[BC] Digital Interference

[Rich Wood]

------ At 08:15 PM 12/19/2005, Robert Orban wrote: -------

>The one problem San Francisco has in this area is that it has a 
>dumbed-down commercial classical music radio station with no 
>non-comm competition (at least for now). KDFC is very good about 
>being involved with the local classical music community, but to say 
>that their programming is not challenging is to put it kindly.

It has to be dumbed down. Warhorses R Us is commercial Classical. 
Most Classical stations have removed all vocal music and, instead of 
using complete short works in morning drive, they use movements of 
longer works. Classical purists are horrified. The average listener 
doesn't seem to care.

Boston revered Michael, too. It's where he got his big break when 
Erich Leinsdorf was too ill to conduct. Michael's Spectrum concerts 
were terrific. I've forgotten the work but one had an organ in each 
corner of Symphony Hall. It was during the time WGBH and WCRB were 
doing 4 channel broadcasts of the BSO concerts. WCRB took the front 
channels and WGBH brought up the rear.

Boston, in the early 70s, was a hotbed of radio experimentation. WBUR 
at Boston University had a weekly show on High Fidelity. WGBH had a 
show that featured dolbyized commercial masters decoded at the 
transmitter. WHRB at Harvard had "orgies" during exam weeks featuring 
full days of a composer. Orgies die hard and I think they still 
feature them. WBCN was also Classical from a dumpy old building on Newbury St.

As I've mentioned before, the Tweeter store in Harvard square was a 
meeting place of some of the legendary names in High Fidelity. Mere 
mortals like myself were allowed in to bask in the glow. I worked for 
a competitor up the street when I wasn't on the air at WGBH, WJIB or 
in WGBH-TV's booth or WKBG-TV's booth. It was an incredibly exciting 
time to be in Boston radio.

Rich


Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-303-9084
FAX: 413-480-0010