Monday, July 11, 2011

The loss of classical music on Houston radio


This is the opinion of my friend:

"As you well know, the 88.7/91.7 fiasco has resulted in a situation in which thousands of classical music lovers in the Houston area have been left without their beloved, and only, source of classical music on the radio.  A steady source of classical music has now been replaced by a source of news, politics and political discussion beamed by a transmitter strong enough to be heard by oil workers in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.

Everyone with a computer, and that means virtually everyone in America, has recourse to all manner of news sources -- the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle, the BBC, CNN, the Google News aggregator.  The news is already everywhere, in every corner of cyberspace, in every language spoken by Houstonians, on dozens of television channels.  To make matters worse, the entire radio spectrum is already riddled with political commentary, angry tirades from right, center, and left, and engrossing accounts of holdups, armed robberies and assaults.

Are we really to believe that Houstonians need another source of news, and an antiquated one at that, at the expense of THE ONLY CLASSICAL RADIO STATION on our local dial? 99% of today's news will be forgotten in five years' time, if not in five months.  But Bach, Beethoven and Mozart have not been forgotten because this is music of an objective beauty, music of a majesty so universal that it was inscribed and sent into space on Voyager on the assumption that other advanced species, if they exist, will appreciate it. Classical music is one of the few refuges of enlightenment, inspiration, beauty and calm in this world.

  Thousands of those who love this form of music, hence thousands of potential and regular financial contributors, are deprived of the only source of classical music on the local radio.  This unique educational and uplifting resource is replaced by the umpteenth source of news, political opinion and idle chatter on the radio, a station made obsolete by smart phones and the Internet."

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