Classical fades from the dial

If you bought a radio station in 1955 for $8,000 and someone offered $165 million for it today, would you take it?

Before you could say Beethoven's Ninth, the owners of the classical station WNIB-FM, in Chicago, last year sold their station to the Bonneville International Corp. of Salt Lake City. The new owners switched off Beethoven and Bach and switched on Doobie Brothers and the Doors. Since then, ratings for the renamed "WDRV – The Drive" have soared.

"If you are an owner who is not committed to this format, it's very hard to walk away from a large-scale offer," says Mario Mazza, vice president of programming at Boston's only commercial classical-music radio station, WCRB.

Across the country, giant corporations like Bonneville are swallowing up classical radio stations and switching to pop or rock formats to win a larger share of ratings and boost profits.

Last week, managers at WNYC (one of two classical stations in New York) announced that the station would trim five hours of its daily classical programming in favor of talk and cultural shows.

In January, to the horror of classical-music lovers, Cox Communications bought Miami's top-rated classical station, WTMI, and switched it to a techno-dance format. "It's not that the stations are performing poorly," Mr. Mazza points out. WTMI was the sixth- highest-rated station in the market (out of 40) and made a nice profit of $6 million. It's just that even more listeners – and higher profits – were possible with a new sound.

"Where commercial radio is concerned, classical music has fallen victim to the profit motive," says Martin Goldsmith, program director of classical music at XM Satellite Radio, based in Washington. "More and more stations are owned by fewer and fewer companies. There are desires among commercial broadcasters to make as much money as they possibly can."

Several decades ago, listeners might find six or seven classical stations in a single city. Now, they're lucky to find one, even in big cities such as Detroit or Philadelphia.

"The business side of classical music is changing significantly," says Tom Bartunek, president and program director at the classical station WQXR in New York. "Radio stations are dropping the format, and record companies are reducing dramatically the product they are creating or repackaging."

Radio programming isn't the only aspect of classical music being affected. Several orchestras, including those in St. Louis and south Florida, are being forced to tighten their belts. The San Jose (Calif.) Symphony suspended operations in October because of a $2 million deficit. And at the Virgin Record Store in Chicago, classical inventory has been cut in half to make room for more popular movie DVDs.

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