I agree that a Top 40 classical station is a really bad idea.  In fact,
that's what most classical stations (commercial or public) are anyway.
They present classical music as a prepackaged collection of short works
by DWM (dead white males) without any acknowledgement that classical music
remains a very real tradition in which contemporary composers work.

I'm one of a group of volunteer announcers at a small radio station in
Central Virginia.  By design, there is no programming director--we are
responsible for programming our own shows.  Consequently, you have people
who love music getting an opportunity to share it freely with the
community.  And even more important is the absolute diversity that such an
approach enables.  I can only speak for the classical department, but we
offer an incredible range of programming, from early music to vocal music
to the most recent electronic compositions.  On my own show, I play my
share of Bach, Mozart, and Vaughan Williams, but I have also done series on
the compositions of Vagn Holmboe, Eduard Tubin, Edmund Rubbra, Einojuhani
Rautavaara, Darius Milhaud, Jean Francaix, John Harbison, Ingolf Dahol,
Erland von Koch, Walter Piston, Enrique Granados, and Ildebrando Pizzetti.
And we are even more blessed, because it is our policy to present the
entire work--all movements-- without interruption.  The work and the
performers are fully identified both before and after the piece, and we
present additional information for historical background and context.

And this approach pays off in listener involvement.  I can't tell you how
rewarding it is to have someone call in and express how happy and grateful
they are to have been introduced to a new composer or a new piece.  Even
when they don't care for a particular piece of music (Luigi Nono always
gets a few calls) they continue to listen.  We never talk down to the
audience.  Some listeners are incredibly well educated in music history
(way beyond my own self-taught efforst) and others are brand new to the
subject, but what they all have in common is the desire to listen actively
and be engaged in a shared journey of enjoyment and discovery.

No one will ever convince me that listening to a station that relies on the
"Top 40, 100 or whatever" is a better way of learning about the richness of
classical music.

Patricia Price