No Classical music station in Atlanta

[Casady1]

I had not listened to my FM tuner for a long time so I turned it on. I was testing the fidelity of the tuner. To my surprise there is no classical station in Atlanta.

[markbark]

1. If you need a fix

you can listen online to DCs classical station WETA
weta.org/fm

[Casady1]

3. I just wanted to test

the fidelity of my FM tuner.

[Tommy Carcetti]

2. Sometimes the public radio will play classical music on their subchannel

So if your car has a “HD” receiver you could get it that way.

[unc70]

4. Recommend WDAV for classical music

From Davidson College near Charlotte. Has a major streaming presence.

[Casady1]

5. I wanted to test

the fidelity of my FM tuner.

[usonian]

6. FM tuners get a rest in many areas.

I went entirely internet when the classical station repeater "near" me just got too weak. Internet works fine.

On the internet:
Let me suggest CapRadio in Sacramento, especially for the Saturday night opera program, KUSC, weekday evenings, 8-12, for the incomparable Lara Downes, pianist and host, WBJC for excellent programming, WDAV and Concierto for great programming, and WQXR for many streams, including the 24x7 Operavore stream.

There are others, but these are my favorites. Some have apps, but all stream via browser IIRC.

Yes, I love my FM tuner, a vintage Kenwood! But nothing to pick up these days in the foothills.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. "I had not listened to my FM tuner for a long time ..." You and everyone else.

Maybe that's why classical FM stations are vanishing.

Feel free to visit Detroit's WRCJ-FM on the web or get the app. Classical all day, jazz at night.

WRCJ FM

[Casady1]

8. Big cultural cities

like Chicago still has them.

[hlthe2b]

9. Classical 24, Georgia Public Radio

https://www.gpb.org/radio/programs/classical-24

There is a link there for the various Georgia GPR radio stations, but I think it is 88.1 or 88.5

[Casady1]

11. GPB is streaming

there is no FM broadcast

[roamer65]

10. ...

Classical24.org

Multiple wonderful streams of classical.

Most of FM has become a wasteland.

[Casady1]

12. This streaming

I was testing my Dynaco FM3 for its fidelity.

[roamer65]

13. I use a bluetooth to FM converter/transmitter.

$10 bucks on fleabay.

[Casady1]

14. What are the FM numbers?

They don't exist. WABE is 90.1 and they are NPR. I have an excellent FM tuner and I was trying to test the fidelity.

[roamer65]

16. Sounds like u don't have an FM station for classical.

I retransmit streaming sources via a Bluetooth to FM device. I set the FM frequency on the Bluetooth device and it then can be tuned by any FM receiver. My pet frequency is 103.3 in my area of MI.

I pretty much do all it all now on that device.

[Casady1]

18. We don't

[area51]

15. Houston, too, unfortunately. n/t

[Casady1]

17. We live in cultural wastelands

NYC, SF, LA and Chicago all have broadcast classical stations. I imagine Boston and Philly have them also. We do have alot of country stations of really bad music.

[roamer65]

19. Yeah, pretty much the large urban centers for classical now over the air.

Although, classical24 is Minnesota Public Radio.

I am betting there is a lot more classical over the air in MN.

[usonian]

20. More to the point --- I don't see any way other than a small FM transmitter, or weekend trek.

Low power is legal, but I have no idea what fidelity such units offer as sources.

And from my experience, signal quality over real FM waves varies.
I am constantly fiddling with tone controls even for orchestral and opera recordings.
I mean, some is bass-boosted so much that I had to back off the bass entirely.

Might just be an excuse to visit a nearby city with stations of known high quality.

At least there is some kind of "standard" for orchestral music as opposed to engineered studio recordings of classical or other music.
I find a lot of orchestral music engineered to death (Try listening to a Von Karajan production)

[roamer65]

21. What really cleans it up is HD radio.

WRCJ in Detroit has a feed in HD Radio…aka digital.

It’s the only actual FM over the air station I use.

[bigtime]

22. WABE 90.1 FM was for many years

WABE was the classical station in ATL for many years. They played classical music programming with the NPR news programs Morning Addition and All Things Considered during morning and afternoon drive times.

This changed as an indirect result of GA rural republicans’ constant impulse to stick it to the culturally diverse metro Atlanta area in any way possible.

Another entity, Georgia Public Broadcasting, had a network of NPR stations around the state that broadcast NPR talk-based programming all day, but they lacked an outlet in Atlanta. In 2014, the GPB board, controlled by then-governor Nathan Deal (R), struck a deal with Georgia State University to commandeer the GA State student-run radio station, WRAS 88.5 FM, thereby giving GPB an Atlanta outlet.

This takeover was very controversial. WRAS, known as Album 88, was a nationally famous and influential college station, helping launch the careers of many Atlanta and Athens bands such as the B-52s and REM. Additionally, the student government had just approved and installed a new $300,000 transmitter which would be paid for by student activity fees over a number of years, and now the students were deprived of the use of the transmitter they were paying for. Protests and petition drives were ignored and the takeover went forward. Thanks governor Deal!

After this occurred, the board of WABE concluded that since they would now have to compete with GPB for Atlanta area pledge dollars to fund their operation, they needed to broaden their appeal beyond classical music aficionados, and made the decision to ditch the music in favor of NPR talk-based programming. I’m not sure that change was necessary, but they’re still in business 9 years later, so it has worked for them.

So in an indirect manner, rural Georgia republicans are responsible for the demise of classical music on the Atlanta FM airwaves.

[Casady1]

23. I was surprised that WABE

was now NPR talk radio now. We do have a lot of bad country music over the air.

[Ursus Rex]

24. No, there is not.

GPB and the Atlanta City Schools killed that part of the programming, altho they did keep a couple of relics (Lois Reitszes will be 1000 and still doing interviews, and H Johnson will be doing Saturday Night Jazz forever).

I retired my good vintage tuners (a Sherwood and a Scott) years ago bc the broadcasts across the dial were increasingly digital (sourced from national syndicates) and the content was increasingly dire. My receivers are mostly for looks since I don't use the radio anymore.

I DID get a Sangean HD tuner and I love it, you can get the sub-channels for WABE, WRAS, etc., and they at least still have interesting content and the HD tuner does a great job with the over-the-air digital signal.

[Hotler]

25. One sign of fascism is disdain for intellectuals & the arts. nt

[maxsolomon]

26. King-FM in Seattle

Commercial classical radio, how about that!

[hunter]

27. Traditional broadcast television and radio simply don't exist...

... in the universe of my adult children, nephews, and nieces. Their car radios are merely bluetooth speakers for their phones.

I have an FM radio in my kitchen that's always tuned to the local public radio station. Other than that, broadcast radio and television are extinct in my personal universe as well.

It's sad in some ways. My mom worked in radio and television and loved it.