Jocelyn Wang wrote:

>Radio stations don't need a budget to buy CDs.  They get them free from
>recording companies, who, of course, want them played over the airwaves,
>thereby geting lots of free advertising for their recordings.

This is not true for classical music stations...  CD's are Not Free.  As a
producer of classical music programming for three different radio stations
over the years, both public radio and commercial radio, I can verify that
classical music CD's are seldom free...  Only about three to four percent
of classical music CD's arrive free, unlike jazz, pop, country, folk,
world, new world, soul, rhythm and blues, and most other forms of music
which arrive free by the thousands every week.

For the recording companies we get "free" CD's, we pay a $700 to $1000
shipping charge per year.

All companies discount classical CD's to radio stations, but the discount
isn't any better than what we can get in HBDirect, Columbia or BMG record
clubs, or Amazon.Com...  and if we want the latest recordings, not good
at all.

Ray Bayles