What's on the Radio?

I wanted to know what kind of music is played on Washington D.C.'s classical music radio station, Classical WETA 90.9 FM. And now, 600 lines of Java (computer) code and two days later, I have the answer.

Classical WETA began publishing online its daily playlists during November of 2008. Using this web resource, I wrote some code that creates a database of sorts filled with information about all the music aired from January 1, 2009, to today, June 10, 2009 (this range spans 161 days). Once I had the database, I wrote some more code that computes some basic statistics. I also did some data management so that the results are pretty accurate.

Below are the results. The first number after a composer's name is the total airtime for that composer, rounded to the nearest hour. The number in parentheses is the number of times that composer came on the radio. From this, we can see that Classical WETA favors older composers and airs very little music by some famous modern composers (see Prokofiev, Bartók, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky, for examples). Also, it always seemed like Telemann came on quite often, and these results confirm my suspicion.

Edit: After seeing the list below, a friend pointed out to me that if you tune in at a random time, there is about a 50% chance you will hear music by someone in the top 10 of the list (Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Bach, Dvorák, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, and Handel).

Composer Total Airtimes on Classical WETA 90.9 FM for the Year 2009:

1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 313 hours (890 selections)
2. Ludwig van Beethoven, 254 hours (625 selections)
3. Joseph Haydn, 236 hours (683 selections)
4. Johann Sebastian Bach, 213 hours (810 selections)
5. Antonin Dvorák, 158 hours (409 selections)
6. Felix Mendelssohn, 151 hours (481 selections)
7. Johannes Brahms, 140 hours (316 selections)
8. Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 137 hours (329 selections)
9. Franz Schubert, 108 hours (275 selections)
10. George Frideric Handel, 101 hours (407 selections)
11. Georg Philipp Telemann, 99 hours (407 selections)
12. Antonio Vivaldi, 98 hours (487 selections)
13. Frédéric Chopin, 89 hours (351 selections)
14. Robert Schumann, 81 hours (204 selections)
15. Sergei Rachmaninoff, 70 hours (155 selections)
16. Camille Saint-Saëns, 57 hours (181 selections)
17. Richard Wagner, 48 hours (126 selections)
18. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, 45 hours (136 selections)
19. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, 40 hours (159 selections)
20. Louis Spohr, 33 hours (96 selections)
21. Johann Strauss, Jr., 33 hours (172 selections)
22. Carl Maria von Weber, 31 hours (139 selections)
23. Gioacchino Rossini, 29 hours (158 selections)
24. Johann Nepomuk Hummel, 28 hours (95 selections)
25. Edvard Grieg, 27 hours (96 selections)
26. Georges Bizet, 26 hours (89 selections)
27. Johann Christian Bach, 26 hours (120 selections)
28. Gabriel Fauré, 25 hours (86 selections)
29. Max Bruch, 25 hours (58 selections)
30. Alexander Glazunov, 24 hours (82 selections)
31. Hector Berlioz, 21 hours (58 selections)
32. Ottorino Respighi, 21 hours (45 selections)
33. Claude Debussy, 19 hours (84 selections)
34. Michael Haydn, 19 hours (63 selections)
35. Maurice Ravel, 19 hours (74 selections)
36. Giuseppe Verdi, 18 hours (35 selections)
37. Luigi Boccherini, 17 hours (69 selections)
38. Domenico Scarlatti, 17 hours (100 selections)
39. Giacomo Puccini, 16 hours (28 selections)
40. Carl Stamitz, 16 hours (58 selections)
41. John Field, 15 hours (33 selections)
42. Franz Liszt, 15 hours (54 selections)
43. Johann David Heinichen, 14 hours (66 selections)
44. Franz Danzi, 14 hours (43 selections)
45. Bedrich Smetana, 14 hours (61 selections)
46. Jean Sibelius, 13 hours (51 selections)
47. Nicolò Paganini, 13 hours (39 selections)
48. Léo Delibes, 13 hours (38 selections)
49. Aram Khachaturian, 12 hours (44 selections)
50. Jacques Offenbach, 12 hours (56 selections)
51. Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov, 12 hours (19 selections)
52. Johan Halvorsen, 11 hours (51 selections)
53. Henryk Wieniawski, 11 hours (51 selections)
54. Jean-Philippe Rameau, 11 hours (36 selections)
55. Giuseppe Torelli, 11 hours (77 selections)
56. Modest Mussorgsky, 10 hours (25 selections)
57. Johan Helmich Roman, 10 hours (42 selections)
58. Edouard Lalo, 10 hours (21 selections)
59. Antonio Bazzini, 10 hours (52 selections)
60. Richard Strauss, 10 hours (31 selections)
61. Johann Baptist Georg Neruda, 10 hours (44 selections)
62. Ralph Vaughan Williams, 10 hours (41 selections)
63. William Boyce, 9 hours (51 selections)
64. Franz von Suppé, 9 hours (56 selections)
65. Gaetano Donizetti, 9 hours (4 selections)
66. Alexander Borodin, 8 hours (38 selections)
67. Mauro Giuliani, 8 hours (23 selections)
68. Bernhard Henrik Crusell, 8 hours (22 selections)
69. Tomaso Albinoni, 8 hours (32 selections)
70. Mikhail Glinka, 8 hours (43 selections)
71. Silvius Leopold Weiss, 8 hours (35 selections)
72. Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, 8 hours (31 selections)
73. Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, 8 hours (35 selections)
74. Frederick the Great of Prussia, 8 hours (33 selections)
75. Fritz Kreisler, 8 hours (49 selections)
76. Arthur Foote, 8 hours (15 selections)
77. Carl Friedrich Abel, 7 hours (35 selections)
78. Giovanni Gabrieli, 7 hours (43 selections)
79. Leos Janácek, 7 hours (23 selections)
80. Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, 7 hours (39 selections)
81. Chevalier de Saint-Georges, 7 hours (23 selections)
82. Francois-Adrien Boieldieu, 7 hours (23 selections)
83. Sir Arthur Sullivan, 7 hours (36 selections)
84. Johann Wilhelm Wilms, 7 hours (14 selections)
85. Jean-Féry Rebel, 7 hours (31 selections)
86. Pablo de Sarasate, 7 hours (34 selections)
87. Francesco Maria Veracini, 6 hours (24 selections)
88. Charles Avison, 6 hours (30 selections)
89. Giuseppe Tartini, 6 hours (26 selections)
90. Percy Aldridge Grainger, 6 hours (35 selections)
91. John Marsh, 6 hours (28 selections)
92. Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, 6 hours (31 selections)
93. Pierre Rode, 6 hours (22 selections)
94. Sergei Prokofiev, 6 hours (22 selections)
95. Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 6 hours (18 selections)
96. Henry Purcell, 6 hours (28 selections)
97. Emmanuel Chabrier, 6 hours (33 selections)
98. Etienne-Nicolas Mehul, 6 hours (19 selections)
99. Alexander Nikolayevitch Scriabin, 6 hours (16 selections)
100. Ferdinando Carulli, 6 hours (20 selections)
101. Sir Edward Elgar, 5 hours (19 selections)
102. Charles Gounod, 5 hours (22 selections)
103. Antonio Salieri, 5 hours (25 selections)
104. Franz Clement, 5 hours (10 selections)
105. John Knowles Paine, 5 hours (17 selections)
106. Peter von Winter, 5 hours (15 selections)
107. Gustav Mahler, 5 hours (8 selections)
108. Christian Cannabich, 5 hours (23 selections)
109. Louis Moreau Gottschalk, 5 hours (19 selections)
110. Leonardo Leo, 5 hours (20 selections)
111. Dmitri Kabalevsky, 5 hours (22 selections)
112. Leopold Mozart, 5 hours (25 selections)
113. Thomas Augustine Arne, 5 hours (24 selections)
114. Benjamin Godard, 5 hours (14 selections)
115. Johann Christoph Bach, 5 hours (21 selections)
116. Domenico Cimarosa, 5 hours (17 selections)
117. Francois Couperin, 4 hours (25 selections)
118. Emil Waldteufel, 4 hours (25 selections)
119. Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, 4 hours (28 selections)
120. Charles-Auguste de Bériot, 4 hours (11 selections)
121. Ernö von Dohnányi, 4 hours (11 selections)
122. Edward MacDowell, 4 hours (11 selections)
123. Franz Anton Hoffmeister, 4 hours (14 selections)
124. Christoph Willibald Gluck, 4 hours (13 selections)
125. Francois Devienne, 4 hours (14 selections)
126. Franz Krommer, 4 hours (13 selections)
127. Johann Pachelbel, 4 hours (18 selections)
128. Vincenzo Bellini, 4 hours (6 selections)
129. William Grant Still, 4 hours (14 selections)
130. Muzio Clementi, 4 hours (12 selections)
131. Francesco Ciléa, 3 hours (1 selections)
132. George Gershwin, 3 hours (14 selections)
133. John Adams, 3 hours (1 selections)
134. Josef Myslivecek, 3 hours (17 selections)
135. John Playford, 3 hours (21 selections)
136. Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, 3 hours (8 selections)
137. Nicholas Maw, 3 hours (1 selections)
138. Graf Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer, 3 hours (15 selections)
139. Dmitri Shostakovich, 3 hours (20 selections)
140. Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, 3 hours (18 selections)
141. Traditional, 3 hours (15 selections)
142. Benjamin Britten, 3 hours (13 selections)
143. Luys de Narvaez, 3 hours (13 selections)
144. Samuel Wesley, 3 hours (14 selections)
145. Johann Friedrich Fasch, 3 hours (11 selections)
146. César Franck, 3 hours (7 selections)
147. Georges Enescu, 3 hours (12 selections)
148. James Hook, 3 hours (10 selections)
149. Sir Edward German, 3 hours (11 selections)
150. Carl Nielsen, 3 hours (12 selections)
151. Antonio Rosetti, 3 hours (9 selections)
152. Anton Bruckner, 3 hours (4 selections)
153. Karl Goldmark, 2 hours (12 selections)
154. Gabriel Pierne, 2 hours (12 selections)
155. Elias Parish Alvars, 2 hours (5 selections)
156. Joseph Fiala, 2 hours (8 selections)
157. Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 2 hours (15 selections)
158. Domenico Caudioso, 2 hours (9 selections)
159. Georg Caspar Schurmann, 2 hours (6 selections)
160. Archduke Rudolf of Austria, 2 hours (8 selections)
161. Jan Zach, 2 hours (8 selections)
162. Carl Michael Ziehrer, 2 hours (8 selections)
163. Mily Balakirev, 2 hours (12 selections)
164. Robert Ballard, 2 hours (7 selections)
165. Franz Lehar, 2 hours (10 selections)
166. Renaissance Music, 2 hours (10 selections)
167. Adriano Banchieri, 2 hours (7 selections)
168. Ludwig August Lebrun, 2 hours (8 selections)
169. Victor Herbert, 2 hours (8 selections)
170. Adolphe Adam, 2 hours (14 selections)
171. Giovanni Bottesini, 2 hours (10 selections)
172. Thomas Linley, 2 hours (7 selections)
173. Leonard Bernstein, 2 hours (14 selections)
174. George Chadwick, 2 hours (7 selections)
175. Josef Strauss, 2 hours (12 selections)
176. Friedrich von Flotow, 2 hours (6 selections)
177. Nicola Fiorenza, 2 hours (9 selections)
178. Gasparo Spontini, 2 hours (12 selections)
179. Samuel Barber, 2 hours (9 selections)
180. Salomon Jadassohn, 2 hours (6 selections)
181. Franz Lachner, 2 hours (6 selections)
182. Vincent d' Indy, 2 hours (4 selections)
183. Schubert/Liszt, 2 hours (12 selections)
184. Bach/Busoni, 2 hours (5 selections)
185. Agustin Barrios Mangore, 2 hours (4 selections)
186. Ignaz Paderewski, 2 hours (5 selections)
187. Johann Martini, 2 hours (5 selections)
188. Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, 2 hours (9 selections)
189. Gottfried Finger, 2 hours (4 selections)
190. John Stanley, 2 hours (6 selections)
191. Nicola Porpora, 2 hours (5 selections)
192. Clara Wieck Schumann, 2 hours (4 selections)
193. Marin Marais, 2 hours (11 selections)
194. Traditional Irish, 2 hours (4 selections)
195. Giovanni Paisiello, 2 hours (3 selections)
196. Cecile Chaminade, 2 hours (9 selections)
197. Hugo Alfvén, 2 hours (9 selections)
198. Philipp Heinrich Erlebach, 2 hours (5 selections)
199. Louis Ganne, 1 hours (10 selections)
200. Anton Stamitz, 1 hours (5 selections)
201. Baldassare Galuppi, 1 hours (7 selections)
202. Claudio Monteverdi, 1 hours (9 selections)
203. Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, 1 hours (4 selections)
204. Franz Benda, 1 hours (5 selections)
205. Johann Christian Schieferdecker, 1 hours (7 selections)
206. Kalervo Tuukkanen, 1 hours (11 selections)
207. Jean-Joseph Mouret, 1 hours (3 selections)
208. Johann Strauss, Sr., 1 hours (8 selections)
209. Franz Berwald, 1 hours (8 selections)
210. Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, 1 hours (3 selections)
211. James Brooks, 1 hours (5 selections)
212. Joseph Lanner, 1 hours (7 selections)
213. Rudolf Friml, 1 hours (7 selections)
214. Zoltan Kodaly, 1 hours (4 selections)
215. Albert Franz Doppler, 1 hours (6 selections)
216. Ferdinand David, 1 hours (6 selections)
217. Max Reger, 1 hours (6 selections)
218. Anton Rubinstein, 1 hours (7 selections)
219. William Byrd, 1 hours (6 selections)
220. Alessandro Marcello, 1 hours (5 selections)
221. François Rebel and François Francoeur, 1 hours (1 selections)
222. Jacques de Saint-Luc, 1 hours (5 selections)
223. Manuel de Falla, 1 hours (9 selections)
224. Padre Antonio Soler, 1 hours (8 selections)
225. Richard Addinsell, 1 hours (6 selections)
226. David Diamond, 1 hours (5 selections)
227. Engelbert Humperdinck, 1 hours (6 selections)
228. Felix Draeseke, 1 hours (4 selections)
229. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 1 hours (5 selections)
230. Jean-Baptiste Arban, 1 hours (7 selections)
231. Johann Joachim Quantz, 1 hours (4 selections)
232. Enrique Granados, 1 hours (7 selections)
233. Franz Ignaz Beck, 1 hours (6 selections)
234. Tylman Susato, 1 hours (7 selections)
235. Heinrich Marschner, 1 hours (6 selections)
236. Ernest Bloch, 1 hours (5 selections)
237. Iosif Ivanovici, 1 hours (7 selections)
238. John Dowland, 1 hours (5 selections)
239. John Mahon, 1 hours (4 selections)
240. Jules Massenet, 1 hours (6 selections)
241. Otto Nicolai, 1 hours (6 selections)
242. Thomas Morley, 1 hours (8 selections)
243. Johan Wagenaar, 1 hours (5 selections)
244. Michele Mascitti, 1 hours (7 selections)
245. Nikolai Medtner, 1 hours (3 selections)
246. Joseph Joachim, 1 hours (1 selections)
247. Albert Roussel, 1 hours (3 selections)
248. Eric Satie, 1 hours (6 selections)
249. Strauss Family, 1 hours (4 selections)
250. Daniel Bacheler, 1 hours (5 selections)
251. Francesco Xaverio Geminiani, 1 hours (5 selections)
252. Filippo Gragnani, 1 hours (3 selections)
253. Gabriel Diaz, 1 hours (5 selections)
254. John Alden Carpenter, 1 hours (4 selections)
255. Georg Matthias Monn, 1 hours (2 selections)
256. John Harbison, 1 hours (2 selections)
257. Hermann Bellstedt, 1 hours (4 selections)
258. Arcangelo Corelli, 1 hours (4 selections)
259. Igor Stravinsky, 1 hours (6 selections)
260. Joseph Rheinberger, 1 hours (1 selections)
261. Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, 1 hours (6 selections)
262. Francois Borne, 1 hours (3 selections)
263. Scott Joplin, 1 hours (4 selections)
264. Francis Poulenc, 1 hours (3 selections)
265. Josef Rheinberger, 1 hours (3 selections)
266. Joseph Canteloube, 1 hours (4 selections)
267. Anton Arensky, 1 hours (1 selections)
268. Eduard Strauss, 1 hours (4 selections)
269. Hans Sitt, 1 hours (4 selections)
270. Georg Christoph Wagenseil, 1 hours (3 selections)
271. Wilhelm Stenhammar, 1 hours (4 selections)
272. Alban Berg, 1 hours (1 selections)
273. André Previn, 1 hours (1 selections)
274. Charles Tomlinson Griffes, 1 hours (2 selections)
275. Thomas Shaw, 1 hours (2 selections)
276. Ambroise Thomas, 1 hours (3 selections)
277. Henry Charles Litolff, 1 hours (3 selections)
278. Jeno Hubay, 1 hours (4 selections)
279. Arnold Schoenberg, 0 hours (1 selections)
280. Bach/Rachmaninoff, 0 hours (3 selections)
281. Libby Larsen, 0 hours (1 selections)
282. Reinhold Glière, 0 hours (4 selections)
283. Aaron Copland, 0 hours (3 selections)
284. Claude Gervaise, 0 hours (3 selections)
285. Frederick Delius, 0 hours (1 selections)
286. Gerald Finzi, 0 hours (1 selections)
287. Kosaku Yamada, 0 hours (1 selections)
288. Malcolm Arnold, 0 hours (3 selections)
289. Eugène Ysaÿe, 0 hours (2 selections)
290. John Ireland, 0 hours (1 selections)
291. Anonymous, 0 hours (3 selections)
292. Kevin Puts, 0 hours (1 selections)
293. Thomas Tallis, 0 hours (1 selections)
294. Albert Zabel, 0 hours (2 selections)
295. Horatio Parker, 0 hours (2 selections)
296. Miklos Rozsa, 0 hours (2 selections)
297. Pietro Locatelli, 0 hours (1 selections)
298. Astor Piazzolla, 0 hours (1 selections)
299. Johann Peter Salomon, 0 hours (2 selections)
300. Toru Takemitsu, 0 hours (1 selections)
301. Cesar Cui, 0 hours (3 selections)
302. Hans Neusidler, 0 hours (2 selections)
303. Roy Harris, 0 hours (1 selections)
304. Arno Babadjanian, 0 hours (1 selections)
305. Béla Bartók, 0 hours (2 selections)
306. Ernest Chausson, 0 hours (1 selections)
307. Gustav Holst, 0 hours (2 selections)
308. Niels Wilhelm Gade, 0 hours (2 selections)
309. Frank Martin, 0 hours (1 selections)
310. Ferde Grofé, 0 hours (2 selections)
311. Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, 0 hours (1 selections)
312. Virgil Thomson, 0 hours (2 selections)
313. William Bolcom, 0 hours (1 selections)
314. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, 0 hours (1 selections)
315. Johann III Strauss, 0 hours (2 selections)
316. Jean-Baptiste Lully, 0 hours (2 selections)
317. Moritz Moszkowski, 0 hours (2 selections)
318. Somei Satoh, 0 hours (1 selections)
319. Gordon Jacob, 0 hours (1 selections)
320. György Sándor Ligeti, 0 hours (1 selections)
321. Rossini/Britten, 0 hours (1 selections)
322. Benedetto Marcello, 0 hours (1 selections)
323. Bright Sheng, 0 hours (1 selections)
324. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, 0 hours (1 selections)
325. Howard Hanson, 0 hours (1 selections)
326. Lars-Erik Larsson, 0 hours (1 selections)
327. Paul Dukas, 0 hours (1 selections)
328. Saro/Bruell, 0 hours (2 selections)
329. Stanley Myers, 0 hours (1 selections)
330. Alonso Mudarra, 0 hours (1 selections)
331. Alphonse Hasselmans, 0 hours (1 selections)
332. Amy Beach, 0 hours (1 selections)
333. Graeme Koehne, 0 hours (1 selections)
334. Harold Shapero, 0 hours (1 selections)
335. Irving Fine, 0 hours (1 selections)
336. Johannes Ockeghem, 0 hours (1 selections)
337. Maria-Theresia von Paradis, 0 hours (1 selections)
338. Amilcare Ponchielli, 0 hours (1 selections)
339. Giles Franaby, 0 hours (1 selections)
340. Hamilton Harty, 0 hours (1 selections)
341. Henri Herz, 0 hours (1 selections)
342. Jan Dismas Zelenka, 0 hours (2 selections)
343. Pietro Mascagni, 0 hours (1 selections)
344. Schubert/Prokofiev, 0 hours (1 selections)
345. Strauss/Schulz-Evler, 0 hours (1 selections)
346. Adolph Martin Foerster, 0 hours (1 selections)
347. Andrea Gabrieli, 0 hours (1 selections)
348. Arthur Frackenpohl, 0 hours (1 selections)
349. Louis Joseph Herold, 0 hours (1 selections)
350. Michigo Miyagi, 0 hours (1 selections)
351. Erich Wolfgang Korngold, 0 hours (1 selections)
352. Henry Kimball Hadley, 0 hours (1 selections)
353. Hugo Wolf, 0 hours (1 selections)
354. Josef Fiala, 0 hours (1 selections)
355. Juventino Rosas, 0 hours (1 selections)
356. Karol Kurpinski, 0 hours (1 selections)
357. Emil von Reznicek, 0 hours (1 selections)
358. John Philip Sousa, 0 hours (1 selections)
359. Pietro Lappi, 0 hours (1 selections)
360. Ron Nelson, 0 hours (1 selections)
361. Samuel Scheidt, 0 hours (1 selections)
362. Schubert/Rachmaninoff, 0 hours (1 selections)
363. Alessandro Stradella, 0 hours (1 selections)
364. Johann Jr & Josef Strauss, 0 hours (1 selections)
365. Marcel Tournier, 0 hours (1 selections)
366. Rachmaninoff (arr. Kreisler), 0 hours (1 selections)
367. Vivian Fung, 0 hours (1 selections)
368. Francis Lopez, 0 hours (1 selections)