CULTURE & COMEDY

Van Cliburn’s Hometown Waves Farewell To Only Classical Music Station

In Kilgore Texas, which happens to be the hometown of the reclusive Van Cliburn, the only pipe out of which flows classical music instead of oil is the college radio station KTYP, which emanates from the educational institution know as Kilgore College, the primary function of which is to educate the children of oil hands and other blue-collar workers.

The college, feeling overburdened by supporting the station, was open to a good offer.

The buyer is a Christian-music broadcasting company from California, which will pay a whopping $2.46 million over the next 10 years.

Richard Jenkins, the president of the purchasing company, said, "I know there are some unhappy campers out there." Then with what some may perceive as a modicum of insensitivity to the issue at hand, he added, "But it always happens with change."

Listeners have formed a group, Save Our Arts Radio, and sent at least 175 letters to the Federal Communications Commission, which has to approve the deal.

"Just because we live out here in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean we have to be a cultural void," said Nancy B. Wrenn, the executive director of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, based in the town of Tyler, which is about 30 miles away.

Van Cliburn, who spent some of his childhood in the town, said in a letter published in the Tyler Morning Telegraph, "There is no way to give a monetary evaluation to the world's heritage of great music. The trendy music of today is fleeting," he said, "but the permanent, ageless masterpieces are enduring and forever."

Mr. Cliburn, who the college auditorium is named for, also said that losing the station would be a travesty for the college.

EMF Broadcasting, based in Rocklin, Calif., plans to eliminate local programming and beam in a feed of its K-LOVE or AIR-1 networks or perhaps a new format. "The mission of the organization is to promote Judeo-Christian values and bring people to some kind of spirituality, a closer walk toward God," Mr. Jenkins said.

Seems to us there’s also a certain very deep spirituality in listening to classical music. For instance, the works of Bach come to mind.

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