I received the following reply to an mail I sent to our local station
expressing my disgust at their new programming, which features only
talk/news from 9 am to 7 pm:

   Thank you for your note.  I understand that you wish we had more
   classical music than just at night.

   Over the last three years we have seen a sharp decline in number
   of people listening to the station, especially classical music.
   The classical listener is just not there.  And we can not run a
   public radio station on good wishes.  We must have listeners and also
   financial supporters.  Over the past three years the classical listener
   has only supported this station around 20% of our total membership...
   even though classical music made up more than 50% of our schedule.
   There is no free lunch and classical music has not carried its own
   load.

   As you have heard us say during membership drives, without your
   support there would not be this fine programming.  This is a case in
   point.  I wish there were more people like you who wished to support
   the station.  But there aren't.

   I hope you will listen in the evening to our classical music starting
   at 7:00pm.  But during the day, we must take a course that will
   attract more listeners.

   I hope, even if you don't like it, you will understand why we made
   this change.

   Thank you for writing.

   David R. Anderson
   Vice-President, Radio
   WJCT

Alan Lynn
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