An important milestone takes place this year and I want to draw some attention to it.  WFMT General Manager Steve Robinson is celebrating his 10th anniversary as GM of Chicago’s only classical music station and the WFMT Radio Network.  For those of us lucky enough to know and work with Steve, we can attest to his generosity and visionary leadership in the classical music arena.  His energetic and effective work on behalf of all of the classical music organizations, performers, and music schools in Chicago is enormous.

It would take a lot more space then we have to share all of the highlights of the last ten years of Steve’s stewardship, but here are a few that I would like to share.

Norman Pellegrini, long-time program director for WFMT radio, passed away early this morning.

Norm helped to launch the Chicago Chamber Musicians at the inception of the organization in the mid-1980s, recognizing immediately the quality of the founding artists, their unique vision and the potential for such an organization in Chicago.  He started by putting the artists on the air at WFMT on a monthly basis, and his fierce intelligence and keen passion were fodder for the seminal discussions and work that helped to build CCM in the early years.  Since that time, he has been an Honorary Director for CCM. 

Last Saturday (April 5) marked the premiere of Introductions, a brand-new weekly program on 98.7 WFMT (Saturdays from 11:00am-12:00pm) which features Chicago-area pre-collegiate musicians doing what they love most; playing classical music.

"It's important to reach out specifically to this younger audience which is enthusiastic about classical music, that we hadn't tried to explicitly attract until now," said David Polk, the show's producer. "I'm excited that I get to expand WFMT's reach and pioneer new ways to connect with audiences via the airwaves and also the internet."

Read more about Introductions and Polk in this article in the recent TimeOut! Magazine.

A good friend of mine who goes by the alias "Drex Drexler" sent me this article from today's New York Times, which provides evidence that Thomas Edison was by no means the first to lay down a track (a recording recently discovered by researchers looks to have beaten Edison to the punch by 20 years). Check it out: here's the article with audio of the findings.

Regarding Jim's blog on Dudamel's appearance on 60 Minutes (which agreed is a good piece), I'd like to link to Andrew Patner's Critical Thinking interview with Dudamel which took place just days before he flew to California (mid-stint with the CSO!) to make his announcement with the LA Philharmonic. Contrary to the last line of the 60 Minutes piece, we in fact heard all about Dudamel on WFMT first.