Walter Meyer wrote:

>Our local public radio station (the DC area's WETA) has been gradually
>cutting back its classical music broadcasts....In the meantime, the
>number of classical music programs being supplanted by talk shows is
>increasing.

This station also recently lopped off one of the two hours they had been
broadcasting of "Performance Today," in order to substitute a simulcast of
the "Newshour with Jim Lehrer".  Not to denigrate that fine news program,
but it's on TV, for chrissakes and we didn't need ANOTHER hour of radio
news and analysis with three hours' worth already on the clock each
afternoon...  Perhaps one of the reasons why I still contribute to the
station is that they restored "Schickele Mix" and still broadcast
"Millenium of Music." For now....

and Tony Duggan wrote:

>Classic FM is a very clever product.  They do rather equate classical music
>with "relaxation".  Their station slogan is "Relax, it's Classic FM".

Ironically enough, NPR's "All Things Considered" yesterday had critic Tom
Manoff discussing one of the big selling trends in classical recordings,
that of the "collection" album of short excerpts on some sort of theme,
mood or targeted demographic.

The one he took aim at is "Night Air: The Relaxing Side of Classical Music"
on Telarc; with some of the usual suspects--Ravel's Pavane for a Dead
Princess, Foure's Pavane, one of the Entr'actes from Carmen, one of
Resphigi's Ancient Airs and Dances arrangements, and the like. You know,
the kind of stuff to be played in antique malls and Starbucks Coffee Shops.

>Good on them, though, they are getting the music out to a lot of people
>who might have missed it.

Of course, one needn't stop there, the possibilities are endless,
especially in this day and age of demographic microdelineation--"Classical
Music for Angry White Males"; "Adagios for Accountants"; "Murder and
Revenge Songs for the Newly Divorced", etc. Any other ideas we can pass
off to the CD marketing gurus?

Bill H.