A year after the Gainesville Sun newspaper featured a letters-to-the-editor drive to change local Public Radio station (and University of Florida-owned) WUFT-FM from classical music programming to all-talk, which succeeded when the UF College of Journalism dean made the switch, the push is now on to reverse that decision and bring back classical music. And the vehicle for that drive is none other than the Gainesville Sun, again demonstrating its capacity and willingness to manipulate public opinion and events through its selection and publishing of editorial letters to fit its agenda.
I was initially opposed to the switch from classical music to talk, but realized that some of the programs (especially the morning Diane Rehm Show and Fresh Air) were quite informative and interesting. So l have now come around to the "talk" faction. Besides, as I have said before, classical music is readily available through my fine public library, the Internet, and even my cable TV. And, hey, I can still go to concerts and buy CDs.
I used to enjoy the music on WUFT, but I think that broadcast radio needs to have some kind of talk radio programming illustrative of a truly balanced discussion of issues, something woefully lacking in our age of right wing extremist commercial talk radio. I still would like for something like Air America to get on the air to provide at least one venue for partisan liberal talk. Of course, the right wing talk wackos claim that Public Radio is slanted to the left. Which shows how skewed their viewpoint really is.
In a manner of speaking, though, WUFT technically didn't drop classical music from their programming: they just switched it over to an HD channel that requires the purchase of a special (and relatively expensive) radio. And these radios are not portable. And certainly not available in headsets or MP3 players. So I foresee HD only declining, eventually joining quadraphonic sound as an extinct technological dinosaur.
One writer in the Gainesville Sun mentioned that UF already owns another station: the commercial giant WRUF-FM, which plays generally lousy rock selections as well as the grossly offensive Lex and Terry talk show. I agreed with this writer as he suggested that UF should replace that garbage (my depiction) with classical music. But it'll never fly, and everyone knows it. Besides, haven't listeners been conditioned over the years to expect commercial radio to be full of unpalatable trash? But Public Radio is a different matter, still subject to high scrutiny. Well, I guess I should be glad that at least something is.
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I agree that I'd usually rather have talk than music. In our youth, we relied on radio stations, from top-40-only WQAM to the wonderful WSHE, to give us music. Now, as you say, we can get it in so many ways that there's little point in having chestnuts and warhorses arbitrarily thrown at our ears. Talk shows, on the other hand, are distinctive, each show depending upon the guest and the topic.
ReplyDeleteThe exception is when I'm travelling, and I want to turn on what's around and hear what's there. That's when I'm glad that DC, for instance, has WBJC (Baltimore) and WETA, both fully classical now — WETA dropped its NPR feed several years ago, in favour of music.
In New York City, we have WNYC for talk, and WQXR for classical. The latter used to be a commercial station, owned by the New York Times. But they sold it to WNYC, which made it a non-commercial classical station (on a new frequency, but that's fine).