a former American music commentator and critic, born and raised in Chicago, on the Los AngelesFM radio station KUSC. He hosted the station's local week-nightly classical series The Evening Program,[1] until retiring on February 18, 2022. From 1983 he hosted the Sunday night syndicatedclassical music program The Record Shelf,.[2][3] He also hosted the now-cancelled series The Opera Box.
He opened with his program with the phrase: "Good evening. This is Jim Svejda." At the end of The Evening Program, he concludes with the same piece he opened the program with the third movement from Piano Quartet No. 1 by Bohuslav Martinů with: "On behalf of engineers Steve Sivie, Steve Cogill and Mark Hofman, I hoped you enjoyed the last five hours. Tomorrow night, we will conclude a performance of (insert name of work/composer/orchestra/conductor). This is Jim Svejda. Good evening." If the Evening Program is on a Friday, Svejda also announces: On behalf of engineers Steve Sivie, Steve Cogill and Mark Hofman, I hoped you enjoyed the last five hours. This Monday evening, we will conclude a performance of (insert name of work/composer/orchestra/conductor). This is Jim Svejda. Good evening." The Record Shelf featured items such as interviews with classical music notables, surveys of different recordings of a classical music piece, monthly critical surveys of recently released recordings, and noted, often rare historical recordings of great performers of the past. Svejda was praised for his articulate commentaries on these programs. He was nicknamed "A Music Connoisseur" according to listeners.
Svejda is a national treasure[according to whom?] whose voice is a non-trivial attraction to his audio.[citation needed] In his published Record Shelf Guide, Svejda himself describes the book as "an irreverent, selective and highly opinionated recordings guide of the best classical CDs and audiocassettes." He often has viewpoints that might be considered divergent from those of many other music critics.[4]
While admitting that they sometimes have turned out excellent recordings, Svejda has been critical of such illustrious musicians as Vladimir Horowitz and Arturo Toscanini, as well as Herbert von Karajan (whom he has excoriated for his Nazi past) and especially Nikolaus Harnoncourt, whom Svejda has called an "incompetent bozo."[4]
Svejda is also an occasional film critic, with his reviews syndicated on the CBS Radio Network. After 43 years at KUSC, Svejda announced his retirement. His last show was Friday, February 18th, 2022. Svejda's replacement, KUSC Resident Artist Lara Downes was announced as his successor on March 18, 2022.
~Notable Segments~ During his time at KUSC, Svejda has hosted numerous segments. These included...
KUSC's Annual Chanukkah Program is a special program consisting of a special story telling of The Channukah Story with Leonard Nimoy and Western Wind, and George Frederic Handel’s telling of the story, the oratorio Judas Maccabaeus.
New Year's Eve Bash is described as "seven hours of mirth, mayhem, and questionable taste." Also on the Bash, listeners participated in the New Year's Eve Sobriety Test for a chance to compete for more or less valuable prizes (more than 8 feet of brand new, fresh-in-the-shrink-wrap classical CDs).
Performances of classics that only Svejda can find.
The annual Evening Program Halloween Spook-Out, featured five hours of the scariest music the host can find.
Visits and interviews with performers.
A traditional All-American Fourth of July program and more.
Barret Eugene Hansen, known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present. Hansen created the Demento persona in 1970 while working at the Pasadena, California, station KPPC-FM. After he once played "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, DJ "The Obscene" Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be "demented" to play it; this event inspired his stage name. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974 and was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Network from 1978 to 1992. Broadcast syndication of the show ended on June 6, 2010, but the show continues to be produced weekly in an online version.
Star's End is a weekly, five-hour-long new-age music radio show broadcast by 88.5 WXPN, the University of Pennsylvania's radio station, in Philadelphia. It is the second longest-running show of its type in the world, after Hearts of Space.
KRRL – branded Real 92.3 – is a commercial urban contemporary radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, serving much of the Greater Los Angeles area. Owned by iHeartMedia, KRRL serves as the flagship for Big Boy's Neighborhood. The KRRL studios are located in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, while the station transmitter resides on Mount Wilson. Besides a standard analog transmission, KRRL broadcasts over two HD Radio channels, and is available online via iHeartRadio.
KUSC is a listener-supported classical music radio station broadcasting from downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. KUSC is owned and operated by the University of Southern California, which also operates student-run Internet station KXSC (AM) and San Francisco's classical station KDFC. It is the largest non-profit classical music station in the country and one of the two classical music stations in the Greater Los Angeles Area along with KMZT.
Hearts of Space is an American weekly syndicated public radio show featuring music of a contemplative nature drawn largely from the ambient, new-age and electronic genres, while also including classical, world, Celtic, experimental, and other music selections. For many years, the show's producer and presenter, Stephen Hill, has applied the term "space music" to the music broadcast on the show, irrespective of genre. It is the longest-running radio program of its type in the world. Each episode ends with Hill gently saying, "Safe journeys, space fans ... wherever you are."
Classical 24 is a syndicated, satellite-delivered public radio service providing classical music to its carrying stations. It generally airs overnights on many non-commercial and a handful of commercial classical music stations. However, the service is operated 24 hours a day and is used by some stations during the day to augment their schedules. It was co-created by a partnership between Minnesota Public Radio and Public Radio International to fulfill the need for a comprehensive classic music service for stations to supplement their schedules. As part of this partnership, the service is produced by American Public Media and since 2018, is distributed by Public Radio Exchange. It began operation on December 1, 1995.
WBHM is a non-commercial public FM radio station in Birmingham, Alabama. The station is licensed to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where it maintains its radio studios on 11th Street South. WBHM features programming from National Public Radio, American Public Media and Public Radio Exchange. On weekdays, it carries news and information programming, with classical music heard late nights, seven days a week. Weekend programming includes public radio shows such as Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, On The Media, The Moth Radio Hour and Travel with Rick Steves, as well as Bluegrass music and New Age music.
The Classical Public Radio Network was a national, 24-hour classical music service in the United States. Its mission was to preserve, enhance and expand experience of classical music for radio listeners. With this vision, CPRN was established in 1998 as a limited-liability non-profit company – a joint venture of KUSC and Colorado Public Radio – with startup funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2003, CPRN and National Public Radio (NPR) joined in a collaborative marketing arrangement to further expand the network, but ceased national broadcast operations on June 30, 2008.
The Continental is an American television series that aired on CBS from January 22, 1952, through April 17, 1952, and on ABC from October 1952 through January 6, 1953. It starred Renzo Cesana in the title role.
Thomas Kent Newton was an American radio personality and label executive. As the head of the Tom Kent Radio Network, Kent hosted and produced syndicated daily, weekend and, 24/7 programming each week on approximately 600 stations. The majority of Kent's programming was centered on classic hits and adult contemporary music formats, with selected programming made available to stations of any music format. There are 24 different syndicated radio products available on TKRN and are heard in seven different formats.
WGBH is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts. WGBH is a member station of National Public Radio (NPR) and affiliate of Public Radio Exchange (PRX) and American Public Media (APM). The license-holder is WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns company flagship WGBH-TV and WGBX-TV, along with WGBY-TV in Springfield.
William McGlaughlin is an American composer, conductor, music educator, and Peabody Award-winning classical music radio host. He is the host and music director of the public radio programs Exploring Music and Saint Paul Sunday.
Exploring Music is an internationally syndicated radio program featuring classical music, with commentary and analysis by host Bill McGlaughlin. It is a daily, one-hour show with a single in-depth theme each week. The show, which debuted in 2003, is produced by WFMT Radio Network. Exploring Music is in many ways the heir to the late Karl Haas' popular long-running show, Adventures in Good Music, expanded and updated for a 21st-century audience.
WFMT is a commercial FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a classical music radio format. It is managed by Window to the World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, Chicago's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station. WFMT seeks donations on the air and on its website. The studios and offices are on North Saint Louis Avenue in Chicago.
Jeff Pearce is an Indiana-based ambient/new age musician. He has been called "one of the top two electronic guitarists of all time" by Allmusic, while reviewer John Diliberto wrote in Billboard magazine that Pearce is "one of the best" guitarists to follow the solo electric guitarist concept. Pearce started playing guitar at age 13 and discovered the music of Brian Eno and Harold Budd while in college.
Music for a Time of War is a 2011 concert program and subsequent album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of Carlos Kalmar. The program consists of four compositions inspired by war: Charles Ives'The Unanswered Question (1906), John Adams'The Wound-Dresser (1989), Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem (1940) and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 4 (1935). The program was performed on May 7, 2011, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, and again the following day. Both concerts were recorded for album release. On May 12, the Oregon Symphony repeated the program at the inaugural Spring for Music Festival, at Carnegie Hall. The performance was broadcast live by KQAC and WQXR-FM, the classical radio stations serving Portland and the New York City metropolitan area, respectively. The concerts marked the Oregon Symphony's first performances of The Wound-Dresser as well as guest baritone Sanford Sylvan's debut with the company.
Tragic Lovers is a classical music album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of James DePreist, released by the record label Delos in 2008. It contains three works inspired by tragic love stories in literature: Richard Wagner's Prelude and "Liebestod" from Tristan and Isolde (1865), Hector Berlioz's "Love Scene" from Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. Amelia Haygood and Carol Rosenberger served as executive producers of the album; the recording producers were Michael Fine and Adam Stern. The album's creation was financially supported by the Gretchen Brooks Recording Fund, which supported two recording sessions per year for each of DePreist's final five years as music director. Tragic Lovers was the orchestra's final recording with DePreist — who left the Oregon Symphony in April 2003 — as conductor and its final contribution to Delos's "Virtual Reality Recording" series.
KWKW is a commercial Spanish-language radio station licensed to serve Los Angeles, California, United States, featuring a sports format known as "Tu Liga Radio 1330". Owned by Lotus Communications, the station services Greater Los Angeles and much of surrounding Southern California and, since September 2019, has been the Los Angeles affiliate for Univision's TUDN Radio. Having adopted the current sports format on October 1, 2005, KWKW is the Spanish language flagship station for multiple Los Angeles professional sports franchises including the Rams, Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Angels and the LA Galaxy. KWKW itself is Southern California's oldest Spanish language radio station, having begun operations in 1941 at 1430AM and licensed to Pasadena and transferring to 1300AM—also based in Pasadena—in 1950. KWKW's programming and call sign moved to 1330AM from 1300AM in 1989 following Lotus' acquisition of the former and sale of the latter.
Marc Taddei is a conductor based in New Zealand. He is the music director of both Orchestra Wellington in New Zealand since 2007, and San Francisco-based Vallejo Symphony Orchestra since 2016. He is a frequent guest conductor with orchestras throughout New Zealand, Australia, and the United States, and as a recording artist has worked in cinema and television productions, and produced many commercial classical music recordings.
Donald H. Tait, was an American classical music radio host and producer. From 1972 until his retirement in 2007, he was a program host for WFMT in Chicago.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
