parker@psuvax.UUCP (Bruce Parker) (05/19/84)
Dave Schneider's mention of classical radio stations' music programming reminds of the tales I've heard from friends at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It seems that a few years back, a number of music faculty submitted a petition to WFIU, the campus station, demanding that they only play music composed between 1700 and 1920. (No more of this Claudio Monteverdi-Terry Riley nonsense, thank you.) They were ignored. Well, almost: they were dubbed the Classical Fascists by the station staff. This was followed by a petition from the Jazz department claiming that nothing good has been done since Bird died (or some such foolishness) so please don't play anything recorded after 1955. They were dubbed the Jazz Nazis. During my tenure with WDFM (State College) I got several calls from an old fellow who claimed that music died in 1828 with Schubert. Of course then there was this Shakespeare teacher I had at IU that claimed that music went awry when it left the church -- oh, say, 1600. Silly me. I still can't believe that people are so narrow-minded. Bruce Parker