WFLN PLAYS ITS LAST CLASSICAL
SADNESS AND CONFUSION GREETED THE STATION'S SWITCH TO HITS.

Section: CITY & REGION

Page: B01

By Lesley Valdes, Kevin L. Carter and Peter Dobrin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

For WFLN, the end was quick and painful.

Philadelphia's only classical-music station ended its near half-century of broadcasting the classics yesterday at 6 p.m. With only 24 hours' notice to listeners, the station pulled Wagner and replaced it with the Wallflowers. No more orchestra broadcasts, no more arts talk, no more Time Out for Fine Wine.

Radio announcers bid their sad farewells on the air throughout the day. Advertisers pulled their ads. Staffers left the station crying. The old call letters became history.

WFLN-FM (95.7) is out.

WXXM - ``Max 95.7'' is in.

Listeners were confused and angry, and called the station to voice their dismay.

``We've gotten more than a thousand calls over the last three days, maybe a lot more,'' said a WFLN receptionist who asked that her name not be used. ``They're in mourning, they're in total mourning - more devastated than people are over Mother Teresa and Princess Diana put together. It's been a very sad day.''

WFLN fell victim to pressure for ever-greater corporate profits. The $5 million or so the station grossed each year was no longer enough to justify the $41.8 million paid for it recently by Greater Media Inc., said WFLN general manager Dennis Begley. Its new owners are looking for revenues three to four times greater, he said, and feel they can only do it with a new format - ``contemporary hit radio.''

WRTI-FM (90.1), the Temple University station, will give up part of its jazz format to take on some classical music each day, perhaps by the end of next week.

Jill Pasternak, an on-air host for 11 years, had the shift that pulled down the curtain on WFLN. The last opus heard was Fritz Kreisler's Schoenmarin for violin and piano. But before that, she chose Rachmaninoff - the ``Adagio'' from the Symphony No. 2 in E Minor.

``It's a tearjerker. I always cry when I hear it, not just this time,'' said the announcer, whose eyes were teary all afternoon.

After the Kreisler, Pasternak, audibly choking back tears, read a message of good wishes from ``Your station for the classics in Philadelphia for 48 years.'' There was a brief announcement advising listeners that the change was ``not about the demise of classical music.'' And then, Sheryl Crow, singing insistently that ``A Change Is Gonna Do You Good.''

Perhaps. But a lot of listeners in the region yesterday didn't think so. When Pasternak arrived at the station there were 22 voice-mail messages of support awaiting her, as well as a bouquet of flowers from a grateful listener thanking her ``for playing all the waltzes.''

Dave Conant, the program director and a popular on-air announcer who started at the station in 1971, was visibly upset, his eyes red. Conant came into the station at 3 in the morning, three hours before his normal airtime. ``I couldn't sleep.'' He programmed the final 12 hours of airtime.

``Since we only had 12 hours to go, I thought we should go out with the upbeat and inspirational. Pieces that have meant a lot to those of us here and to our listeners. You might call them classical heavy hits - the Grieg Piano Concerto, the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Beethoven's Fifth, Haydn's Symphony No. 88.''

For his own shift, Conant chose to go out with John Williams' Summon the Heroes fanfare for Olympics and Josef Suk's Toward a New Life.

Told the programming was tasteful, Conant responded ``For a change! It's been difficult all year. The dumbing down after Secret [Communications, a previous owner] bought us certainly bothered us here, and certainly the audience.''

Until he read it in The Inquirer on Thursday, Conant says, he didn't know he was going to 'RTI and ``still isn't sure.'' He needs to hear specifics of the deal. Yesterday he still didn't know whether he'd have a paycheck next week or be offered a severance plan. Nor did other 'FLN hosts.

``Temple is going to sit down with them and decide,'' said WFLN's Begley. ``Our hope is that all of the people will go.''

Jack Moore, at WFLN for four years as on-air host and production manager, said the ``effect on the staff has been devastating,'' adding the music is a way of life for his colleagues. Many are musicians, including Moore, who conducts the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia. Pasternak is a harpist.

Throughout the broadcast day, phones were ringing with listeners trying to express their concern and appreciation.

One listener, Joseph Boyle, showed up at the station to tell Conant in person. ``Thank you for years and years of joy and so much pleasure,'' he said. ``You gave me virtually all of my music education.''

Jane Hatchadoorian learned about the format change while listening from her Wilmington home, and called it ``a major loss in our lives.'' Hatchadoorian and her husband, Edward, listened to the station all day, from the time they got up in the morning until well into the evening. The station also kept them company on their trip every couple of weeks up the New Jersey Turnpike to see their son in New York City, who went blind recently.

``I'm absolutely furious,'' she said. ``There is a market for classical music, just like there is a market for country. Not everyone in the world listens to popular music, and I was very upset when WHYY switched over to talk. I stopped sending them money. I guess I'm an older person and I'm tired of talk. I'd rather listen to music. This came out of the blue.''

Hatchadoorian said she tried calling WFLN for some answers, but the phone just rang and rang.

Even though 'RTI is picking up some classical music, not everyone in the region gets the station. And many enjoyed both stations.

``I like to be able to turn on jazz when I want jazz and turn on classical when I want classical,'' said James B. Straw, a Philadelphia architect who started listening to WFLN in 1971. ``It has to do with what you're doing, what mood you're in, whether you want something quiet or bouncy in your environment. It's unbelievable that a city of our size and culture can't support both.''