Re: Fwd: re:WCRB signal

[John Mullaney <john@minutemancomm.com>]

Get a life! Try Kid Rock, Corn or Metallica this weekend down at Foxboro. I think you will really enjoy it and be able to leave the past behind.
John

lglavin@lycosmail.com wrote:

> >
> > > Lawrence: ENOUGH!  We've heard this screed time and time again from
> > > you, it wasn't interesting the second time, and it's not relevant to
> > > this mailing-list now.  If you don't have anything new to say, don't
> > > say it.
> >
> > Well, I for one disgree; as irritating as Mr. Glavin can be, surely the
> > programming policies of a Boston radio station are far more appropriate
> > for a Boston radio list than the recent posts concerning television
> > stations in Connecticut or Monday Night Football.
>
> Wow...a defense from the belly of the beast! Although
> I like to think of myself as more than just irritating.
>
> > I'm not supposed to speak for my colleagues in the programming department,
> > so I'll confine myself to pointing out that WCRB's playlist if easily two
> > or three times the size of that of any other commercial station in Boston
> > (save WHRB, of course :-)) and a quick telnet into my office reveals that
> > Sunday night's programming included such thoroughly dumbed down
> > pseudo-classics as Mozart's piano concerto #15 in B-flat, Shostakovich's
> > Doll's Dances, and an overture by Gioacchino Rossini featuring a fiery
> > horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty "heigh-ho,
> > Silver!"
> >
> >
> > Rob Landry
> > umar@nerodia.wcrb.com
>
> People don't understand that the critique "dumbed-down
> pseudo-classical"  DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFER TO THE
> QUALITY OF ANY GIVEN WORK!  It really specifies that
> the entity, usually a commercial station (but it has
> been known to happen in 88.1-91.9 land...a New York
> Times feature on this subject focused on WGBH-FM two
> years ago) turns certain compositions and composers
> into commodities very similar to the recordings played
> on more mainstream stations.  Haven't pop-record
> executives been known to call what they promote
> "product"?  The "William Tell Overture" is not a
> bad piece;  Rossini wrote a full-length opera and
> needed an overture for it never even conceiving what
> its fate in the 20th century would be.  Businessmen
> looking for a way to make a buck perceived that it, and
> a few hundred short, accessible pieces could be
> stitched together to drive enough ratings points so a
> radio station would be attractive to time buyers at
> ad agencies. A few weeks ago, Bob Bittner on LTAR
> said the secret to ratings success is a short playlist
> and inane repetition;  they almost always result in inflated ratings.  He may have meant pop or rock or oldies stations, but the observation applies to WCRB, WGMS and the recently-saved WTMI.  The owners of
> such outlets say "dumbed-down classical is better than
> NO classical....look at Detroit and Philadelphia.  And
> we get people interested in the popular pieces and
> draw them to concerts and cause them to buy classical
> CD's."  The incredible preponderance of very old
> classical music can be a deterrent to a potential
> first-time listener and cause him or her to be bored
> very quickly, and in the words of Peggy Lee: say "Is
> that all there is?"  And a person who has heard only
> the Top 40 long-form pieces repeated over and over
> will be blown away by a typical mainstream concert.
> The overwhelming majority of Boston Symphony programs
> this fall feature pieces WCRB would NEVER play during
> the hours they control programming: Beethoven's "Missa
> Solemnis"; Mahler's Sym #5; Copland's Piano Concerto;
> Prokofiev "Scythian Suite"; Shostakovich's Sym #10;
> Ravel's complete "Daphnis and Chloe".  I'll stop there.
> The point is these are mainstream works played by
> orchestras around the world, but if all one's experience of "classical music" is a succession of short, harpsichord-drenched pieces, then that person
> is likely to dash out at intermission and never come
> back and I've seen it happen.  This is an important
> format for a major city and when mis-handled (or
> mis-Handeled) by profit-crazed greed-heads, it
> deserves comment.  Read the encomia directed at
> Robert J this week and ask if Mario Mazzo or
> William Cambell were the deceased, would the obituaries
> be unexceptional...who but their family members would
> care?
>
> Laurence from Methuen
>
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