Laurence Glavin speculates:

>...  Or the very people who managed these stations and networks were
>of an age where "art" music had no place.  Well, it appears that these
>moves may not have had the desired effect...

While it would be nice to believe that the removal of classical music
resulted in a decline in PBS audience size (and that hence the converse
might be true), unfortunately there are probably many more factors at
work here.  In a political climate which constantly criticizes public
broadcasting as being "too liberal" it's no surprise that certain listeners
are turning elsewhere.  It would be interesting to see a breakdown of
the audience size changes by location: rural vs.  big cities or red state
vs.  blue states.  Maybe the listeners just prefer country and bluegrass
over jazz and redundant news.

Nick Y.
Who thankfully lives within the primary range of WFMT, possibly the
best classical station in the country.