Comments from the petition: Page 17

WUFT has always been an essential part of a relaxing drive to and from school
and all around town for me. The balance that was upheld before this switch was
excellent, NPR in the mornings and early evenings was great, along with shows
like Prairie Home Companion and music in between. Why change what was already
great?

I think we should keep it music-based for the existing primary channel, and only
add NPR talk/news to the HD backup channel. Because we can already get
talk/news from the Jax station. This doesn't mean don't change Classic89 at
all; it could add diverse music during the day, and local arts-related
reporting.
UF really needs to revamp the Rock 104 station instead. It's a disgrace to
higher learning. That station could play alternative rock/pop/electronic/etc
that isn't being played elsewhere in G'ville. It wouldn't take listeners away
from other commercial stations, but complement them. Plus they could include
student reporting pertinent to UF.

I am deeply disappointed by the decision of administrators at UF that they seem
to want to reduce a major university like UF to the status of a podunk college
town. This is a travesty and I will no longer financially support WUFT-FM as
long as this plan is in place.

In the hard economic times it is easy to feel that money is wasted on items of
Fine Arts calibre. These include music, visual arts, literature and drama and
more.
And in terms of only money, this may be correct. But in terms of people, yes, a
civilisation, to get rid of a single element of Fine Arts will in time prove
more expensive. Classical music is one of the few ways to cultivate person's
soul, to give value to something more special than just monetary value. We
humans are much more than that. And classical music is a human
expression.
I strongly urge University of Florida to come back to the old format of Classic
89 radio station. As an important leader of education in our community, it can,t
afford not to.

As a graduate music student and future professor, I am deeply saddened and
enraged by the decision to remove classical and jazz/blues music for the
university radio station. In our small college town, this was one of my main
sources of musical pleasure and inspiration. Most of all I will miss the
opportunity to hear world-class symphonies every weekday evening. As a teacher,
I frequently required my students to listen to and write about these concerts
that they could only hear FOR FREE on the radio. Many of them didn't even know
the station existed, and were surprised by how much they enjoyed listening to
the concerts. As a student myself, it is not feasible in my budget to buy a new
radio. I had previously thought that Gainesville and the University of Florida
prided itself on being a cultural mecca within an otherwise rural region. I
guess this is not so, and I look forward to the day when I move to a city that
truly values the arts and humanities in modern society.

Please bring back the wonderful format that drew me to be a member in the first
place.

I have loved this radio station. It is my primary, default station in my home
and car radios. I love the music, and not only the music, but the comments about
it. Is like taking a free music appreciation course! I want this to be
accessible in regular radio. Not everybody is computer literate enough to be
able to reach digital resources. Not only that, but most of the time, the
software has to be updated to be able to produce sound, etc. The people least
accessible are already the poorer section of our town. Those would be the most
deprived! I have loved Pipedreams, and I planned Sunday around Pipedreams! And
yes, the talk programs were informative, and provided a good variety to the
programming structure. But I'm not sure, when I listen to the radio, especially
when tired, that I'm interested to listen to a talk program then. There are many
other talk stations anyway, but like the UF musical programs, there were none in
town! There's so much football-talk in this town! Where is the culture in this
town university? Well .... I might then resort to listen to my CD player and
CD's from the library! I am just shocked!

I would like to say that I was very disappointed with the sudden change to WUFT.
I jave been in Gainesville since 2003 and have been listening to Classic 89
practically everyday I've been hear. I am a music major and am currently
enrolled in graduate program at the University of Florida, and this was my main
source to hear broadcast from across the nation in the classical world. Being
that it was the only station in Gaineville to play classical music, the loss
saddens me greatly. I understand that there may be some formal circumstances
that have not been brought to the attention of the public as to why the change
occurred, but I would like to see Classic 89 restored to its original state.

Bring back Classical music to 89.1

One of the great losses in education currently is in music education. Public
school programs are in constant jeopardy. Classical music is one of the great
treasures of our culture, and public radio is now one of the few ways that the
general public can come into contact with it. Particularly valuable, in my view,
were the evening concerts, both symphonic and chamber music. These programs
clearly conveyed the living presence of the art for a real audience, extending
into our homes and cars. I have made an effort to listen to the new format, and
I do not find it compelling. The NPR news programs are certainly essential, but
much of what fills the day is repetitious and of little import. We always had
access to this from Jacksonville, on the second stream of WUFT, on the web, and
to similar programs on CNN and PBS. But the daily presence of classical music on
our radios is much, much harder to come by.
The public radio I am willing to support will include classical music.