To the editors:
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Friendliness is not the problem with Jay Andres [Hot Type, March 15]. His complete lack of knowledge of classical music is not appropriate for a DJ at WFMT. What reception would I get on WEFM if I announced a Beatles song and then played a New Age selection? CDs usually contain more than one piece. Mr. Andres would play a CD and announce the title showed first on the cover. When he first joined WFMT classical music lovers, ever hopeful, would phone him, telling him what he was really playing, and how to discover this. Mr. Andres would deny that he had erred and continue as though the name of the piece on the radio was not really important. His pronunciation of foreign titles and composers did improve during his stay at the station, but his choice of music (semi-classical, musicals, and other “easy listening” selections), his opinion that afternoon listeners didn’t have patience for pieces longer than 10-12 minutes–what about symphonies, octets, quartets, all the wonderful chamber music that WFMT audience expects?–declare him unfit for WFMT, as well as WNIB.
Those who listen to other stations may be used to canned jingles with loud drums beating and people yelling about what one should buy. WFMT listeners were not used to being screamed at, to the accompaniment of junk music, and most of us turn the station, or our ears, off during the new type of commercials.
