The local affiliate of National Public Radio seems to have lost its affiliation with the public. Without any public dialogue, opinion sampling or even a forewarning announcement, KUER eliminated its classical music broadcasting and replaced it with talk.
There is talk all over the radio dial, both AM and FM, both in the a.m. and p.m. What there isn't any more of is classical music on any station in this supposedly cosmopolitan city of almost 1 million. Only two out-of-town stations give us the classics part time, and one of them only late at night. There is no home station for our world-class Utah Symphony now. KUER even had the effrontery to finish a major fund-raiser last month for programming and a second fund-raiser for a new transmitter without telling donors they were paying for simply more talk.
What was the new transmitter for? To improve the resonance, tone quality, timbre and subtle nuances of the sound of talk? Enough already! We've had it with radio talk!
Give us our music back. Give us Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Give us Gene Pack and Rachel Navarro. Or give us a refund, and we'll send it to KBYU. And, KUER, no longer misrepresent yourself as public radio.
Louis and Debbie Moench
and 61 others
Salt Lake City