Being the once-upon-a-time radio guy that I am, some of the doings in the broadcasting business interest me. I have a more than casual appreciation of Classical music, although I would not call myself a connoisseur, by any means. There are two Classical music stations in Boston — WGBH 89.7 FM and WCRB, which from 1954 until today (Friday) was at 102.5 FM. WGBH is a public station, named after the Great Blue Hill. WCRB stands for Charles River Broadcasting, and it’s a commercial station.
WCRB has in recent years been derided as “Classical Lite.” Playings of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons have become a bit too frequent, and during “drive time” no complete works are played. But still, one can count on WCRB to be playing Classical music, even when WGBH switches to Jazz in the evening.
Earlier this year, WCRB was sold. The business dealings were a little complicated, and if you want to read about them, click here. The upshot is that today at noon, WCRB swapped frequencies with a Country music station, WKLB at 99.5. WCRB is now broadcasting over an antenna that’s not west of Boston, but north, near the New Hampshire border, far away from the Charles River. The general consensus is that WCRB is the loser in the deal, but we’re lucky it’s still a Classical format.
The recording on the audio player below is from the FM tuner in my computer. I shortened the gap of dead air between the end of WCRB and the start of WKLB, but otherwise this is how the rather abrupt end of an era sounded today in Boston. If you know the piece of music that WCRB used to close its 52 years at 102.5, you’ll get the sly and wry joke.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/FM1025.mp3]
Indeed it is from “Rodeo”. Thanks for the correction! That’s what I get for relying on memory instead of checking.
But now it occurs to me that the origins of “Country” music are actually not in the West, but in a different region of the US. Perhaps “Appalachian Spring” would have been a more apropos selection?
Close on all counts – it’s Hoedown from “Rodeo”. They have been playing it a lot for the past two weeks.
Yes, it’s Hoe-Down, from Billy the Kid. The last thing WCRB played before the Country music started was Country music.
The late “Robert J,” was host of the now-defunct Morning pro musica program on WGBH.
Aaron Copland, of course, with the ballet “Billy the Kid,” or was it “Cowboy;” either way, “BEEF! It’s what’s for dinner!” Say, wasn’t WCRB once the home of the late, great, Robert J. Lurtsema?