US radio station retracts its Met ban
NewsThe North Carolina classical radio station which banned ‘adult’ works from the Metropolitan Opera said last night it had changed its mind and would broadcast them anyway.
Small storm, remote cup.
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Good decision in the end, but despite North Carolina being a magnet for retirees (no state income tax nor estate taxes…) this episode reinforces its reputation along with many other states of being bible-thumping racists.
Deborah Proctor clearly thinks she directs a Christian radio network.
Not for nothing, North Carolina overwhelmingly supported Trump.
While Trump did win NC in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, the margins were fairly narrow compared to most southern states, just 3% over Hillary Clinton and 1% over Joe Biden.
Nonetheless, he won the state, twice. A woman is either pregnant or she’s not. Denial after the fact is moot
Ironically, the conservatives are led by a mad man, the progressives – by a man with dementia.
Sadly, it appears to affect our taste in music.
So the bible thumping racists voted for a Democrat for governor.
Who is the racist here?
Wrong. NC has a 5.25% state income tax. Retiree or not.
Wrong again. NC voted 49.9% for Trump and 48.6% for Biden in 2020. This is not “overwhelming support for Trump”
Wrong a third time. There are no more racists in NC than any other state in the Union.
Get a grip.
The state that continually voted for Jesse Helms decade after decade (and similar politicians) definitely has many more racists than virtually any northern blue state.
You mean, for example, the heavy populated blue states like Michigan and Pennsylvania that voted 48% & 49% for Trump in 2020? Jesse Helms has been dead for 15 years. How does one (with certainty in 2023) claim they know which states are more bigoted? Racism is an American epidemic.
Good to hear this. I was afraid that they might also ban “Madame Butterfly” because it deals with adultery and a child born out of wedlock, to say nothing of “La Traviata” where a courtesan (aka “hooker”) is involved.
Would love to know why anyone objected to your post. Snowflakes abound.
The station manager said that older operas were OK because they weren’t in English. I kid you not.
How many of their listeners understand Italian, or any other non-English language?
Oh, you beg the question, y’all…
Ha ha, I’ll just tune somewhere else. Like anyone cared.
We should care. Every little chip away at culture, at freedom of expression, at the ability to hear great music or read great books (I would not care to look too closely into their library and schoolbook policies) is another nail in the coffin of civilisation, which is under such assiduous threat.
Such institutions—and states—eventually become irrelevant. Thank goodness.
The station manager is obviously ignorant. She evidently thought Florencia was some expressionist horror—it’s melodic, and if anything, soupy. But it also commits the sin of being in Spanish, and everyone (who knows nothing) knows they don’t make opera in Spanish! So, woke.
Then objecting to The Hours because there’s a suicde…oops, there go Butterfly, Turandot, and Tosca.
The manager was clearly CHOSEN for political reasons. She should not be allowed near anything educational.
No problem . Remember, “It’s only North Carolina”.
A radio station that is licensed to broadcast over the public airwaves is subject to punishment by the FCC if listeners complain about indecency in programming. This is usually when they hear naughty words in English on the station. The “adult” content in operas for centuries has nothing to do with it, and singing or speaking in other languages usually won’t present any problems. The Met enforced its agreement with every station in its network to broadcast the whole season and also assured the stations that it would bleep any words that could cause trouble with the FCC. But the Met doesn’t own any radio stations and has nothing to lose if one of its affiliated stations suffers heavy fines or loses its license because local listeners complained. This station probably received many protests from listeners who finance its operations with their donations, which may have given some assurance that those listeners would come to the station’s defense if trouble should break out. The FCC ability to punish broadcast stations was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1978, following complaints resulting from the broadcast of a George Carlin comedy routine.