Klarinet Archive - Posting 000933.txt from 1997/11

From: Piotr Michalowski <piotrm@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: dissapearing classical
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 13:05:33 -0500

One cannot avoid putting some blame on the Fuller Brush Men who have taken
over NPR. The central officers have changed the rules and now the most
important thing for a station is the number of listeners. At the same
time they began circulating junk shows such as Dianne Rhem, the master of
banality and cliche, info-mercials like Savvy Traveler, redunadant sports
shows, and, perhaps most disgusting of all, a game show operated by a
comedian who belongs on some late night tv show, since he is simply crude
and not funny. All of this has brought in a new audience, which likes
this kind of rubbish, and driven out all local shows and especially
classical music. The evening packages of centrally distributed classical
music hardly make up for this. My local station (WUOM, "Michigan Schlock
Radio") is full of silly talk shows, all of which are only shills for the
large book companies that subsidize NPR. The only thing one can do is not
give the gray little men any money and protest when one can, but I fear
that it is a lost cause, and NPR is becoming a commercial network without
commercials.

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