There’s an interesting thread about Washington DC’s classical station WETA on City-Data.com. It’s in response to the somewhat snarky question, “Why is WETA so boring?”.
This is not an attempt to criticize WETA in any way. It’s a legacy station that rode to the rescue when WGMS dropped the classical format. From 2005 to 2007, WETA switched to news/talk, angering a lot of listeners. But when WGMS gave up on classical music, WETA didn’t hesitate to switch from the generally more lucrative news format back to classical. I give them full credit for preserving and protecting the music we love.
I bring up the thread because the responses are fairly representative of complaints about classical stations, and they provide an unsolicited, honest view from our potential audience . They could be about any station in the country. Here are some of the comments on the thread:
…station seems stuck in a rut – same pieces played over and over. Sounds like muzak for pseudo-sophisticates.
…with the advent of Sirius/XM whatever it is now, and mp3 players and ipods, people just don’t listen to the radio anymore.
I listen to a “streaming radio” station at home and work
Would be nice if they’d take some of that pledge money and buy some new recordings
in the old days WGMS played the ‘old warhorses’ and WETA played the more obscure stuff. I guess with the serious classical… crowd doing satellite, HD, etc, etc, WETA is going after the old WGMS niche.Mr. Husband and I have started calling them the Classical Top 40 station.I, too, think of them as “Classical Top 40.” I actually like that, for the most part, because I don’t listen to it all the time. As a casual listener, I’d much rather turn on a classical radio station and hear a piece that I like and am familiar with than something obscure. I think they’re catering to listeners like me.Joe on the street hasn’t heard of anyone beyond Bach, Beethoven, and possibly Mozart. And thinks they were all early US presidents.Is there an arbitron system for this that narrows the selection to what appeals to the masses? It can’t possibly be that there aren’t that many works from the several hundred years of music to pick from or that it’s that big an expense to buy a few new CDs.
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Too bad one cannot post on the forum there as guest. No responses referenced streaming audio from radio web sites. This is the obvious solution at home, and, with cell phone sites like intune, all things are possible when away or in the car.
WQXR’s main station is also a drag. But, we have Q2, which is the hippest stream in the U.S. Also, people can use publicradiofan.com to satisfy their cravings.