1. Ive been enjoying casual
classical listening on WFCR FM in Amherst MA --- FM in my workshop,
HD Radio HD2 at home. Only recently did I realize they are completely
different. The FM (and HD1) have a mix of classical music, news,
talk radio, jazz etc. HD2 is 100% classical.
It has Peter Van De Graaff as a genial
host, seemingly 24 hours a day, who provides background commentary
on the pieces played. It turns out the program has nothing to
do with WFCR. It is produced at WFMT Chicago as the Beethoven
Satellite Network and sold to stations around the country. It
has 1 hour segments. Programming is varied and often by thematic
groups. (It never identifies itself as BSN).
All the time I am hearing pieces I have
never heard before, which is certainly not the case with WCRB
FM. The sound is compressed (dynamically) . I dont know
if it is done at the source or at WFCR. I tuned in one day and
heard some interesting music obviously from 78s. It turned out
to be 4 Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin conducted by Hermann
Abendroth from the Concertgebouw live in 1941, from Radio Nederland.
The playlists are at
www.nepm.org/programs/beethoven-satellite-network-overnight-classical-music#stream/0
Between almost every outro and intro there
are clicks. This says that it is the product of an editing suite
and not live. One evening I was listening to some music of Sousa
and suddenly the music started rapidly repeating, maybe 100
times in 30 secs. Then the sound muted for a minute, and then
the music resumed. Peter acted as if nothing had happened.
Occasionally the sound mutes for a few
seconds for no apparent reason.
His pronunciation seems impeccable, sometimes
giving the native language pronunciation, then the Anglicized
version. He pronounced Glazunovs Raymonda Ballet as Rye-munda
with the u as in put. I cant confirm
this.

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