All-Classical WGBH

Boston’s commercial Classical music radio station, WCRB, is struggling at its new frequency, according to a recent news account, as seen below. The moment it left its original frequency can be heard here.

Meanwhile, public station powerhouse WGBH is now offering its HD Radio all-Classical music channel on the Net. Bravo. Way to go. Encoding runs at 128 Kbps, and it sounds fine. I just added this link for it on my Windows desktop.

Reception is mixed to new WCRB signal, programming

By Clea Simon, Globe Correspondent | January 25, 2007

Is WCRB-FM fading out?

While the Dec. 1 move of the commercial classical station’s frequency, from 102.5 to 99.5, has made tuning in troublesome for some listeners, changes in the station’s programming have raised other questions. In Boston’s classical music community, the reception to both the signal and the revived station has been mixed.
Continue reading All-Classical WGBH

NPR Explores Income Inequality

income
NPR is doing a series this week on the widening gap between the rich and everybody else. Like global warming, there are those who deny the evidence, but that’s only because they’re happy with the way things are. Many working Americans aren’t.

We’ll see at the end of the week whether or not the series is adequately critical of CEO pay and entitlements, as well as Bush’s tax cuts for the ultra-rich. Click here to go to the series home page.

The Flight of the Phoenix on Netflix

Borgnine

What’s on Netflix Watch Now? The Flight of the Phoenix. Not a great movie, but it’s one that I remember enjoying on TV with my father, decades ago.

I’d forgotten that it features Academy Award® winner Ernest Borgnine. Long ago, my mother was with Borgnine in a traveling troupe of actors from the Barter Theater. She always called him Ernie. Ya know, I’ve never really thought about it before, but Borgnine bears something of a resemblance to my father. Hmm…

Spider-Man In The Sunday Papers

Spidey

I’ve previously highlighted the Spider-Man reprint comics that are found in certain Sunday newspapers. They disappeared from my paper for a few weeks, but they’ve been back for the past four weeks.

Almost all of the art in these stories, now over 40 years old, was done by Steve Ditko. I don’t know about you, but I consider these figure drawings to be compelling and unique. Superb representations of the human form in space and motion, accentuated and made abstract by the best super-hero costume ever designed.