Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 81

yyrrrp r-" rrwrrrwwrwrrwwwwr vrrrwrwrr www rr rr'r FT T'T rT rT 1 rrirrrr," SLL EDITIONS The Arizona Republic A Sunday, April 6. 1986 Double takes F2 On the side F4 Popular music F5 Bridge F8 Cinemafare F10 Calendar F11 Close-ups Reasons both practical and philosophical go into people's decision to catalog their lives. F14. i mm Format's demise creates dissonance for music lovers New management put growing emphasis on talking between musical numbers, an attempt that was explained as "creating personal rapport" between the station and its listeners. To attract larger audiences, it was said, the station had to lighten the image of "stuffy classical music." Music lovers, however, did not think of their listening habits as stuffy.

But the strongest criticism was directed at the new and aggressively solicited commercials, many of which were presented in abrasive, penetrating rocklike jingles played at considerable noise levels. "Unacceptable," said many sensitive listeners who could not accept that a mood created by Mozart and Mahler would be destroyed by singing commercials. Those who enjoyed the station's music for background often objected to the new manner of some announcers, who lectured (or read from liner jackets) before virtually every selection they were putting on the air. In their opinion, KONC's classical disc jockeys talked too much. Still, these were the same announcers who introduced the concerts of the New York Philharmonic; the San Francisco Symphony; the Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras; and such popular classical music shows as George Jellinek's The Commentary By DIMITRI DROBATSCHEWSKY Arizona Republic Staff Few imagined it would happen so quickly; others were sure it couldn't happen at all.

But on Monday, radio station KONC (FM 101.5) stopped broadcasting classical music, thereby condemning fine arts lovers to painful musical withdrawal symptoms. For many classical music aficionados, listening to KONC was a pervasive habit, even a way of life. It is difficult for them to understand why they suddenly should be deprived when virtually every major U.S. city and many smaller ones, including Tucson and Flagstaff, still have classical music outlets, some of them broadcasting 24 hours a day. To many listeners, KONC was indispensable, and the number of radio receivers they owned was proportionate to the intensity of their desire not to miss a single minute of classical music.

For instance, in my automobile and kitchen, living room and library, on the nightstand and even in the shower are FM receivers with dials permanently set to KONC. They fell silent this week. "What are we going to do now?" and "How could they do this to us!" were the most fre Eric BakerRepublic classical music broadcasts, and the station's listeners protested vehemently. They organized picket lines in front of the station's studios to no avail. As understandable as listeners' anger and frustration over the sudden loss of classical music on the air may be, these feelings are negative and non-productive.

Music lovers in the Valley need a music station, but they must show that they are there in sufficient numbers, and they must demonstrate their willingness to support such a station. Yet KONC's listeners ask themselves why they should have to pay for what every other radio listener gets free. During its final week of playing the classics, KONC revealed plans for a new, publicly owned radio station where "what happened here could not happen again." They broadcast appeals for funds. National Public Radio affiliate KJZZ (FM 91.5) is willing to operate a sister station devoted to classical music. The station, affiliated with Maricopa County Community Colleges, says $250,000 is needed to get the outlet on the air, possibly within six months.

Late reports also indicate that Arizona State University is interested in putting a publicly funded classical music station on the air. Classics, F2 Betty Buckley As Edwin Drood on Broadway m(g lli Mil Vocal Scene and Karl Haas' Adventures in Good Music. If you were unable to sleep some night, they were the ones who announced the playing of a Bruckner symphony (which, some people swear, will cure all cases of insomnia). If you loved opera, they presented the cherished Saturday afternoons with the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, which have been a national tradition for more than 40 years. And whenever you were driving, the traffic was made more bearable because of good music emanating from your car radio.

Now the eight receivers in my home (and one in the car) are depressingly quiet. The clock radio wakes me with its buzzer (instead of music), and I shower, shave and eat in silence, glowering at the useless radios. I drive to work listening to news, unless I still am trying unsuccessfully to get to the music of KUAT-FM, Tucson's classical music station, which no longer can be heard in the Valley because of another station's overpowering signal. The problems of the Valley's classical music community, alas, are not unique. A few weeks ago, a commercial radio station in Houston unexpectedly discontinued its It began as a workshop piece in February 1985 and then went into rehearsal for six weeks before it was presented during the monthlong New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park.

In the show, which opened on Broadway in August, Buckley plays 'three roles: young Drood, a musi-. cal-hall actress and an old man. "The Scottsdale concert will be a nice respite from Drood," Buckley' said. "I've been working really hard and need a change of pace. "Playing three parts in the show is challenging, but fortunately I'm not pressured by the audience vote.

I've observed a level of anxiety among the actors while they wait for the voting to determine who will be called on to sing the final confession song." For the Scottsdale show, Buckley will sing some of her own songs plus Memories from Cats and selections from an as-yet-untitled album that will be released this spring. was so outraged at the change that he looked into suing KONC for breach of promise. The director of Scottsdale's Center for the Arts, Ronald Caya, also an avid classical music listener, feels that KONC ought to atone for its breach of promise by paying for the cost of providing a new station with the equipment needed to resume broadcasts of classical music. Apparently, KONC feels no such obligation. Still, the station has offered to donate its classical music records and tapes if such a new station is established, probably with a healthy tax deduction as a result.

In some ways, the classical music lovers' feelings for their radio outlet can be likened to a lovers' relationship. While it is going on, it offers satisfactions that, after a while, are taken for granted. Little by little, criticisms arise, and small annoyances grow into larger ones. A partner may threaten to leave or the listener to turn off the radio. Although (or because) KONC was a treasured source of musical listening, grumbles and dissatis-, faction with the station's broadcasting policies increased after Affiliated took over and attempted to "popularize" the outlet.

with 'Cats' also appeared in Carrie); television (Evergreen, the NBC miniseries); and theater (leads in Pippin and 1776). She recently was nominated for an Emmy for her performance in the Afterschool Special titled Bobby and Sarah. Impressive as the list is, Buckley is probably best known for her role of Abby Bradford, the second wife in the ABC series Eight Is Enough, which ran from 1977 to 1981. "A lot of people in the film business are not aware of the young up-and-comers in the musical scene, so many of them were surprised when I emerged in Cats and the movie Tender Mercies as a singer," Buckley said in a telephone interview from her dressing room at the Imperial Theatre in New York. "They had the attitude that I'd been when actually I had been singing and dancing since I was 5 years old and been paid for it since I was 15." After Buckley finished the film Carrie, she signed a long-term quently expressed reactions to the station's action.

When KHEP-FM, which began, broadcasting serious music in 1968, was sold to Affiliated Broadcasting of Boston in January 1985 and became KONC in the process, the new management promised to retain classical music programming. The argument management now gives to explain the reversal of that promise is that the company's duty to its stockholders mandated adequate returns on their investments, which were impossible to obtain with a format of classical music. That also is the reason why fine arts listeners now feel anger besides frustration over the loss of their music. Listeners claim that the economic facts of life were known to the station's pur-; chaser from the outset, and that therefore the promise to keep classical music programming never should have been made. Some irate music lovers consider boycotting KAMJ (successor to KONC), meaning they will not listen to the station's new format.

What classicist could, anyway? They also say they will advocate resistance to the products it advertises. Thomas C. Home, a Phoenix attorney who always listened to KONC and even put the station on his office phones' hold lines. By JOY COOLIDGE Arizona Republic Staff When God was passing out gifts Betty Buckley must have been a favorite angel. Either that or she got in line more than once.

The actress, singer, composer and musician will take a weekend off from her role as the title character of Broadway's newest smash musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, for concert performances at 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday at Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Backing her will be a group of musicians from Cats, the musical for which Buckley won her 1983 Tony Award. She was honored for her performance as Grizabella. The Scottsdale booking was set more than a year ago, before Drood became a hit, and the Scottsdale performances are the only concert appearances she will make during Drood'8 Broadway run.

Buckley's credits include film (she played Robert Duvall's estranged wfe in Tender Mercies and 'Drood' star to play for Scottsdale performance commitment with Lorimar Produc tions for Eight Is Enough. "I hadn't anticipated becoming a ifilm actress; that just sort of happened along the way," she said. "I talked the producers into letting me sing two of my original songs on the show and was flying back to New York once a month for voice lessons. But during that period, no one thought of me as a singer. "My musician friends kept telling me I'd just play American mothers from then on, but I knew, that wasn't my commitment I was pleased with the show because it required that I become a good actress, and I could bring a finer honed instrument to musicals, which is the theater I really love." Drood, which also stars Cleo Laine and George Rose, is loosely based on the mystery novel Charles Dickens was writing when he died.

Writer Rupert Holmes devised nightly audience vote to determine the solution. if, pli i Betty Buckley Backstage before the show.