When Paul McCartney, songster of the '60s Revolution, wins one for the zipper at the Super Bowl, it's evidence, or, rather, confirmation of a sea change. What was once a countercultural wave has subsided into a gentle current of the mainstream. This week, with the abrupt end of classical music on WETA-FM (90.9), Washington, D.C.'s public radio station, I guess you could say a gentle current of the mainstream has just plain subsided.
"It is painful, but my job is to steward this public radio station in the best possible way," Daniel C. DeVany, WETA's vice president and general manager, told The Washington Times. This was a new one: The general manager was making it sound as if it were in the public interest for public radio to "steward" classical music right down the drain. Glug, glug. Airtime once filled with timeless music will now carry the day's events, which, of course, we in The Public don't ever get enough of.
This format switcheroo is not an isolated event. The Times reports that the number of all-classical public radio stations in the nation has held steady at 42. Over the past five years, however, between 40 and 50 stations that once featured a mix of news and classical music have either totally cut the Bach, or drastically reduced it -- no doubt, as in D.C., to "steward" public radio in the best possible way. It is true, as public broadcasters point out, that the all-news audience is bigger than the part-classical audience. But should that factor be public radio's decisive criterion?
I don't think so. That is, I always thought "public" radio -- which, of course, receives "public" support -- was supposed to do something more edifying than just chase the almighty market share. Otherwise, why the "public" support? WETA's decision may reflect a dwindling classical music audience, but what's more troubling is that it suggests our stewards of the airwaves no longer consider classical music worthy of their public mission -- or at least not as worthy as an all-talk format.