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Radio Silence. How NPR purged classical music from its airwaves.
Weekly Standard ^ | 6/14/04 | Andrew Ferguson

Posted on 06/07/2004 6:43:16 AM PDT by Valin

IF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF BLACKSMITHS AND BUGGYWHIP MANUFACTURERS had held a convention in 1910, in those last sullen moments before the Horseless Carriage put them all out of business, then this is what it must have felt like--the same forced cheerfulness laid over the same defeated air, the same stiff upper lip at the prospect of the inescapable end. Outside the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort, on the Florida coast near Tampa Bay, the beach was streaked with wind and black thunderheads stacked up along the horizon. Inside the hotel, members of the Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio had gathered for their 42nd annual convention. These are the programmers who play what remains of classical music on America's noncommercial radio stations. They milled about the Citrus Room, and ducked in and out of the Mangrove Room, and stepped hopefully toward the Manatee Room, where, in the manner of all such trade conventions, a space had been set aside for interested tradesmen to hawk their wares to this select professional audience. It was nearly empty.

On a couch next to the Dolphin Room, Dave Glerum sat talking about classical music and public radio. Glerum is a friendly and thoughtful man, bearded and roundish, who serves as the music director of WMFE, the public radio station in Orlando. He's been coming to the AMPPR conference for 25 years.

"Believe it," he said. "This was once like a major trade show. You had 30 record labels here, giving records away, all kinds of free stuff. Artists would perform during the day, every night, promoting their records. There were throngs of people all weekend long. By Sunday, when you left, you still wouldn't have met 80 percent of the attendees. That's how many people there were. And now it's . . . well . . ." He waved his hand toward the conference-goers who drifted from room to room, singly or in groups of twos and threes.

Glerum has been working at WMFE since 1990. He was hired away from WXXI in Rochester, New York, where he'd worked for more than 10 years. In retrospect, those years now look like the tail end of the glory days of classical programming on the nation's public radio stations, when a large majority of them devoted a large majority of their airtime to music.

"When I came to WMFE, we had three full-time on-air announcers and two part-time announcers," he said. "Now we have no part-time announcers and one full-time announcer." He tapped his chest. "Me."

Like most public radio stations, WMFE was conceived as a "fine arts" station, broadcasting classical music and other arts programs around the clock. Today it carries only three hours a day of its own classical programming. The rest is talk--call-in shows, BBC news, interview shows, as well as the flagship newsmagazines from National Public Radio, All Things Considered and Morning Edition--plus several hours, most of them overnight, of a syndicated classical music service, called Classical 24, that originates from a studio in Minnesota but is designed to sound like local programming wherever it's played. Listeners in Orlando worry that much of even this canned music will soon be replaced by more talk shows. And they're right to worry.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: allthingsconsidered; andrewferguson; ccrm; classicalmusic; classicalradio; culture; culturewar; deadwhiteeuropeans; deadwhitemales; defundnpr; defundtheleft; hateamericaradio; leftwinghateradio; liberaltalkradio; morningedition; music; ninatotenberg; npr; opera; orchestralmusic; pbsnpr; publicbroadcasting; publicradio; radio; savethemales; socialistradio; socialists; taxdollarsatwork; youpayforthis
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To: Valin

Trotskyite liberals: the real cultural philistines.

Now we get college rock album reviews, 'social' art features ,sophmoric musings about 'vanguard' street culture, pseudo-intellectual pronouncements on topics like tatooing and body piercing, an endless interviews with characters that make Howard Stern's guests look like Oxford dons. Literature? Try Garrison Keilor. Self Improvement? Well there are the cooking shows and the gardening shows. Science? Car-talk. Then there's the overt propaganda: morning edition, All Things Considered.

And plenty of commercials you may have noticed:
commercials for goverment agencies (Department of Education for example), for 'non-profits' (notably teacher's unions, some outfit dedicated, ominously, to 'valuing young people as a resource'), and for corporations (car dealers urging you to 'test drive' the blah blah blah, and some financial interest that wants to help you set up your own beneficent trust fund)

Of course all this is Reagans fault, ask any liberal.


21 posted on 06/07/2004 7:55:29 AM PDT by tsomer
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To: Military family member
Hmmm. Typically, I don't complain about the cost of federal arts funding. My complaint is that there is simply no justification for funding "arts" with taxpayer dollars; certainly not at the federal level. The cost is not the issue.

But to use your candy analogy: you don't refrain from buying your child candy because of the cost. You refrain because you know you can't give your child everything, anywhere, any time he wants. If the feds subsidize art, why not subsidize my night in a bar, or the baseball team in town? Doing so would be no less absurd than funding "art".

22 posted on 06/07/2004 8:04:50 AM PDT by Mr. Bird (Ain't the beer cold!)
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To: tsomer

Yes, they just "restructure" my local NPR station so they could give more time to their left-wing blather. I used to listen to it in the car for its classical music, but now I just keep tuned to my friendly conservative talk radio station...

Actually, I listen to classical music radio on the Internet now, because so few stations play it here. Try Classic FM UK for a program of easy-listening chestnuts, with some occasional interesting new stuff. Radio Clásica de España is also good.


23 posted on 06/07/2004 8:11:11 AM PDT by livius
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To: Valin
WBACH in Maine. You can drive the length of the state and hear one of its stations.
24 posted on 06/07/2004 8:12:55 AM PDT by KeyWest
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To: Valin

After the Roy Kroc widow's monetary dontation to NPR the institution should be defunded and "public" removed from its name.


25 posted on 06/07/2004 8:15:04 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Paul Ross
Time to dump the PBS?

AMEN!!!We cannot afford to wait any more.

26 posted on 06/07/2004 8:20:16 AM PDT by eleni121 (Preempt and Prevent---then Destroy)
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To: Valin

When NPR premiered in my city, I listened to it constantly. I was a classical music freak and couldn't believe my great fortune to have an FM station playing classical music almost 24/7. On Sunday nights I usually listened to "Hearts of Space" and enjoyed in immensely.

I listened quite often for anout 12 years. The classical music was gradually replaced by "news' and commentary until he leftwing tilt finally became unbearable. I turned the dial several years ago and haven't missed it a bit.

I get my classical music fix exclusively from CDs now. Pity.


27 posted on 06/07/2004 8:20:20 AM PDT by Skooz (My Biography: Psalm 40:1-3)
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To: Valin

We are fortunate. In the San Antonio area, there is Texas Public Radio, which is two stations plus one that is a combination of the two in the Hill Country.

One of the stations appears to be mostly NPR with all that talk stuff. The other is primarily classical music--mostly local programming (very good) with a bit of NPR's music programs.

Here in the Kerrville, Ingram, Fredericksburg area (tiny towns, rural), we got together to establish & support the combined station. In fact, I have it on right now. :)


28 posted on 06/07/2004 8:28:14 AM PDT by TxGrandMom
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To: Valin

I get two classical channels and one "space music" channel with DirecTV. One of these will be on about twelve hours a day. If something really interesting comes up, I can see the artist and name of the CD, go to the internet and order it.

It would be really great to have a "live" performance channel devoted to fine arts. I would consider paying extra for it, like HBO (which I don't get).

I think fine arts performers have for centuries considered themselves above the marketplace, and simply don't try to market themselves. They have always survived on patronage and by sucking up to whoever is in power.

With Satellite TV and radio, however, they could reach a worldwide audience, and the one or two percent of the population that wants this product could support it.


29 posted on 06/07/2004 8:40:35 AM PDT by js1138 (In a minute there is time, for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. J Forbes Kerry)
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To: r9etb
The funny thing is, my first real exposure to classical music came from a rather unlikely source: Luney Tunes.
30 posted on 06/07/2004 8:47:50 AM PDT by zeugma (The Great Experiment is over.)
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To: zeugma
Those were masterpieces, all right. We were able to get videos of those cartoons from the library. My kids loved them. We play a lot of classical music at home, so they'd already heard most of the stuff anyway -- which means that they got the jokes.

"What is up doc ... may I venture to eeeeeaaaaaaasssssk!"

LOL!

31 posted on 06/07/2004 8:50:40 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: Paul Ross
I certainly accept the basic premise about much of NPR. At the twin cities of Sault Ste Marie Michigan and Ontario we are served by CMU Public Radio. This is out of Midland, Michigan. It is most fortunate though that a chance check on this entity saved me "putting my foot in it"

A main stay at night is "Nightside Jazz and Blues"- a youngish voiced lady introduces it. I could not believe the tortured noise of it last night, it wheedled and strained- awful. I just went to the station today (which I usually do not listen at that time) and heard the superb sounds of Beethoven. Ok, so it is a daytime presentation this classical music. Easy on any ear. Yes, saved myself from an unfair diatribe. I know there is a bit of a slant to NPR and also even worse on CBC Canada. (Yes Lenin lives).

A chance for Freepers here for their favourite classic to be named. Herewith: Symphonie Fantastique. Hector Berlioz. I would also throw in a bit of Tannhauser, by Wagner.

32 posted on 06/07/2004 8:56:28 AM PDT by Peter Libra
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To: Valin
It's impossible to prove, of course, but there are those who would say NPR's steady stream of classical music was a factor in killing off the few remaining commercial radio stations that broadcast in that format.

KFAC - "The Music Stations" - in Los Angeles, and KVOD (the original KVOD, that is, on FM) in Denver are two that I am familiar with.

A city of any size can support more than one top-40 station, but classical music just doesn't have that big an audience, generally speaking. Advertisers are painfully aware of it, and they won't pay high rates for a low audience share. When listeners have a choice of commercially-sponsored radio and commercial-free (although interrupted from time to time for begathons and left-wing propaganda) NPR, they too often make the wrong choice.

Whatever NPR's good intentions might have been, because of their non-profit, government-subsidized status they succeeded in undercutting the commercial market in that narrow broadcasting segment. Now, nearly every market where they operate probably has fewer hours of the classical music NPR executives might have once thought their stations were promoting.

Such are the unintended consequences when the gummint sets out to do good works.

33 posted on 06/07/2004 8:57:58 AM PDT by logician2u
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To: r9etb
I recently bought a DVD of something like 70 classic Luney Tunes. It totally rocks.

In addition to the classical soundtracks, LTunes introduced me to roman numerals. I use them to teach same to my daughters... You have to be quick though, to decipher the date!

34 posted on 06/07/2004 9:14:48 AM PDT by zeugma (The Great Experiment is over.)
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To: logician2u
Such are the unintended consequences...

At some point, these consequences can no longer be considered unintended.

35 posted on 06/07/2004 9:22:10 AM PDT by headsonpikes (Spirit of '76 bttt!)
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To: logician2u
Actually, KVOD in Denver wasn't all that great. Given the choice between it and the hometown KCME, took the latter every time.

KING-FM in Seattle is a successful commercial station, but they play so many ads that I hated listening to them.

KRTS in Houston was pretty good, but I see that they've been bought by Radio One -- and "the Company expects to change the call sign and format of the station. The Company will announce the specifics of these changes at a later date." So scratch Houston's classical station.

36 posted on 06/07/2004 9:22:58 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: Timesink; *CCRM; martin_fierro; reformed_democrat; Loyalist; =Intervention=; PianoMan; GOPJ; ...
Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

Blame the socialist indocrination programming they offer:

Like most public radio stations, WMFE was conceived as a "fine arts" station, broadcasting classical music and other arts programs around the clock. Today it carries only three hours a day of its own classical programming. The rest is talk--call-in shows, BBC news, interview shows, as well as the flagship newsmagazines from National Public Radio, All Things Considered and Morning Edition--plus several hours, most of them overnight, of a syndicated classical music service, called Classical 24, that originates from a studio in Minnesota but is designed to sound like local programming wherever it's played. Listeners in Orlando worry that much of even this canned music will soon be replaced by more talk shows. And they're right to worry.

The same thing happened to Pacifica's commercial free "non-profit" radio network. Something has happened though. The left knows that they are crossing the line in their propaganda. (A) it is reducing the number of listeners (even Democrats don't like all the liberal whine and find some of it beyond the pale), (B) Pacifica has put their programmers on notice that their 501c3 tax status is at risk if they promote advocacy for/against a candidate or party or piece of legislation.

DEFUND THE LEFT.

37 posted on 06/07/2004 10:46:31 AM PDT by weegee (NO BLOOD FOR RATINGS. CNN ignored torture & murder in Saddam's Iraq to keep their Baghdad Bureau.)
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To: Valin

NPR in Phoenix has a sister station that plays classical 24/7.


38 posted on 06/07/2004 10:49:21 AM PDT by wingnutx (tanstaafl)
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To: labowski; LibertyGrrrl; marktuoni; itsamelman; Sam's Army; RepoGirl; Redcoat LI; mylife; ...
I want to send this out to the Rock and Roll PING list (but the owner of that list got suspended) as a way of alerting music listeners.

Music--not merely classical but also jazz, folk, blues, and bluegrass, once staples of public radio programming--is slowly being withdrawn from the public airwaves. According to data from the trade group M Street Group, the number of noncommercial stations identified as "classical" has been cut in half since 1993, while the number of noncommercial news-talk stations has tripled.

Radio Socialist America occupies the left end of the dial, now more than ever. The GOOD news is that we don't have to pay for it. Get the IRS on their case when they cross the line.

I heard a commercial free blues DJ whine about Sean Hannity (no mention of Rush or O'Reilly, but he mentioned Hannity several times). He asked, "how can he come out for a candidate or bill and I 'can't'?" One is a commercial station, given full rights of freedom of the press. The other is a non-commercial, tax-exempt entity that defers tax payments in exchange for restricted speech. Form a PAC if you want to lobby for legislation. Quit taking an illegal tax status. Churches can't advise members of political candidates or issues, same deal with non-profit radio.

DEFUND THE LEFT.

39 posted on 06/07/2004 10:56:53 AM PDT by weegee (NO BLOOD FOR RATINGS. CNN ignored torture & murder in Saddam's Iraq to keep their Baghdad Bureau.)
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To: Valin

KDFC

40 posted on 06/07/2004 10:59:15 AM PDT by martin_fierro ("Meine liebe Pluskat....")
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