In this time of isolation, WRR-FM (101.1) — the classical music station owned by the city of Dallas — has been nurturing a listening community over the airwaves.
“We’ve tried to be a calm oasis during these challenging times,” says the station’s general manager, Mike Oakes. Playlists have mainly focused on relaxing and uplifting works, including Chopin nocturnes and preludes and chamber music by Mozart. “We are trying to stay away from stuff that’s dark or too dramatic. There’s enough drama in our lives right now.”
The calming atmosphere is created not just by the music, but also the announcers, Oakes says. “We’re the place where listeners come when they need a break from the news.”
Admittedly, classical music stations have sometimes taken criticism for advertising programming as soothing and refreshing. A 2018 article titled “All-too-easy listening” by Jennifer Gersten for The Washington Post argues that this strategy overlooks the broad range of emotions that the music can evoke. Still, relaxation might be what people need right now.
Steve Susi, a listener from Plano, finds that tuning in to the station helps reduce his stress and blood pressure. Susi regularly listens to WRR’s broadcasts of Through the Night with Peter Van de Graaff and Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin — both network programs — and At Work With Amy, hosted by Amy Bishop, director of marketing and promotions.
“I think she has the perfect voice for a classical music station. It's so effortlessly soothing and relaxing,” Susi says of Bishop. “It enhances whatever music she is going to play at that time.”
Although he has been at home by himself, Susi says that he never actually feels alone because of the presence of the WRR announcers on the other end.
Music for the medical field
Recently, WRR has been designing thematic programming for its Big One at 1, a weekday special showcasing complete works (typically concertos and symphonies). The week of April 13 focused on pieces of triumphant optimism, including Mahler’s Second Symphony and Beethoven’s Ninth, and the week of May 11 highlighted composers with connections to the medical field.
Swedish composer Franz Berwald, who earned a living as an orthopedist, was represented by his Fourth Symphony. WRR also featured Alexander Borodin’s First Symphony. In addition to being a composer, Borodin worked as a doctor and chemist.
“Right now so many of us are realizing the importance of our first responders and our medical professionals,” says Bishop, who curated this weeklong programming to mark the occasion of International Nurses Day, which was on May 12. “That was our way of doing what we could musically to show them some love.”
Local connections
Usually, WRR broadcasts recent performances by the Dallas and Fort Worth symphonies and the Dallas Winds on its weekly Monday Night at the Symphony program.
But because these local groups haven’t performed live concerts since March, they have provided the station with archival materials. On May 11, WRR broadcast a recording of a Dallas Winds concert from 2013, which consisted mainly of music from science fiction films, while the Dallas Winds hosted a live chat on its YouTube page.
WRR has also featured performances from important moments in the history of area ensembles, including Jaap Van Zweden’s last concert as music director of the DSO and Fabio Luisi’s final performance with the DSO before being named music director in 2018.
Looking ahead, the station plans to play a recording of Gounod’s Faust on June 6 from current Dallas Opera music director Emmanuel Villaume’s company debut in 1998. Another partnership with the opera falls on July 11, when the station will broadcast a 2004 recording of Verdi’s La traviata, starring Sondra Radvanovsky as Violetta and conducted by former music director Graeme Jenkins.
