KXPR is better than having no classical radio at all, but that's about all I can say for it. There is too much excerpting of individual movements from complete works, too much time spent shilling for contributions from listeners, and too much airtime devoted to short works that sometimes last no more than 30 seconds. A "noncommercial" radio station (yeah, right) should have and exploit the opportunity to play longer works, but we never hear the lengthier Mahler symphonies, substantial choral works, complete acts from ballets, or the like. I also deplore the station's manifest policy to ignore and withhold responses to any correspondence that is even slightly critical of station programming. And it would be nice if the announcers did a better job of identifying works, composers, opus numbers, performers -- and were able to pronounce names correctly on a more consistent basis. Several years ago, Capital Public Radio shifted KXPR over to an FM frequency that is weaker and much noisier than the frequency it used to occupy, with the result that listening to the station in a car, for example, is often downright unpleasant. This move struck me as exemplifying a true "up yours" attitude by station management toward its classical listeners. In an era when Sirius/XM satellite radio offers excellent classical programming, and when the recently revamped KDFC (from San Francisco) can now be picked up in the Sacramento area at 89.9 MHz, KXPR's management ought to be fearing the competition. Unfortunately, the station's attitude always seems to be, "we do it this way -- like it or lump it." read more