Comments on: Classical Music on the Airwaves: The Private Ear Remembers WGBH, and Has a Vision

By: Joel Cohen

Joel Cohen — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:05:00 +0000

Thanks for doing this, Mike. I think Geller, quirks and all, was one of the good guys, right out of the American tradition of rugged individualism.

BTW There are many such currently on the Internet. I often listen to one brave channel called “Musica Italiana” that assumes there are some wanting to listen, 24/7 to songs in regional dialects like Neapolitan, Sicilian, Provencal, etc. More power to all these people and to their very personal tastes.

What goes wrong is when an institution with an antenna, nonprofit status public mission chooses the slice-and-dice format. Truly public programming needs a lot more care and thought than what we are currnelty hearing on WWTF.

By: Mike Lebednik

Mike Lebednik — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:59:30 +0000

I realize that the demands of creative writing and making one’s point often require a fall guy, and how can the deceased defend themselves, anyway? But poor Simon Geller at least programmed those massive Bruckner symphonies in their entirety (albeit perhaps with some movements reversed–technical limitations and bathroom breaks, don’t you know) on his overstretched tapes. Frankly, my recollection of his programming is that it was, on balance, more adventurous than WWTF’s! Anyhow, I am forwarding your posting to Mr. Geller’s remaining family for their bemusement.

By: clarkjohnsen

clarkjohnsen — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:30:34 +0000

Just one comment on Romy’s post. “All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be.” Hitler wrote that. Yes indeed, but one might falsely assume that those remarks were an instruction manual, rather than what they really were: An astute warning to the reader on how to *detect* propaganda.

And one does detect it today on CRB.

By: Romy The CaT

Romy The CaT — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:12:39 +0000

Clark wrote: It was programmed ….like the new CRB. Must be the operative paradigm these days…
I do not think that it is much different than a regular elitism vs. trivialization debate. The new WCRB went for a hard-core trivialization of own programs. According to their marketing rules it might bring them “masses” of listeners. Hold on, hold on – where did I hear that thinking was used? “All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be” – was brilliantly teaching Adolph Hitler in “Mein Kampf”. Is it the marketing shoe that WGBH would like so desperately to feel?

There are two ways to run a station. The first is to build elitism in programming and let the listeners to grow to this level. The second is to damn down programming and to hope that it will be appreciated by the “lumpenproletariat” on the field. Ironically, NPR was most of the time was orientated to the first method, why the sudden flip? Make good programs, the programs that worth to repeat. The WGBH Garrison Keillor’s program plays twice in prime times and I do not see anybody complaining – because the program is good. How many New WCRB programs worth to be repeated? I do not think any. In the past I was trying to listen Saturday morning Brian McCreath’s programs because he included the best repeats from GBH own recordings made during the last week. Some of them were so good that it was worth repeated, so Brian did it….

BTW, I am stopping listening the New WCRB. I do not listen music as “background”. I mostly do not listen music in car. I listen music home and mostly if I know what I will be listening. I listen the scheduled and pre-announce programs or the programs with a know framework. I would like to know for instance that on Thursday between 3 and 4PM the French organ music will be played, or that on Monday between 6 and 7PM will be recordings by female conductors, or that on Friday between 10 and 11PM will be played the compositions of people who died during WWII… The framework of programs sets the expectations; to me it is very important. On the New WCRB I try listed live Saturday broadcasts, “BSO on Record” and “Sunday Concerts” – because I know (most of the time as GBH stopped to announce it!!!) what kind of context will be coming. The “Sunday Concerts” got less and less interesting last six month and “BSO on Record” is long due to be expended and diversify…

By: clarkjohnsen

clarkjohnsen — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:27:15 +0000

Tres amusant, Mr. Cohen. But let me give you some advice.

Just RELAX, willya? Accept the CHANGE and share the HOPE that this new administration offers. I’m sure their intentions are of the best, and isn’t that what counts?

Meanwhile, I was just in Vegas for a week and had a car equipped with Sirius/XM and my gosh! It was programmed (except for the fascinating Met Radio channel) like the new CRB. Must be the operative paradigm these days. Oddly (or, not) the full-time classical FM station (Yes! Vegas!) sounded like the GBH of yore, if not exactly up to WHRB.

Face it, WWTF folks, straitjacketed corporate monotony is the wave of the present. And even the calendar after Monday and Tuesday goes W T F.

By: Sheesh B

Sheesh B — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:05:16 +0000

“When the Warden started booming, she had inconspicuously swallowed half a gramme of soma, with the result that she could now sit, serenely not listening, thinking of nothing at all, but with her large blue eyes fixed on the Warden’s face in an expression of rapt attention.” ~ Huxley

Brilliant, Dr. Cohen. Now I know why I put pitch-man John Kerr’s KLH (which somehow ended up with me) in the trash room a few years ago.

And Robert J: Your silences were golden. RIP.