Music Through the Night

According to a Time Magazine article first published in 1952, Music Through the Night got its original incarnation when Civil Defense authorities asked Ted Cott of Manhattan's WNBC (660) radio to keep a radio tone signal playing all night so as to be immediately able to send out important public announcements. He elected to try an all-classical music program instead, and the program proved popular.[2]

Today's incarnation is provided by Classical 24 and is hosted primarily by Minnesota Public Radio's Andrea Blain and Garrett McQueen.[3] According to promotional materials, "Seven days a week, this program offers a choice of music and style of presentation perfectly suited for through-the-night listening. The program mixes standard repertoire with the finest works by lesser-known composers to lend perspective to major musical figures." The all-day Classical 24 format generally follows the Music Through the Night format with some modifications.

The program begins each hour with a brief introduction by the host to the featured musical selection (which can run up to 10 minutes or longer) to be played later during the hour. A shorter musical selection follows for five minutes (a few stations pre-empt this for the standard top-of-the-hour NPR newscast), and then four to six other selections, one or two of these being the featured selection(s) of the hour, which are longer in duration. A shorter selection often concludes the hour.

The host briefly introduces each selection, stating the name of the piece, its composer, the orchestra (and/or soloist if applicable) and conductor of the selection, and sometimes providing a brief anecdotal and/or historical note of interest about the piece and/or the composer.

Before some of the pieces, a brief pre-recorded "sound bite" interview with the composer, conductor or principal soloist of that piece is introduced by the host, to give some perspective on the selection being played.

The host will sometimes read one or two brief national, international and/or business news headlines in between selections, especially towards the top of the hour, and as the morning hours approach (in the Eastern time zone). At the top of the 6 a.m. hour (Central time), the two-minute program Composers Datebook, hosted by John Birge (pre-recorded and syndicated separately by American Public Media), is played as part of the Music Through the Night/Classical 24 playlist for the hour.

Different affiliates end their Music Through the Night coverage at slightly varied times in the morning to begin their broadcast day with local announcers; a handful present the entire Classical 24 schedule, including Music Through the Night, with no local hosts. Some affiliates present the entire Classical 24 schedule via additional digital radio channels and/or internet streaming.

While works from Modern and even a few contemporary composers are presented, most of the programming typically specializes in Classical and Romantic composition; while music from these periods is available on daytime programming in some markets, few shows specialize like Music Through the Night.

Garrett McQueen, the Classical 24 overnight host and its only Black host, was employed by Minnesota Public Radio when he was terminated on September 10, 2020 for "not following programming guidelines."[4] McQueen "was taken off the air after his shift on Aug. 25" and "given two warnings — one of which was about his need to improve communication and the other warning was for switching out scheduled music to play pieces he felt were more appropriate to the moment and more diverse," according to McQueen.[4]

Minnesota Public Radio and its larger sister organization American Public Media (APM) co-produced Classical 24. Minnesota Public Radio President Duchesne Drew and APM President Dave Kansas wrote in a statement published on September 11, 2020 that previous warnings were tied to his departure not his music choices or his "unauthorized changes to playlists." [5] They claim it was the manner in which he made the changes not the actual content,[5] which were a direct response to the death of George Floyd in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department. The tragedy of Floyd's videotaped killing prompted both local and international protests in the name of Black Lives Matter despite shelter-in-place orders during the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic. In posts on his social media accounts, Garrett claimed that his playlist changes were a direct response to the national events and that audience welcomed his changes:

"When things happened in the news or when there were hours of programming that only represented dead white men, I would take it upon myself to change that,” said McQueen. “That always got lots of really positive feedback, but it's not exactly what protocol calls for.”[4]

Yet, the collective statement from executives at MPR and APM emphasized McQueen's departure was due to other concerns:

We have a process in place for changing playlists, and that process exists to maintain our more than 200 partner stations’ compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and to ensure royalties are properly paid for the music played.

McQueen felt his departure was prompted by his direct on-air response to local protests:

“And let's just face it,” said McQueen, “with [the killing of] George Floyd and all of those things, there was a lot of pressure for me to engage the audience while that's happening. I'm on the air, literally while the 3rd Precinct is being burned down. So, it's my responsibility to make sure that the [classical] programming spoke to that and that's what I did.”

McQueen, is a professional bassoonist, whose classical playlists reflected a "deep knowledge of the history behind classical music," given the problematic under-representation of Black composers and musicians in the field of recorded classical music and staged performance.[6] He played a significant role since 2018 to diversify the station's programming. MPR and APM stated that they "remain steadfast in pursuing that commitment," highlighting in bold:

Across Classical MPR, 24 percent of the music we play features a composer, conductor or soloist who is a woman and/or a Black person, Indigenous person, or Person of Color. We are committed to increasing this number.

McQueen's Twitter bio reads: "Musician and content creator decolonizing so-called classical music."[7] As of early 2021, he continued to co-host Trilloquy, an independent podcast co-created with MPR classical music host Scott Blankenship, which discusses classical music’s role “in the fight against police brutality, anti-racism, and more.”[8]

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