Gockley said he had been pursuing a number of options to bring the company back to the radio waves, including assembling a syndicate of several local public stations. With half a million listeners, it is the second-largest classical station in the country, behind New York's WQXR, and it consistently scores high in the Arbriton ratings.īut the format has been a harder sell among hard-core classical aficionados, and adding full-length opera back into the mix could help bring those listeners back more regularly. Contemporary or vocal offerings are rarely heard.įrom a financial perspective, that format has helped make KDFC one of the rare success stories in the increasingly marginal world of commercial classical radio. Under Program Director Bill Lueth, KDFC has put an emphasis on accessibility, offering short selections of instrumental music from the 18th and 19th centuries. The deal marks the return of opera programming to KDFC, which made waves in 1999 by dropping its live weekly broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera.

Houston grand opera radio broadcasts