If you like the Classics, you're gonna hate this ...

From STLToday.com:

As early as tomorrow, KFUO, 99.1 on your FM dial ("Classic 99"), could be sold. The prospective buyer is Gateway Creative Broadcasting Inc., a not-for-profit corporation that broadcasts Christian contemporary music from Des Peres as "JOY FM" on two small FM transmitters on the distant fringes of the metro area.

Throughout much of the St. Louis area, JOY FM's two signals barely can be heard. KFUO, on the other hand, has a "big stick," a 100,000-watt transmitter and a 1,027-foot tower. To pay for the reported $18 million deal, JOY FM might have to ditch its commercial-free, listener-supported business model.

I know all the reasons for and against this deal, and I understand why the LCMS needs to sell. If my company was running a $5million annual deficit I'd be posting everything I had on CraigsList.

But there's still something troubling about this deal. Maybe witnessing the passing of this station, which I truly enjoy, reminds me that my Father's favorite radio station, WFLN-FM/Philadelphia, was transferred to the University of Pennsylvania and dropped its classical format on the day he died in 1997.

Final words from STLToday:

In the last two years, area music lovers have raised $800,000 to support KFUO and have offered $8 million for it. In return, they've been offered JOY FM's two weak signals and a chance to piggyback a high-definition signal on KFUO's tower. But if you have to buy an HD radio receiver, you might as well buy a satellite radio and get three classical stations.

We take no position on church finances or its mission, or even on musical tastes. We only would note that when it comes to stirring souls, there's nothing on the Christian contemporary playlist that can match Beethoven's 7th.

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