The loss of the local weekly broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera, live from New York, is only part of the problem with our local public radio station, WSIU/WSIU-FM. Effective last month, all classical music has been systematically eliminated from their weekend lineup. The ostensible reason is that they perceive their listeners’ need for more talk shows!

I had the good fortune to grow up in the Chicago area where cultural facilities abound. Among these was a remarkable radio station, WFMT, whose programming I vividly remember to this day. WFMT broadcast nonstop fine arts programming classical music, folk music, music of international peoples, plays, poetry, operas and everything in between. WFMT had a singular vision and was unique in the broadcast industry.

The station’s listeners were fiercely loyal and came through with generous financial gifts when the station, which sold advertising, occasionally fell on hard times. WFMT still operates today much as it always has. I sorely miss it because it opened my mind to many things I would never have discovered without it. My life is richer for that.

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WSIU/WUSI-FM needs a vision. Southern Illinois badly needs the kind of programming only WSIU/WUSI-FM can provide. No one else can bring us the historic Met Operas broadcasting Saturday afternoons. No one else can bring us programs like St. Paul Sunday Morning remember that one? Sunday has always been a special day for me I like to start with a Bach cantata, not Take A Music Break, which I find sadly out of sync with Sunday, it being more of a late-night program. I’m afraid WSIU/WUSI’s management is out of sync with its listeners and its role on the Southern Illinois community.