The official line is that, as of the end of April, my weekly shows, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” have “sunsetted” on WWFM. I’ve got documentation to the effect and announcements were made over the air. So going forward, whatever the station decides to do in terms of maintaining the illusion of my continued employment there, up to and including rebroadcasts of any of my recorded material, don’t you believe it. Barring extraordinary measures on the part of management – beginning with a little basic human kindness and ending with actually paying me again, for a change – after 28 years, WWFM and I are quits.
That said, the shows are syndicated, and I am in the process of taking over distribution from home, with the production of all-new programs. Which is great, because my hands have been tied since the pandemic broke across New Jersey in March 2020 and all part-time employees were barred from entering the WWFM studios. For over three years.
For now, I enthusiastically endorse listening to the shows on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon. They’ve got a friendly and knowledgeable crew out there, overseen by the benevolent Peter Van de Graaff, whose Beethoven Satellite Network was also dropped from WWFM some time ago, in favor of the blathering hosts and bleeding chunks of music (up to ten fragments an hour) from Classical 24, an inferior service out of Minnesota, now ladled out by WWFM for 20 hours or more of its broadcast day.
KWAX is classical radio the way it used to be, with complete symphonies and concertos, chamber and instrumental music, and choral and vocal works, presented in a respectful, intelligent, and entertaining context. What’s more, Peter is on the air much of the time, as weekday morning host (in addition, his Beethoven Satellite Network runs overnight), and since the station is on the West Coast, everything is three hours behind Trenton-Princeton, so he doesn’t go off until 3:00 in the afternoon EDT! I’m in paradise. I think you will be too.
To emphasize my sense of liberation, this week on “Picture Perfect,” I’ll be shaking the dust off my boots with an hour of music about prison breaks.
Indomitable Steve McQueen does hard time on Devil’s Island in “Papillon” (Jerry Goldsmith); Paul Newman sticks it to The Man in “Cool Hand Luke” (Lalo Schifrin); Tim Robbins makes good use of a Rita Hayworth poster in “The Shawshank Redemption” (Thomas Newman); and an all-star cast, led by a barbed-wire hopping McQueen, flee their Nazi captors in “The Great Escape” (Elmer Bernstein).
Let’s face it, nobody looks good in orange. Grab a shank and a file, and get yourself free. We’re bustin’ out of the joint, THIS FRIDAY AT 5:00 P.M. PACIFIC TIME (which translates to 8:00 PM EDT, a good time for listening on the East Coast) on KWAX.
Here’s the schedule at a glance. Clip it and keep it in your wallet!
PICTURE PERFECT – Fridays on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)
THE LOST CHORD – Saturdays on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)
Stream them here:
PHOTO: Gazing deeply into my backside, as I tunnel out of a bad situation
