[Jeffhs]

"Mr. Loaf." Sheeesh! I don't think this person, whomever he was, deserves that kind of respect from anybody.

Forgive me, but I am 65 years old, I live near Cleveland, and am sick and tired of hearing about these rock and roll music people every time I turn around. I don't listen to radio much anymore because of that (just about every radio station in my area plays this garbage and I am tired of it; the classical music station, which formerly had a signal which reached all of northeastern Ohio, is now on a frequency that does not reach my area, by virtue of the fact that such frequency is right next to a country-western station on the FM radio dial (the classical station moved from 95.5 to 104.9; the c&w station is just 0.2 MHz down the dial, at 104.7, and the full-time AFC on my stereo system always pulls the tuning to that station. Please do not suggest I put up a better FM antenna, as I live in an apartment complex where outdoor antennas of any kind, except satellite dishes for TV, are not permitted).

Why the company which formerly operated the classical music station at 95.5 decided to move the station to a frequency right next to a powerful station, making the classical station unlistenable in my area, is so far beyond me it isn't funny. The only thing I can come up with to explain this nonsense (strictly IMO) is the company which now owns the 104.9 classical station, which is reliably receivable only west of Cleveland (in the city's western suburbs), must think the area east of Cleveland is not sophisticated enough for classical music, while the area west of the city is much more sophisticated and deserves unfettered reception of the classical station. Cleveland may be where the confounded Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (! ! !) is located but that is, IMHO, no reason whatsoever for depriving the area of its only "good" music radio station.

As far as I know at this time, other cities in this state (Ohio) don't have this problem; neither do big cities like Chicago or New York (those cities apparently have not fooled with their classical music stations at all as far as dial position, ERP transmission power, etc. are concerned), if I am to believe their listings in RadioLocator.org and others. Why on earth was the classical music station in Cleveland moved from its original dial position (95.5, where it has been since the early 1960s) to one that simply does not reach fully half the Cleveland area? Another change the Cleveland classical station made which I do not agree with is when the radio station became non-commercial (it was a commercial FM station until fairly recently). Now, 95.5 is a very poor excuse for public radio; please don't get me started on that, as I am annoyed enough already that the station has been moved to 104.9 MHz, with a puny signal (6 kw ERP, IIRC) which is absolutely nothing like the station's signal when it was on 95.5 MHz.

Again I say, sheeeeesh. The entire FM radio dial in this area is nothing but garbage now, IMHO, and I do not like it in the least. I thought rock and roll FM stations (not to mention rock and roll music itself) gave FM radio in this area a very bad name, but what has been done to the classical FM radio station is at least 1000 times worse than how AM radio was all but wrecked strarting, IIRC, some time in the late 1980s or early nineties when it went to almost 100 percent talk and sports, again IMHO. (This was around the same time the National Broadcasting Company sold its radio network, which, IMHO, was the home of some of the best programming I have ever heard over AM or FM radio.)

I guess the only way I'll be able to hear classical music in my area from now on is to listen to 104.9's Internet stream or on CDs (I have a few classical CDs here), although if I listened to this music over the classical FM station, I will be listening to the station in stereo, of course, but the fidelity will be awful, since my computer's speakers are not hi-fi devices (they are about 3 inches in diameter for the low frequency speakers, and about two inches or even less (!) for the tweeters). At one time, some years ago, I had my computer's audio routed through the computer to my stereo system, but I have since forgotten the connection scheme I used in order to do that. I wish I could find out, again, how to do it, as I am all but sick and tired of hearing this constant barrage of rock and roll noise (not to mention one talk station and a sports-talk outlet) from one end of the commercial FM radio dial to the other.

Oh well.