Bernard Chasan wrote:

>But I have this romantic notion that some young person out on the
>plains somewhere, or in the inner city for that matter, will hear these
>(Metropolitan Opera) broadcasts and perhaps be inspired to probe a bit
>further into the world of art and music.

I remember reading about forty years ago - in that unimpeachable source
of cultural information, the Reader's Digest - that Nell Rankin's first
impetus toward becoming an opera singer was hearing a Met broadcast when
she was a little girl. She grew up in Montgomery Alabama, not on the
plains exactly but not in a major musical centre either.

Richard