Change of Heart About 89.1/WUFT

I have been thinking about it more and more, and I have now come to the conclusion that I am looking forward to 89.1/WUFT's (Gainesville's Public Radio station) format change to "all" news/talk. If that's what they're really planning to do, that is. After all, it would be pretty questionable for them to get rid of their late morning, afternoon, and evening classical music programming while retaining their 11pm-5am nightly jazz slot. I say, get rid of all the music if you're going to drop classical music "on principle".

Even if they keep that jazz lineup, though, I think that I will be listening more to this station. I have recently tuned in to the Jacksonville Public Radio station 89.9/WJCT, which carries more talk/news programming. And I found myself enjoying the shows more than I had the classical music. Unfortunately, WJCT's signal is much too weak for me to pick up on my MP3 player or headset radio.

I have obtained a few classical music CDs and will probably get a few more. I have transferred to one of my MP3 players works by Debussy, Mussorgsky/Ravel, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, Prokofiev, Bartok, and Bruckner. And I'm looking to add more. So I have plenty of opportunities now to listen to classical music. And beginning on August 3, I will have a strong local radio station that will offer a much higher standard of talk and news programming than do the pathetic commercial talk radio stations I am currently stuck with.

WUFT gave their classical music audience an option to continue hearing that programming on HD radio and as live streaming on the Internet. But HD radio technology is for the car and home, and is still lagging in its portability. Still, although I understand the laments of those listeners, I think that the future talk shows will be more interesting, at least for me.