> Chuck0 said>Classical music listeners are one of the most coveted
> demographic segments. Classical stations won't disappear if NPR is killed.
>
> Not sure about that. Here in San Francisco, there used to be two
> commercial "classical" stations, both with dreadful programming of the same
> 'ol' 18th century chestnuts and prissy ads for expensive crap. If either of
> them ever played anything halfway interesting and from the 20th century like
> Steve Reich or Arvo Part, I never heard it.
It's a dicey topic, cause one of the best f-ing DJs in town here in Minneapolis happens to be a classical DJ for WCAL (Bill Morelock). He eclipses the majority of radio, club, and experimental DJs in town for the breadth of his presentation and his talent for being didactic and engaging in a very un-authoritarian manner, but his ability to do what he does would be fatally compromised under the iron fisted requirements of market-oriented commercial radio - especially in the classical realm. (Although it's worth remembering that a propensity for the programming of what are euphemistically known, for better or for worse, as "cane-tappers" in a narrow commercial radio environment is in no way confined to classical - there's a solid punk rock manifestation of same, which is infinitely harder to take.)
And on occassions when our local non-commercial PBS TV affiliate ventures into their most banal, uninspiring dreck, it's most often programs that are very obviously designed to appeal to their apparent funding base of yuppies, former hippies, and the like - which is an argument *not* in favor of the abolition of some kind of government support. What's needed in our current climate, however, is a complete re-structuring of the whole mechanism of funding and allocation of bandwidth, resources, etc.
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/ dave /