Here in the San Francisco area, all we have left (besides a very weak
am-only CM station) is the pitiable KDFC, which has switched to "classical
lite," and is one of the most successful stations in the area, ratings-wise
and income-wise.  Their program director Bill Leuth is quite proud of their
achievement, and, sad to say, his success has caught the attention of many
other struggling classical stations around the country.  (Hopefully not
WFMT or KCSM or WQXR or some of the other more enlightened outlets!) Now
they not only restrict their play to the more popular works of CM, they
also play "movements from" these works.  While crowing over the station's
newfound success, Leuth was quoted as saying "We got off of 'Planet Art'"
-- a comment I found insulting.  They have a web-site, but no way to email
anyone at the station to complain.  However, they do conduct annual polls
of "The Bay Area's Best-Loved Classical Music," a clever ploy to justify
their programming of warhorses.  The result of all this for me is, when in
my car, I mostly listen to the local Jazz station, which is pretty good
(non-commercial, of course.) However, if the jazz isn't to my taste and
KDFC is playing a movement from Eine Kleine Nachtmusic again, or nattering
on and on about themselves or running an interminable series of
commercials, I can switch to my tape of four Quantz flute concertos, which
are pretty much indistinguishable from each other, and pleasant enough.
These pieces offer about the same level of musical challenge as most of
KDFC's typical offerings, with the added benefit of being complete and
without commercial interruption.  At home, needless to say, I never listen
to KDFC.  Over the Internet, I have many excellent choices, and have my
computer hooked up to my sound system.  Saturday mornings, I get the
Metropolitan Opera thanks to WQXR, for example.  And then there's my
extensive CD collection.  So local CM radio, while dying out in many
markets, has some ready substitutes via the Internet.  Probably an effort
should be made to turn this expanded audience into more income for those
stations brave enough to stick to their taste and that of us stodgy
low-spending non-18-34-types.  Sorry for the diatribe!

Dave Wolf
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