CLASSICAL VS. JAZZ RADIO: REAL CITIES HAVE BOTH
THE CITY OF MARIAN ANDERSON AND JOHN COLTRANE DESERVES BOTH.

Section: FEATURES ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Page: F01

By Lesley Valdes, INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC

It doesn't take a King Solomon to know that splitting jazz station WRTI to take on WFLN's classical format is asking for trouble.

Temple University's radio station has been doing a good job serving Philly's jazz community - with only five full-time employees and a corps of ardent students. No wonder jazz fans are furious and classical listeners depressed.

Nonprofit WRTI shouldn't have to play rescue squad, let alone cut its format in half to save a commercial brother. Jazz holds a far more tenuous position in this town than does establishment-endorsed classical music. But it's obvious that despite this city's splendiferous musical history, both classical and jazz belong to an increasingly endangered species: the performing arts.

Jazz and classical listeners alike must protest loudly over this weasly ``compromise.'' There is no excuse for a city that produced John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, Marian Anderson and the Philadelphia Orchestra not to have two separate stations with round-the-clock formats. No excuse for a city that on any given evening during high season hosts a half-dozen musical events clamoring for - and deserving - attention. No American city outside Manhattan makes more music daily than Philadelphia.

Yes, of course, there's room for at least one classical and one jazz station here: There's room, there's need, there's reason.

Ask the members of 70-plus professional and amateur orchestras in the Delaware Valley if they could use an outlet for their musical interests.

Ask the members of our 100-plus choruses how they feel about this.

Ask students and faculty of the gazillion colleges in and surrounding Center City and the Main Line. Ask anyone if they'd like more choice, more variety, to the radio cruise-control. Those of us who listen to Reba in the morning and Miles at midnight want to believe that Bach, too, and maybe even Shostakovich are also ready at the dial.

I'm hardly the only listener who's grown impatient with WFLN's recent programming. I'm surely not the only one who'd hoped its owners wouldn't throw out the classical baby with its - dare we say it? - tepid programming bathwater.

But instead of a new and improved format, what do we get? Fifty years of admirable, sometimes inspired, cultural service gone the way of a ballpark trade. Sure, we saw it coming with the roller-coaster of five sales in 13 months. As the greed escalated, the programming spiraled, too: downward. More commercial breaks, too much Telemann. All those snappy, agitating overtures, so many Roman Carnivals and moldy Moldaus.

How the station's dignified, civic-proud original owners, the late Lawrence and Eleanor Smith, would wince were they here to hear.

But the plethora of superficial sound bites, the Gospel of Dumbing Down that WFLN too assiduously followed, does not overshadow years of inestimable music.

So many good years of hearing small gems and whole symphonies: memorable performances by regular orchestral visitors such as the Cleveland and Detroit - and finally, last season, the reinstatement of WFLN's longtime Philadelphia Orchestra radio performances. The Philadelphians may rue WFLN's loss/trade/share. The orchestra counts heavily on the income and goodwill generated every year during the personable Radiothon it hosted; young talents at the Curtis Institute have benefited enormously from WFLN.

Yes, nice, the news that New York City's classical station WQXR intends to expand its signal to include us. Portents of promise, too, are sent by Los Angeles entrepreneur Saul Levine, the owner of L.A.'s KKGO-FM, who wants to offer classical programming to this coast.

Very nice, these welcome bursts of competition. But do we really intend to let another city present our talent, cover our arts news? Bring on 'QXR and let it spur some passion, vision, leadership among folks here who have spoken of starting their own nonprofit station. Bring on 'QXR or anyone else, but, listen, Philadelphians: Our city, with its mother lode of resources, should be able to support a classical station. In the words of a ``classic'' song, ``God bless the child that's got his own.''