response 75 of 145:

Oct 21 23:31 UTC 1997

Also Pacifica evening news is on the web in real audio, I think that's
www,pacifica.org, though I will have to double check that URL.

response 77 of 145:

Nov 17 19:10 UTC 1997

Today's news:  Detroit's commercial classical music station, WQRS, 
is being converted to some rock format, as yet unannounced.
This addresses the desperate shortage of rock radio in the 
Detroit area.  (*ahem*)
 
It's another demonstration of the need to manage the limited resource 
of the radio spectrum on socialist principles.    
WQRS was making a tidy profit and had the #12 audience share in Detroit.  
In a free market, WQRS would have gone on being a profitable 
classical station for some time.  But radio is an oligopoly with 
government licensing needed to play in the game, and it's run on 
the absurd premise that delivering desirable buyers to advertisers 
is radio's highest goal.   (Remember, in commercial radio, you are 
not the customer: you are the product being sold.)

WQRS listeners were well-educated and wealthy, but they aren't 
young enough.
 
The NPR station in Detroit, WDET, programs mostly jazz, folk and world 
music; the NPR station in Ann Arbor, WUOM, dumped its morning and afternoon
classical programming about a year ago.  So neither of them is likely 
to pick up the void in classical music programming.
 
This echoes changes in Philadelphia; I believe that Philadelphia's 
commercial classical station had the same owner as the Detroit station, 
and they just dumped classical music at the same time that the major 
NPR station in the area was dumping classical music.

response 79 of 145:

Nov 18 01:38 UTC 1997

Gee, I dunno.  I kinda like the RRR (Really Repetitive Radio) stations.  I
mean, since they play the same stuff over and over (I listen to WIQB, mostly
for their little sound-clip thingys "Gee, I always thought this was a crack
house) it becomes a little bit like having a CD on random mode in your player.
And ocationally they play something that surprizes me, like once I tuned in
to "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson!  I bounced my head off the
roof!

response 81 of 145:

Nov 19 03:54 UTC 1997

(I heard Crimson's "People" on the radio once...)

response 83 of 145:

Nov 20 20:55 UTC 1997

The unconfirmed rumor is that the WQRS change will be near the end of 
November.

response 85 of 145:

Nov 21 01:49 UTC 1997

re: 80
-Yeah, that's basically it.  Of course, I forgot to mention that happens to
be one of the (very) few channels that Ghoti will recieve clearly?

response 87 of 145:

Nov 21 19:01 UTC 1997

   wqrs is changing formats?

   AAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   <has a fit>

   damn. *damn.* (all other expletives deleted)

   it's the only -- and i mean *only* -- station i listen to in my cab,
where i spend almost 60 hours a week driving and listening to wqrs.
cabs don't have cd players or tape decks in them, either, and now all
that's going to be left for me to listen to is country or rap (neither
of which i can stand), bad rock, or whacked-out extremist talk show
hosts.

   i took some extra time off work this week, which must be why i've
missed any announcements about wqrs changing formats.

   damn.

   this is really upsetting. sorry for throwing a fit in the middle
of the music conference. and i thought quitting smoking was going to
be tough.

   so, is there anything those of us who would like to preserve
classical radio in the detroit area can do?

response 89 of 145:

Nov 21 22:58 UTC 1997

Yeah, my dad just turned on wqrs this eavening.  he recieved an awfull
shock... Stone Temple Pilots.  My question is thus: are they switching to rock
only, or just some?
BTW: I just heard another cool song mixed in with the usual dreck on wiqb.
I think it's by the Proclamers, called "Ten Thousand Miles" or some such.

response 91 of 145:

Nov 22 16:29 UTC 1997

Arr! D'ye have an address for me (E-mail or Otherwise?)

response 93 of 145:

Nov 22 21:49 UTC 1997

  Here is the address:

  WQRS
  28588 Northwestern Hwy Suite 200
  Southfield MI 48034
  (248) 355-1051

  Flood em with letters. Get that alternative shit off WQRS!

response 95 of 145:

Nov 23 02:10 UTC 1997

I checked out the new format of "The Edge<at>105<dot>1" just a few 
minutes ago.  It appears that they are retaining the original WQRS call 
letters for the time being at least (a fairly normal practice when a 
radio station changes format and/or call letters).  Could not accurately 
identify what I was listening to, though, as there were apparently no 
disc jockeys speaking during the brief time I had the radio on this 
particular station.

response 97 of 145:

Nov 23 16:09 UTC 1997

        You could also address letters to stations that might pick 
up what was a profitable format (not just highly profitable).
        I don't know if that litejazz station could be/or would want
to be presuaded into doing more orchesteral things in the evening.
        That is, a station with a sucessfull daytime format, just
might be open to a compatable evening format when their current
evenings are in the dumper.

response 99 of 145:

Nov 23 21:39 UTC 1997

  I still say if you write letter and/or start a petition drive, someone has
to take notice of that.