GG: First symphonies, now classical radio

[Mary Jo Watts <mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu>]

>From the NY Times Today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/17/arts/television/17NOTE.html

<a clip>

Lamenting the Fade-Out of Classical Radio
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN

Last month, WNYC-FM (93.9) announced that it was cutting five hours each
weekday from its classical music programming, turning itself over more to
news and talk, like its AM counterpart, WNYC-AM (820). Then on Friday, The
Washington Post reported that National Public Radio was gutting
"Performance Today," its classical music show.

Public service is the explanation. People just aren't listening to
classical music anymore, at least not during the day. They want talk. WNYC
says only 13 percent of its audience of one million weekly listeners tuned
in for music. Before Sept. 11, when WNYC's antenna at the World Trade
Center was still operating and it was broadcasting its regular lineup,
most listeners switched the dial when the program changed from "Morning
Edition," the popular NPR news show, to classical music.

The downfall of classical music on the radio is nothing new. Privately
owned classical music stations across the country have been disappearing
for so many years, replaced by more profitable pop programming, that it is
surprising there are any left...

<big snip> Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's also an article about this at http://www.andante.com

So my question is to everyone on the list-- where DID you first hear
"serious" music?  I'm supposing that non-Americans have a bit of an
advantage. I first heard classical recordings that I bought on my own from
movie soundtracks-- The Hunger was the first LP.  Delibes Lakme' was very
popular in Hollywood in the early 80's!  I'm not ashamed to have purchased
a copy of Bernstein's Mahler's #3 partially because the box was GREAT with
this divine Erte' on it but also because it was mentioned in a Prince song
and I wanted to hear why "Gustav Mahler's number 3 (was) jammin' on the
box/ you wanna rock?/ why not?/ Good Love!"  That pretty much pin points
my age I think. I have listened to classical radio probably a total of 4
hours in my whole life.  What about you all?


Mary Jo Watts
listowner, f_minor
mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu