Hello,

I am a concert pianist who lives in Amherst. Recently, when I contacted WFCR to request an announcement of a concert, I was told that they don't do that any more.

Apparently, one has to be an underwriter these days. Some of us can't afford that.

Frequently I make suggestions about classical programming, and receive a rather snide answer to my suggestions from John Montanari. One thing I would like to hear is, on a famous musician's birthday, a representative recording of his/her work. For example, on Jacqueline Du Pre's birthday, the obvious choice would be her recording of the Elgar Concerto, which made her famous. If the announcers here don't know which recordings are representative, maybe they could do a little research.

Another idea would be to have a "Composer of the Day" hour, not an entire day, for the birthday person. I'm sorry, but I cannot listen to an entire day of the music of one composer, no matter who it is.

Very often, the announcer will pull the first CD s/he sees off the shelf, rather than the STUNNING recording I KNOW they have. Why not the most outstanding choice in the station?

There are no interviews w/musicians who live here.

The "expanded" classical music programming is trash! The overnight subscription program is garbage. The announcers, including Brad Spear, mispronounce information all the time. Why would anyone support elevator music? The Sunday Morning Baroque, also trash, only plays background music. Nothing attention-grabbing.

The event listings provided on "Valley Folk," by the way, weren't any good, either. Reading EVERY event, w/o any editing, for a long time w/o a break, turns into a complete bore. Very often, there is no time announced, no phone number for further info, or whatever. It would help if the announcer looked at the material ahead of time and got a little bit organized!

I can no longer send contributions to WFCR for these reasons. I listen to WQXR NY online.

Sincerely,

(name withheld by request)