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one reliable bluegrass radio outlet. I say “was” because it is no more. As of Monday, June 25, WAMU-FM, 88.5 on your dial, has “decided that the traditional American music no longer holds listener interest during the weekday afternoon drive”, according to the Washington Post.
WAMU is a “public radio” station that receives support from NPR (including taxpayer support) and survives on listener’s pledges. The bluegrass shows were the second largest source of pledge money. Now they will air the same news shows as WETA, giving D.C. area listeners two choices on the dial to listen to “All Things Considered”, a fine show if you enjoy touch feely androgynous sounding people whining on about refugees in East Timor. (Insensitive of me, I know, but where do they get those people?)
So, if you care about bluegrass, or if you care about the responsibility that the media has to reflect the full American experience, call, write or e-mail WAMU and raise hell about it. Nicely, of course.
This music evolved from these mountains. The earliest settlers brought the fiddle music of the Celtic lands into the hills and hollows and to the parlors, front porches, and the country churches of the Appalachian range. Bluegrass music reflects those influences, with the improvisations of jazz, and the “high lonesome” feel to the blues. To me, it is pure as the streams off the Blue Ridge. To me, it is “high culture.”
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