Attached, for those whom it might interest is a letter I sent in response
to our local public radio stations letter soliciting a supplemental
contribution, which followed almost on the heels of an announcement that
its morning classical music format was being pulled in favor of "Morning
Edition" and "Weekend Edition", programs that are currently available on
another station in our listening area.

            May 30, 1999

   WETA
   P.O. Box 2600
   Washington, DC  20077-4778

   Att'n: Ms. Sharon Percy Rockefeller, President and CEO, and Ms.
   Susan Richmond, Senior Vice President

   Dear Ms. Percy and Ms. Richmond:

   I thought I should explain to you why, after years of being a loyal
   contributor to WETA, I returned your "1999 Fiscal Year-End Fund Reply"
   form with no contribution.

   It's because I'm still in a state of shock at WETA's unilateral
   announcement of its curtailment of classical music without any
   significant attempt to obtain listener input (compared with your
   intense efforts to contact listeners on the air and by mail when you
   are looking for money).

   While you say that your program will still offer about 15 hours a
   day of classical music, it is clear that, if you can cut it back to
   fifteen, you can cut it back to ten, etc., and perhaps eventually,
   no classical music at all.  This has happened in Philadelphia, New
   York, Denver, and Takoma Park among other places I know of, and, in
   view of the lack of apparent necessity for your change, I have no
   assurance that it won't happen here.

   From a listener's point of view, I see no reason for substituting
   three hours of "Morning Edition" (which is available on another
   station if I want to listen to it) for the classical music program
   you had previously.

   I am desolated that "Sunday Baroque", one of your finest, most
   original, classical programs, has been cut back to the early
   hours of Sunday morning, where I will no longer be hearing it.

   Your morning classical music programs gave periodic hourly, sometimes
   half-hourly news broadcasts and weather reports, with late breaking
   developments broadcast as they came in, thus keeping the classical
   music listener fully aware of the important matters that had occurred
   since the previous day.

   I enjoy some of your non classical music programs like the BBC's "My
   Word" and "My Music" and "Car Talk" and "The Savvy Traveler", but
   for me WETA has always been essentially, a classical music station
   and I sense this slipping away in some sort of public radio version
   of a ratings war.

   So far as I am aware, your source of revenue is not corporate
   advertisement, which depends upon ratings, but contributions from
   varying sources, including listeners.  As I understand it, you don't
   get paid to broadcast "Morning Edition" or "Weekend Edition"; to the
   contrary, you have to purchase those programs.

   Therefore, while I realize that, "once the gods have spoken", it is
   unlikely that there is going to be a reversal or even a revision of
   WETA's program changes any time soon, I'm expressing my dismay to
   you in the language I think you come closest to understanding, a
   withholding of financial support.

             Sincerely,
             Walter Meyer