Betrayed by WGBH

I suppose that an unstated rule of writing a column in a Jewish newspaper is to write a column on a Jewish theme. So, I’m trying to figure out how the following is Jewish and have decided that if a Jew writes it, it is Jewish. If beloved editor agrees you will read this. If she doesn’t there will be a gap in the paper, a void unfillable.

People of Rhode Island, join in my crusade. Here’s our challenge, inadvertently initiated when a nice lady from WGBH called me the other night asking for my annual pledge. GBH is the Boston based public radio station to which I became addicted when I moved to Rhode Island in 1969. Starting in 1971 Robert J. Lurtsema hosted a five hour a day, seven days a week classical music program.

Each morning at 7:00 my clock radio would as if by magic turn itself on and my wife and I would awaken to the sounds of birds singing, chirping, warbling, cooing, for several minutes, followed by the classical opening of the day. One morning it was always Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances Suite another the Entrance of the Queen of Sheba by Handel. If for some reason I couldn’t remember if I’d awakened on Tuesday or Thursday, I could always tell by which theme music lovingly nudged me awake.

And then there was Lurtsema’s rich, sonorous voice and the dead-air pauses he allowed himself, visualizing in his mind, he said, what his audience was thinking, because it was obvious he really, really cared about his audience (apparently unlike the current corporate Philistines who run the station today).

Especially on weekends he might play music featuring one part of the orchestra, the flute, one week, cellos the next or he’d play, in order of composition all the string quartets of a particular composer always at the same time of day. We counted on their being played, looked forward to the next installment as if to a reading of a 19th century novel by chapters and learned about each piece and composer. God, he was good, and then he got sick and shortly before dying he gave an on-air mesmerizing, not previously announced, valedictory statement discussing what he had done in life, and so ended Morning Pro Musica in 2000, nearly 30 years after he first came into our lives. We have a poster of a painting he did hanging in our dining room, a constant reminder of the pleasure of those mornings back then.

But now GBH has decided, except for some off hours jazz and Celtic music to go all news and talk all the time. Fine. But what of us classical music junkies? Ah, not to worry, the station bought the studio of the old WCRB in Lowell which broadcasts on the FM dial at 99.5. But you can’t get 99.5 in Rhode Island. Static, yes, hissing, yes, Mozart and Handel no.

So when the lady called asking for money I told her my complaint and she said I should buy a gizmo to improve reception. “What,” uttered I in undisguised astonishment, “you people read a demographics report, turn the world upside down, change format and I have to pay for the inconvenience imposed? And do those gizmos work in my 1992 Volvo?” “Well, no,” she admitted, really ruing by now having made the call, “but we’re thinking of increasing our signal strength. “When, you do,” I said as politely as I could, “call me back.” Argghh. I betcha Robert J. is rolling over in his grave.

I know that news is important, so is opinion, but we get most of the programs GBH is now saturating the airwaves with from our own local NPR station, WRNI 1290 AM, and in Boston proper, the same news shows are already being broadcast on WBUR 90.9FM. So this displacement was necessary because, why? So as not to be original any more, so that uniqueness could be placed on the shelf along with the old LPs? For shame, GBH, for shame!

So is that Jewish enough? I mentioned Philistines, traditional enemy of the Jews, and God, traditional Friend of the Jews. Gotta be.