Good news for people with taste

According to NPR, "the fastest-growing segment of music sales in 2006 wasn't rock, dancehall, or hip-hop; it was classical music." (HT: Gideon Strauss.)

Classical radio in Washington, DC has had a somewhat turbulent time of late. First, the city's only classical station switched frequencies because its previous one (the strongest in the area and Arbitron's highest-rated station) was bought out by an all-news format. I thought it had gone off the air altogether, but then I discovered it had moved to a new frequency, albeit a much weaker one. Still, I was glad there was still a classical music option on regular broadcast radio, as I don't want to sign up for XM or Sirius.

Then, a few months ago, I found out that the second station had been bought out by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who planned on turning it into a sports-talk station (of which the city already had three). At the time when I read it in the paper, there were no plans for another classical-format station in the DC area.

Thankfully, however, when the station did switch, I found that one of the city's two NPR stations had changed formats to become the new (and still the only) classical station on the air. As it turns out, this switch has been a positive thing. Because the old station was a for-profit venture, it ran commercials and its DJs tended to play only the most familiar, popular classical works--pieces which can be both great and clichéd at the same time. The new station, because it is public radio, doesn't air commercials and isn't obligated to play only what sells. Now I get to hear things that the old station rarely or never played--organ music, vocal works, baroque and twentieth-century selections, and, on Saturday afternoons, Live from the Met opera performances.

Looks as though classical music--both here in DC and across the country--is alive and well.

Oh, one other thing--check out the Met's new series of opera perfomances broadcast in high definition to movie theaters around the country. You'll get most of the experience of attending a world-class live opera performance, for less than half the cost of the cheapest seats at the Met.