In Sunday’s (8/19) Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns writes, “The brass band couldn’t make it. The banners outside the studio were for an athletic event at Mercer County Community College. Thus, in its own unglamorous way, did WWFM-FM debut its significant new show on Aug. 4 that takes the Curtis Institute of Music out of its Field Concert Hall headquarters and onto the airwaves every Saturday at noon. … Curtis Calls!—the show’s name isn’t widely loved, but does the job—is the latest manifestation of WWFM’s entry into the Philadelphia market, which has missed an all-classical station since WFLN changed formats in 1997 and its key members decamped to Temple University’s half-classical, half-jazz WRTI-FM. The station, at 89.1 on the FM dial and headquartered at Mercer County Community College with a 30-year history on the fringe of Philadelphia, is a bit of an outlier in radio formats.” The station “broadcasts concerts, both live and taped, from more than 30 music institutions, including the Princeton-based early music group the Dryden Ensemble, Piffaro (the Philadelphia Renaissance band), and the celebrated Bach at One concert series presented by Trinity Wall Street church in Manhattan.”
Posted August 22, 2012
