The days when Bach and Beethoven filled the airwaves over New York City are long gone. On
8 April, they will seem even more distant, when WNYC, the city's public radio station, cuts
back its daytime classical music programming. Members of New York's classical
music community have reacted with dismay to the 8 March announcement of the
move, which leaves the city with only one radio station, WQXR, dedicated to
classical music.
"We're incredibly disappointed," says pianist Wu Han. "When you turn on the radio you should have the option of listening to classical music, without cost. I grew up learning a lot of classical music from listening to the radio." To protest WNYC's decision, Wu Han and the cellist David Finckel, her husband and duo partner, sent a petition to the station. The list of signatories reads like a who's who of New York's cultural elite, including violinist Itzhak Perlman, writer Joan Didion and many performers and composers. Meanwhile, on 17 March, The New York Times published reactions from two other prominent musicians, pianist Emanuel Ax and composer Charles Wuorinen.
Finckel says that WNYC's format change is a bad omen which will have a broader impact on other National Public Radio affiliates. "Unfortunately, New York is going to set an example for the rest of the nation. And that is what's most disturbing about this decision," he says. "People look at New York as a cultural leader not only in the United States, but throughout the world. So this decision is much more significant than simply a reduction of five hours for New York listeners."
Whether or not New York is ahead of the trend or behind it, most agree that there should be more classical programming in a city as culturally vital as New York. "If you want to listen to classical music on the radio, you should have an alternative [to WQXR]," says Zarin Mehta, the executive director of the New York Philharmonic. "In a marketplace of 15–20 million [potential listeners], there's only one station — that's wonderful for them but it's wrong for the public that competition is lacking."
The management at WNYC say the decision to cut back programming has everything to do with listeners' preferences for news and talk radio over music. Critics worry that the station has succumbed to commercial pressure to keep the ratings high and corporate sponsors happy. "They're only looking at it from the bottom line," says Mehta. "If the New York Philharmonic only looked at the bottom line, we wouldn't do any concerts. But we feel we're entrusted with a mission as an orchestra, as a civic institution in this city to provide the greatest symphonic music possible."
David Finckel compares public radio's purpose to that of a museum, which is intended both to educate and delight. "I look at someone who's in charge of a radio station as curating a great art form. If the station is essentially dedicated to classical music, these people need to make very serious and well-educated choices so that the public is given the music in the most intelligible and consistent format," he insists. "You don't get that from simply going into a record store and buying and listening. I think the service that classical radio provides is irreplaceable."
At an open meeting in New York last week, WNYC president Laura Walker tried to reassure a rowdy group of WNYC listeners that classical music was not being abandoned. She suggested that the new format would include more news about classical music; for example, a reporter might "do a feature on [composer] John Adams' new commission for the New York Philharmonic, in the service of promoting a fabulous live performance."
But New York music critics are not convinced. "It's really interesting the way they explain this new change," says Martin Bernheimer, a Manhattan-based music critic for the Financial Times. "They say they'll have more about music but less actual presentation of music during the day. That's a really interesting contradiction. To talk about Ligeti at two o'clock in the afternoon and then hear Ligeti at midnight — that makes no sense to me at all."
For her part, Walker says that she has discussed the new format with the New York Philharmonic and the Brooklyn Philharmonic as well as with composer John Corigliano. "Our goal is to broaden and diversify, to have an audience that looks more like New York," Walker told WNYC members.
In an interview, Corigliano says he is trying to reserve judgment and give the station a chance, but he waxes nostalgic for the golden days of classical radio when the airwaves over New York were thick with everything from Schubert to Stockhausen. He remembers when WQXR had a string quartet on full salary and its very own hall, from which concerts were broadcast live twice weekly, and when listeners might find six or seven classical music stations in a single city. Nowadays, it can be hard to find one, even in places like Philadelphia or San Diego.
The demise of classical music on the radio is a symptom of a much
more serious malady, Corigliano says gloomily. "Classical music is very ill. I
wish it were just one thing, but it's not just radio that's the problem. The
whole core is unhealthy." To stop classical music from going off the air
altogether, the composer suggests, the focus needs to be shifted toward contemporary music.
"We have to rethink how to present concert music. The way to build excitement
again is by promoting new composers."
