Letters to the editor:
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Talk, Talk, Talk

The decline of WUOT, as lamented in recent Metro Pulse articles and letters to the editor, saddens me. For much of my life, WUOT has provided musical accompaniment to my day, from the moment my clock radio gently roused me to wakefulness with light classics. I discovered WUOT during high school, when I would turn on the ill-gotten portable in my bedroom and imagine I was some arch-villain hatching my nefarious schemes (then as now, it was mostly the villains in movies who fancied classical music). It was largely WUOT that gave me an appreciation for real music, music that came from the heart and mind, not from the pop formulas of the day.

Occasionally there was also a Shakespeare play or an Earplay audio drama. When WUOT began fund-raising I became a willing volunteer, putting in so much time that I came to be on a first-name basis with many of the staffers. Now, I have it on good authority that morale at the station is at an all-time low, and this will be the fourth year I have contributed neither money nor time. It dawned on me that the money I was contributing and soliciting was going primarily to support the very things that were ruining the station.

One letter-writer, Bob Gwynne, states the problem is that classical music is squeezing out authentic regional music. Whether we should consider seriously the musical judgments of one who is unable to distinguish classical from easy-listening music is dubious. Regardless, the real problem is that ALL music has been relegated to off-hours filler by something Knoxville's airwaves already have way too much of: talk.

WUOT began to move away from classical music when it came under a mandate to avoid being a "classical jukebox" or risk losing federal funding. Today federal funds have been virtually eliminated anyway, but now WUOT's audience has, by natural selection, shifted as music lovers have become increasingly disfranchised. Also, news and public affairs programming makes a more likely springboard into the better-paying jobs of commercial broadcasting than does a serious music format.

These days I must wake up to world crises or droning punditry on three hours worth of Morning Edition. Then at three in the afternoon there is the tedious Fresh Air talk show of Terri Gross, who seems always to be interviewing gay Jewish rock stars, followed by two and one half hours of All Things Considered. Do I dare suggest one hour of ATC might suffice? There is Car Talk, an especially annoying call-in show, neither very informative nor very funny, and a new show where listeners call in to talk about eating, surely one more sign that we are living in the End Times. All these shows are expensive syndications, whereas the music and recorded drama format of years past cost very little. And where WUOT used to provide balm for the rigors of the day, I now often feel relief when I turn off the prime-time babble.

I still listen to WUOT's late-night satellite feed, but it's not the same as having a live announcer to call with questions or requests. I have begun using money I might once have donated to WUOT to expand my CD collection, and I have purchased a clock radio with a tape cassette. Perhaps music-lovers might consider withholding donations for a year or two to encourage a reduction in WUOT's natter quotient. Or maybe we could all take up a collection to fund the launching of a new, non-profit station for music and drama. God knows Knoxville's airwaves could use a little REAL fresh air.

John Mayer
Knoxville