My post on July 28 about the passing of WRTI radio host Jill Pasternak stimulated some interesting reader comments and a lot of personal memories about Jill’s former employer, the late, great WFLN, Philadelphia’s full-time classical music station for nearly 50 years. I am a nostalgic person by nature, so it’s easy for me to get lost for hours sometimes obsessively googling favorite subjects from the past. WFLN flourished largely in the days before the internet, so every nugget is hard-won and savored to the fullest. I wish there were more out there. But I am always digging.
Yesterday, David Nethermark Carson left a message on the Pasternak post. He was WFLN’s chief engineer for a time in the 1950s. That reminded me of this blog I stumbled across a few years ago by former WFLN host Gordon Spencer, who also goes way back. It occurs to me, I may never have mentioned it or shared the link. There’s not much to it, only a few entries, but it offers some valued glimpses of the Wild West days of Philadelphia’s now-lamented classical music station. Since WFLN was sold in 1997 (28 years ago???), the sixth largest city in the United States has been without a full-time classical music broadcast outlet.
WRTI, as Temple University’s former full-time jazz station, now divides its schedule between jazz and classical. Interestingly, I learn from Spencer’s reminiscences that at one time WFLN offered jazz as well.
Spencer died in 2018 at the age of 84. His entries are prefaced with a remembrance by his wife.
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