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The Numbing of Classical and Jazz Music on Radio Stations
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As a middle-aged baby boomer, I was fortunate to be raised being exposed to many types of music. Specifically, my parents always had AM and FM radio stations on that played classical, jazz, folk music, or programs playing a variety that did mix a bit of broadway with a more mainstream “middle of the road” type of listening. Perhaps, I was a little more unusual with most kids my age as I started out as Classical and Jazz music being my favorite types of music. My very first record was a RCA Victrola reissue of one of the immortal Toscanini performances which included such great classical standards as the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky, the Carmen Suite by Bizet, and the Dance of the Hours by Ponchielli. My mother bought this album for me at the local Treasure Island store that had a good cross representation of recordings. I would talk my mom into bringing me back to Treasure Island so that I could spend my paper route allowance on more Toscanini recordings that were part of this reissue series. When I was in 5th grade, I also remember when my music teacher played Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns. Why this piece stuck with me, I don’t know, but perhaps while it was somewhat chilling, (Danse Macabre means the “Dance of Death”), it had a beautiful and elegant flow which I could listen many times, and to this day (and Halloween is just around the corner).
Growing up, I was very fortunate to have a great mix of friends that also had varying tastes in music. On one extreme, one of my friend’s older brother sang in professional opera companies for many years. In high school, he introduced me to Anna Russell, the elegant music satirist that really made listening to the Wagner’s Ring Cycle quite interesting. On the other end of the spectrum, I had friends that were into the typical pop and rock and roll music of the 60’s and 70’s. Interestingly, as some of them matured, their tastes broadened into the more classical venue while my tastes did embraced some rock, and specifically the blues and international Folk music, including Celtic, Cajun, French Canadian, Scandinavian and many more variations.
The big difference was that there was a reasonable amount of programming still available on mainstream AM and FM. One did not have to go through a ritual of signing on to a computer to stream broadcasts, spend globs of money to buy a high definition receiver (for the privilege) of listening to Brahms, Beethoven, Duke Ellington, etc.), or hope to pick up a distant radio station on the car radio (like today where I live) that still plays classical, jazz, or folk music.)
American AM and FM radio stations are becoming more difficult for me to listen to. While I do listen to AM Talk and FM Public Radio Stations, I do seek and listen to stations that play Jazz, Classical, Folk, Blues, Broadway, etc. In my city that boasts a major symphony orchestra, professional opera company and live theater, we just lost our longtime commercial classical radio station after 50 years of broadcasting service. The owner justified this by claiming that there was simply not enough listeners to support this format, although they had a good advertisement base for these listener demographics. Instead, the owner changed the format to a blasé “Smooth Jazz” format that another station dropped because of low ratings. Another station operated by the city’s school district dropped jazz programming last year to have a privately funded group manage the station with types of music (hip-hop, dance, rock, etc.) that can easily be heard on the commercial stations. (Let’s put it this way, so you don’t call me a hypocrite for not embracing these types of music, appreciate that there was no room for co-existence).
The only opportunity now to hear classical music or Jazz on the car radio was if one did have the extra cash to spend on either a high definition receiver to pick up the high definition classical & music service on the Wisconsin Public Radio network. The other opportunity was if one wanted to tie up their computer resources to stream them or pay their cable service an extra premium fee to hear these or the satellite broadcasts.
Then, there was WBEZ,a Chicago, IL public radio station that used to play a lot of great mainstream jazz and blues. As Chicago is considered a major hub of both intenational jazz and the blues, WBEZ broadcast live jazz and blues broadcasts from Grant Park that were syndicated through many public radio stations for years.
Then, the radio station board of directors hired Torey Malatia to become that station's general manager. Malatia was fired from another public radio market in the Seattle, WA area because he tried to eliminate classical and jazz programming from the public radio station he was running there (he made no bones about the fact that he did not feel music belonged on Public Radio).
Instead, he "took it out" on WBEZ listeners, cutting out all evening jazz programming, and eliminating all blues and jazz live broadcasts. To add insult to injury, he replaced the jazz programming with reruns of “talk” programs that were run earlier in the day. The local performers and institutions that long-time partnered with WBEZ were shoved aside like old newspapers in a recycling bin. A long-time jazz radio legend, Dick Buckley found out that his show was being cut to one hour while he was recuperating in the hospital.
What radio station management does when they want to get rid of a certain type of programming (ie Jazz, Blues, Classical, etc.) is that they put so many constraints and limitations on what a host can do, so that they can prove that it has failed and has to be replaced.
The point for writing is this . . . as a person growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, my musical education and tastes were reinforced by what was offered on the radio. If the internet was available then, I don’t know if I would have gone out of my way to find different things to stream unless I already had some exposure to them on the radio. And, unlike the satellite programming today, I relished the hosts that programmed their music, because I learned every time I listened to them. And, they were the cheerleaders of local performers, groups and culture of the neighborhood . . . unlike any so-called radio consultant.
The world is becoming more unsettled, angry and faceless. The music and numbing of what USA AM and FM radio broadcast today is a definitive barometer of this.
This whole process can be reversed by getting rid of radio consultants and self-serving public radio station managers and boards. They are better serving off each other’s personal agendas, and not at the expense of the current and future generations that can no longer easily “accidently” or access great music idioms on the radio. I surely didn't develop my musical tastes on the radio pouring over a bunch or artificially made-up statistics.
Simple . . .
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Scribeman01 authors a blog called Make ADHD Work For You!, dedicated to the ADHD diagnosed person who seeks a better lifestyle through pro-active strategies and resources beyond diagnosis and/or medication.
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