The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 142

continued: WQXR vawmmmamaa Ct WQXR's host-produear Tony Rudal, In station's vast racord library This musical library, the station says, is second only to that of the Library of Congress. The collection is catalogued in triplicate: By composer, artist, and running time. Nearby is a contraption with which the station launders its platters. WQXR has five studios (one of which is equipped with a piano and is suited to live performances), as well as an auditorium with two pianos, including the famous $52,000 Imperial Bo-sendorfer, reputedly the only piano that Liszt could not break. When we visited the station the other day, we watched two programs being prepared.

The first was a new program, "This is My Music," which airs at 1:05 p.m., and during which and a visiting celebrity discusses and plays his favorite music. Lloyd Moss hosts the show. That day's celebrity was George Plimpton, the chief exponent and possibly the inventor of participatory journalism. Neither Plimpton nor Moss had time to prepare for the program. Moss was supplied with an outline by producer Ru-del, and Plimpton prepared a list of the music he wished to play.

'Plimpton had made three selections. In two of them, he is heard as an instrumentalist, the result of a stint he did with the New York Philharmonic. When the interview is completed, Plimpton leaves. There were no retakes. The whole thing took less than half an hour.

Next we moved on to the tail end of a live broadcast, Sherman's "The Listening Room," which airs daily at 10:05 a.m. The show, which combines musical performances with and interviews, runs two hours and is almost invariably live, although sometimes, when the personality is very well-known, recordings of the guest's work are used. On this occasion, the guest is Elaine Malbin, who was an opera star in the 1950's but abandoned her career to bring up her children. Now she is making a comeback. Today's program is to promote her comeback recital later that week.

The question of interest to Sherman's listeners is, "Can she still sing?" 20 years, afterall, is a long time for a delicate instrument like the human voice to be kept in cold storage. Malbin is in the studio performing live, so there's no chance for her to correct mistakes. She still sounds good. But for an opera singer, sounding good is not enough. Coming back will be an uphill struggle for her.

Freedom from the ratings game is a luxury most radio stations cannot afford. We generally think of it as a possibility only in those small pockets of the arts that are still bankrolled by generous benefactors. Such is not the case with WQXR. The New York Times regards WQXR strictly as a money-making operation, not as an image-enhancing device or as a broadcast news outlet. While the station does hire some Times personnel to do critiques and newsbriefs, WQXR sticks pretty much to playing music, and its executives insist there is considerable separation between the two entities.

According to advertising manager Warren Bodow, WQXR makes money because there will always be a place for a classical music station in New York. About 10 percent of the radio audience regularly tunes into classical music, and that makes the format not just commercially viable, but also profitable, he says. Corporations seeking a highbrow image or audience are regular sponsors on WQXR, which can thus go for the "class" rather than the "mass." "We know who and what we are, and we know our audience," says station president Walter Neiman. "The numbers themselves are unimportant it is who the numbers are. Page 36 TV Radio Week, December 16, 1979.