RADIO DIVERSITY

posted by James Reel

    Larry Harnisch, the Arizona Daily Star’s classical-music critic back in the early 1980s (who now works for a certain more serious paper covering Los Angeles), has this riff on my post about radio consultants who promulgate a generic sound across the country:

    Bravo ... I think Internet radio is a wonderful thing because it allows—in fact requires—classical stations around the world to compete on an equal footing and to distinguish themselves from one another. A listener can easily switch from one city's classical station to another with no loss in audio quality. From my point of view, it's a great option.
    [I] hate a certain overnight announcer (not on KUAT) who laughs at all her own jokes and has horrible faux foreign pronounciation. The ditsoid female announcer in question is Nimet Habachy, who works the overnight shift on WQXR. She is almost as annoying as empty-headed gab queen Bonnie Grice (formerly of KUSC and now at WDUQ), if such a thing is humanly possible.

    My own feeling is that people are tuning in to hear the music, not me. Announcers are necessary unless we're just presenting aural wallpaper, but really, who at 7:15 a.m. is really paying attention to anything I have to say? If I can do a sufficiently informative break in only 20 seconds, so much the better.