KHFM Assessed And Some Tidbits of Good Cheer

Music critic D. S. Crafts wrote in his year-end review in the Albuquerque Journal:

The biggest news this year on the classical music scene was not in the concert halls, but on the airwaves. After Bob Bishop was laid off from KHFM, many of the on-air personalities resigned in protest, most notably Kip Allen. The station continues to operate, but the essential character that made the station so successful is gone. It is a shame that mere legal ownership (by out-of-state American General Media) allows such insensitive changes to the nature of beauty and companionship, which were at the core of this once-beloved cultural institution.

I’m still getting numerous emails from Albuquerque residents asking if anything can be done to improve KHFM.  I hope just the fact that people care will convince management to make good changes, not bad ones.  My only advice is to stay on them, be specific about what you want, and engage yourself in the process until they respond.  You’re the consumer.  They’re just people, and they want to be liked, as we all do.

From one of our readers in Albuquerque:

Study Shows That Classical Music Can Lower Cholesterol:  “Recent studys [sic]  show that prescribing music can improve heart health and lower cholesterol levels. The research found that if a person listens to 30 minutes a day of their favorite music, not only can it help him/ her relaxing mentally but it can also benefit him physically by expanding and clearing blood vessels.”

Read the rest here.  It doesn’t sound like the most scientific of studies, but at least they didn’t conclude that classical music causes high cholesterol.  Though if you’re sitting listening to music when you should be exercising, I doubt that the music will counteract your sedentary lifestyle.  Just saying.

LONDON: “Fans of classical music and jazz are creative, pop lovers are hardworking and, despite the stereotypes, heavy metal listeners are gentle, creative types who are at ease with themselves.” So says Professor Adrian North of Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University who has been studying the links between people’s personalities and their choice of music. “People often define their sense of identity through their musical taste, wearing particular clothes, going to certain pubs, and using certain types of slang,” North said. “It’s not surprising that personality should also be related to musical preference.”

In what North said was the largest study ever conducted into individuals’ musical preference and character, researchers asked 36,518 people from around the world to rate how much they liked 104 different musical styles before taking a personality test.

What I say is, if we classical music lovers are so creative, why can’t we find a way to make classical radio more interesting?  Mozart was so creative he added a pedal keyboard to his piano, like an organ, to beef up his piano concertos. Why don’t we ever hear about that on the air?  When was the last time you heard the Bowed Piano Ensemble on the radio? It’s one of the most fantastic uses of the piano I’ve ever heard.  Have you ever heard anyone take apart a Tchaikovsky symphony and play all of the folk songs Tchaikovsky embedded in the music? Have you ever heard the Hummel Piano Concerto?  Once you know that it was the inspiration for Chopin and Liszt, it no longer sounds like Haydn.  It’s the missing link! — an amazing piece that rarely shows up on classical stations.

Classical music has the kind of depth and breadth no other music has.  Aren’t you dying to know what you’re missing from your classical station?  As the slogan for Americans for the Arts goes: ART.  ASK FOR MORE.