KUSC really, really, really wants your support

Is it just me or is there a more, well, desperate note than usual to KUSC's latest pledge drive? Not just the normal urging and gifting and guilting, but also some outright begging along the lines of please, please, please don't let us go down the tubes.

It has been a year since the 62-year-old station outlasted KMZT to become the lone bastion of full-time classical programming on FM radio in L.A. But with gas prices spiking, home prices tanking and recession talk all around, the race for donor dollars is tighter than ever.

Tim Cavanaugh looks at classical radio's hit parade, a list topped by composers who could have used a pledge drive or two of their own. But it's not all dead white guys at KUSC, the L.A. Downtown News points out.

Besides, who wouldn't pony up the price of a weekly latte just to keep Jim Svejda -- seen at right -- coming back to work?

-- Veronique de Turenne

Comments

[Zeek Wolfe]

I listened to K-Mozart all the time. Commercial restraints meant that the pieces played were usually short and therefore many different composers were played during the day. Even the commercials were okay because advertisers were appealing to an upscale audience. If KUSC started accepting advertising dollars the audience would probably grow not decline. And, modern classical music would disappear. How wonderful is that?

[wasco]

Whoa, Are telling me that USC is going to let them go down the drain? I think the university could pony up some donor dollars....

[Madis Hel]

Buddy, Zeek: Tell me you're writing in jest! If you want to listen to 3 minute songs all day long, The Wave will play you all of the light adult-contemporary music your heart desires. Or, if you're looking to simply ditch the modern stuff, tell you what: Buy a Mozart CD (probably won't matter to you who is conducting, so any "best of" will do) and put it on repeat. And heck, you can even ask your local Jaguar or Mercedes dealer to send you some "upscale" advertising tailored to your impeccable taste, if you'd like.

In all seriousness, the operative word in your comment is "restraints". Are you really in favor of taking away the freedom KUSC enjoys today by leaving them beholden to commercial interests? KUSC is the only major station I know with the courage to play as wide range of music as they do. I love Bach and Beethoven and Brahms and Bruckner as much as you do (or maybe more, since I prefer their pieces to be played in their entirety...go figure) but I also like to be introduced to vital 20th century works and even (gasp!) the classical music of today.