D. Stephen Heersink writes: >Lloyd Sitkoff <[log in to unmask]> writes: > >>Well it has finally happened. KNTU 88.1 FM in Denton is now Webcasting. >>Check us out at kntu.unt.edu. Click on the 'antique" radio icon and enjoy. >>My show is on Sunday from 3-6 PM CST. It is called ".. and seldom is >>heard." & attempts to present the full range of Classical Music. We offer >>Classical music from 6 AM to 8PM on Sundays. > >Mr. Sitkoff's magnanimous post, outlining the programs of this online >station, are to be commended, but listening to this "online" experience >is anything but satisfactory. RealPlayer has frequent gaps in the music's >flow, and the student announcers cannot even pronounce simple English, much >less tackle foreign names like Scriabin. I suppose if one doesn't have >access to a classical radio station, and if one doesn't own a substantial >number of classical works, this online thing might be of value. But these >are two very big IFS, and two that, in my happy instance, don't apply. Mr. Heersink apparently needs a better Internet connection and/or more modern gear at home. I have been listening to the KNTU service for almost three hours now (in the background via RealPlayer Plus V6.0.8) and have not heard one buffering lapse/gap. In fact, this particular radio-station-via-internet is one of the better ones -- much better on the whole that WFMT and WQXR. This one has really excellent channel separation and some meaningful information below 120 Hz -- way below, in fact. This is an excellent uplink. >As regards the sophistication and urbanity of the Sunday volunteer >announcers -- well Mr. Heersink may have a point here but I'll overlook >the mispronunciations and enjoy the fact that Texas college students are >interested in even *attempting* to pronounce, say, the name Scriabin. They >have time to learn (in fact that's one reason for attending college, isn't >it) and I'm happy they care to broadcast classical at all. As a college >teacher myselk, I find disturbingly few students interested in classical >misic at all ... Incidentally, www.WWFM.org (in south New Jersey) is another excellent, high technical quality classical music uplink and provides me with Karl Haas every weekday afternoon at 4 pm, California time -- something for which I am most grateful -- AND these guys can pronounce Scriabin!! I would also like to commend to you my local San Francisco classical FM uplink, @ www.KDFC.com HOWEVER, while the technical quality is fine, they seem to be one of a growing number of classical stations playing from a "Top 100 classical" play list and when they reach the end, they go back to the top. Bland and eventually boring. Besides, I don't want to hear the 2nd movement of Dvorak's "New World" symphony more than once, maybe twice, a quarter. Twice a month is a bit much. AND I'd also like to hear the other three movements as well -- played in order, please. Someone else's turn... David Pitzer