• The small number of commercial classical radio stations continues to dwindle with news from Vermont that WCVT-FM will switch formats. The station is owned by Radio Vermont, whose general manager, Eric Michaels, told Vermont Public Radio that the change was largely prompted by VPR’s classical service. Michaels told VPR the new format would be forthcoming and hew to “the local ownership and the local direction that we very much believe in.”
Seymour
• Detroit Public Television is producing a new series, Feel Grand, hosted by actress Jane Seymour and targeting the health concerns of baby boomers. Seymour will visit the station June 23-27 to record the 13 episodes, which will be distributed nationally by American Public Television in September. Co-producer is Grandparents.com, with sponsor support from Aetna.
• A tugboat built in 1946 is now home to Steam Radio Syndicate, which last week began broadcasting a four-hour show from its 150-foot hull off the coast of Portland, Ore., according to the Oregonian. Local community radio KBOO is carrying the first program, which traces the history of the waterfront.
• Actor LeVar Burton, currently raising Kickstarter millions to revitalize the Reading Rainbow pubTV brand, posted a parody theme song for the show on Funny or Die Wednesday. “Because I read a book, I can literally do anything,” the song says — cool stuff like creating planets and becoming a god on Earth who destroys butterflies with smoky sparks. Oops. “No man should have powers like this,” Burton says anxiously in the short film. Within hours of posting, the video already had some 24,000 views.