John Proffitt writes:

>NPR (National Public Radio) does NOT get government funding.

In his posting, John went on to explain the workings of funding for local
public radio stations.  I appreciate his explanation and thank him for
it.

My wife loves the local public radio station here in Albuquerque,
especially All Things Considered.  I never listen to it myself and doubt
that I would even if the station had 24 hours of classical music.  The
fact is that I have so many recordings at home that keeping up with them
is a major effort and absorbs just about all of my classical music
listening time.  My remaining listening time is spent on classical
stations on the internet, but it's a very small amount of time per week.
As for discovering music that is new to me, I don't feel it necessary
to hear something before acquiring it.  Besides, one hearing of challenging
music isn't going to give me much of an idea what I will ultimately think
of the music or performances.  Since I listen to what I want to when I
want to, the availability of classical music on the radio doesn't hold
much appeal.

Overall, I feel blessed with the sources of classical music at my disposal.
I suppose that we have traditionally expected to hear classical radio
on FM and don't like it when the radio sources dry up.  However, given
the current situation with thousands of recordings to choose from, various
live concerts, and all the stations on the internet, perhaps we are
giving too much priority to what we have lost on the radio.  Then again,
I've never been a radio maven, so my response might be overly nonchalant
about the matter.

I try to keep my wife's preferences in mind when I read complaints about
public radio programming.  The fact is that the trends are exactly what
my wife wants to see; if the station went back to classical music, she
would simply not listen to the station.  BUT, she is in the same boat
as most of us, having little use for the majority of radio stations (FM
and AM).  Appealing to the well educated and intelligent minority in the
world doesn't have to include a wealth of classical music, does it?
Facing facts, just a tiny percentage of us want classical music on the
radio and 'tiny' never gets much currency.  Whenever I have complained
about the lack of good classical music on the radio, my wife's usual
response is - "Just put on a disc.  You have a few, right?"

Don Satz
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