Life Without KFAC: When Rock Rolls Over Bach

While rightfully decrying “leveraged buyout stuff” that reduces radio stations from providers of community service to providers of a fast buck, the L.A. Philharmonic’s Ernest Fleischmann berates KUSC for its “soft-core classical sound.” KFAC, however, wins Fleischmann’s grudging praise for becoming “more interesting,” presumably for playing less Haydn and Bach and more Harbison and Bartok.

He seems to equate preference for 20th-Century classical music with intelligence. Well, Mr. Fleischmann, if audience ratings are to be the arbiters of what radio stations will play, pause to consider the empty rows when the Los Angeles Philharmonic offers Previn conducting Walton or Shapero, and the full house for Kurt Sanderling and Mozart.

ANDREW McGEORGE

Huntington Beach