I think much of the correspondence on this subject has been US based.
It amazes and pleases me all the more that Classic FM in the UK appears
to be doing as well as it is.

It clearly has commercial advertising, a 3 million audience (they say)
and produces much more than banal reruns of (oops!) Beethoven Pastoral
or Night on a Bare Mountain.  Yes, there is quite a bit of "the best ever
classical collection in the whole wide world, ever" (together with "the
best ever tenors collection in the whole wide world, ever" etc) - but an
interesting emphasis on "relaxing classics" seems to have caught on quite
well - including cover disks with "Swan of Tuonela" and "Spiegel im
Spiegel" -- so far from entirely dumb!

Christopher Rosevear