Greg Stepanich

Cheering WLRN's plan for digital all-classical station

There are a certain number of us here in South Florida who cannot hear the opening bars of the Jupiter movement from Gustav Holst's The Planets without thinking we're going to hear a news briefing right after that.

Miami's WTMI used to use that music as its news intro, back when it was a respected classical-music radio station. Those were the days when my wife and I would sit on a Sunday reading the papers in our Broward County apartment, fighting over Tropic, eating a little brunch and listening to Jonathan Mandel's new releases program on WTMI. We were happy and content, secure in the knowledge that we lived in a part of the country sophisticated enough to have a decent classical-music station.

And it was good.

But it was ruined a couple years back when the people who ran it decided they didn't really like classical music and so they dumbed the station down, doing dreadful things like running single movements from works — and always things like the slow movement from Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto — clowning around in the morning (when the Sousa Alarm used to be enough) and mocking the music as boring.

Fortunately for the sanity of those who cared and still care about this music, WTMI dropped the pretense, got sold, and became a dance music station. We may have lost the outlet, but at least WTMI's new identity was honest, and not a classical half-effort.

But aside from WXEL-90.7 FM in Boynton Beach, it's hard to find any classical on the dial in Palm Beach County — drive north, though, and you can catch WQCS at 88.9 FM in Fort Pierce, which is a fine station. The good folks at both stations do yeoman's work satisfying the classical jones of area listeners, but it's not enough, at least for me.

The word this week, though, is that Miami's WLRN-FM, a very good public radio station, has gotten a temporary license from the FCC to broadcast a 24-hour classical station on digital radio, using the same frequency (91.3 FM). You'll need a digital receiver to hear it, but still, this is progress.

I'm eager to hear what the station will offer, even if it costs me a little bit of cash to get it. At some point, the station, which should launch in late summer, will offer local programming, and that could be very interesting indeed. WXEL's Joanna Marie interviews musicmakers who are coming to town on her show, and that's a valuable service.

But there should be more. I'd like to hear programs devoted to contemporary music and local composers, themed segments devoted to opera, chamber music, music from specific eras such as the Baroque, and news items telling us what's going on in the global and local worlds of classical music.

Most of all, though, it'd just be good to hear a station that plays it straight and programs great music. I grew up with WFMT in Chicago, and I've always loved the understated but thorough way their announcers presented the programs. The best part about it was that it didn't make you feel like a geek for listening to classical music; it was grown-up, and professional. As was WTMI in its best days.

And so best wishes to our friends at WLRN, and best of luck with the new station. I'm already excited about hearing it.

In the meantime: One more plug for Pliable at On an Overgrown Path, who's found some wild Net radio stations offering just about any kind of classical you want. All-Schoenberg radio! Check out the May 24 entry.