What kind of a price tag do you put on something of intangible worth? It’s the age-old conundrum of the value of art.
Without getting into whether or not art is “good” for you or for your community (like spinach), consider for a moment what having classical music on WWFM has meant for the quality of your life. If you seriously feel it has done much to enrich your days and to give you solace or inspiration at all hours, then why not follow your heart – within the restraints of your budget, of course?
Public radio isn’t here to break the bank. Ideally, if everyone who enjoys the service – an endangered one in an increasingly commercial, talk, and news-driven market – then there would be no danger of having this invaluable asset lost or compromised. We’ve already had to make some hard decisions in recent years in order to survive within our budget.
If you’ve already given recently, thank you so much for your support – but if it’s been a year or more, how about it? Can you spare $20, $50, $120 for the station you love? $120 is just ten dollars a month. It may not seem like it would amount to much, but if even a few dozen people were to contribute, that’s quite a considerable chunk of change. If our entire listenership could be moved to be so generous, The Classical Network would one of the most well-off public radio stations in existence. But the reality is only a very small percentage of listeners give.
Regardless of what attracts you to the station – Who’s your favorite composer or performer? What’s your preferred era or genre? Who’s your favorite host or what’s your favorite specialty show? – we like to think we offer something for everyone who cares about classical music.
As you consider what you are able to do in order to help support our future, enjoy a day of wall-to-wall Mozart, as Alice Weiss (9 to noon), David Osenberg (10 to 2), Carl Hemmingsen (1 to 4), Michael Kownacky (2 to 6) and yours truly (4 to 6) share some of our favorites, in advance of the master’s 262nd birthday. (The actual anniversary is tomorrow.)
Then stick around for “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, coming your way at 6 p.m. I’ve selected four recordings of scores by another one of classical music’s great musical prodigies, Erich Wolfgang Korngold. I’ll post a little more about that in just a bit.
“Picture Perfect” kicks off a Friday evening of unique specialty shows and live concert material. Bill McGlaughlin brings you another edition of “Exploring Music” (and more Mozart) at 7; Carl Hemmingsen hosts a concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, with music by Respighi, Schulhoff, and Mendelssohn, at 8; Allan Kelly presents “Distant Mirror” at 10; and Lewis Baratz hosts “Well-Tempered Baroque” at 11.
The Mozart celebration is already underway on WWFM – The Classical Network. Please show your support by calling 1-888-232-1212 or by contributing online at wwfm.org. We wouldn’t be here without your generosity. Thank you for your support!
