Strange, I really don't know what station Steve Schwartz is referring to
in New Orleans that "didn't make it" as a classical station in his recent
post on public radio stations.  I am a native of the city and a weekly
co-producer of an hour long program of early music, Continuum, for the
past 27 years on the NPR affiliate, 89.9WWNO-FM.  The station has been
in existence for over 30 years, broadcasting classical music all day
(except for the NPR news bits, Prairie Home Companion & Car Talk), all
night, 7 days a week.  The only non-classical music programming is jazz on
Saturday night.  We have a Tuesday night opera (full length) program, the
Metropolitan Opera during season, NPR World of Opera the rest of the time
or other international full-length opera broadcasts (New Orleans is an
opera town - so that gives us 104 opera broadcasts a year), Louisiana
Philharmonic Orchestra, local and other classical concerts, including all
performances of the early music ensemble I co-direct, New Orleans Musica da
Camera and, many many more things to appeal to all likes of "classical"
music.

Classical music begins at 9:00 every morning after Morning Edition and
continues until 4:00pm when All Things Considered takes over until 6:00pm
when classical music begins again until 10:00pm when Classical Music
Overnight then takes over from NPR until 6:00am.  Sunday mornings bring St.
Paul Sunday.  The station has well over 10,000 CDs and 350 operas for
programming so the programs are very varied.

By the way, Mr. Schwartz mentioned a program of Fr.  Sean Duggan being
cut for broadcast.  Fr.  Sean for many years hosted a local program on WWNO
called Bach on Sunday that was a big hit with our listeners.  It preceded
our program, Continuum, on Sundays.  His leaving the city for further
academic endeavors naturally ended that program.  He is a great musician
and a joy to perform with as Musica da Camera has done on many occasions in
the past.

Perhaps it sounds like I'm bragging.  But rightly so.  I truly believe
that New Orleans has the best public radio and classical music station in
the country.  We are supported by memberships and corporate underwriting
and a small amount of money from public and other private sources as well
as the University of New Orleans.  Membership has grown terrifically in
the last few years.  The station also sponsors three live live classical
concerts every year and then broadcasts them to the listeners.  And, best
of all, all programs are now streamed live on the web.  All you have to do
is direct your browser to:

   http://www.wwno.org/

and follow the appropriate links for live broadcasting.  And while you're
at it, tune in to Continuum on Sundays at 1:00pm CDT.

Hope you enjoy our regular everyday programming, too.

Milton G. Scheuermann, Jr.
Co-director, New Orleans Musica da Camera
[log in to unmask]