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A long time ago, maybe 20 or 30 years, an older lady called me to thank me for playing "A Nightingale Sang in Barkley Square" and I'll never forget the emotion in her voice as she told me it brought her back to memories there during WWII. Also long ago, a listener called to thank me because she’d had a back operation and was laid up a good long time that summer. She said I helped her get through that time. I've had a lot of people thank me for playing Spanish and Latin American music which they won't hear on other stations. Last January marked my 35th year at the station, so I have had many such moments, which is why I still do it after 35 years.
–Diana Blase of Wednesday Evening Classics, Film Music Hour, and Friday Afternoon Classics
Recently a listener called the station during Thursday Evening Classics after hearing a recording of Walter Piston’s 2nd Symphony. He said he was astounded and moved by the piece and lauded the station for playing music that isn’t available on other stations.
–Mark Kuss of Thursday Evening Classics
I was on line with many others at a medical building in Kent waiting to be called for my first Covid shot. Those at the head of the line were led into a multi-curtained room. I sat down between a couple of curtains and was asked my name by the lady who would give me the shot. When I said my name, lo and behold, a voice from behind the adjacent curtain loudly said “Susan Prince on WMNR! I listen to you all the time!” I stood up, pushed aside the curtains, and shook the lady’s hand. A sweet moment with others looking on and having a laugh.
–Susan Prince of Wednesday Afternoon Classics
A listener from Rhode Island wrote to offer words of appreciation about my playlists. He stated his particular pleasure was hearing compositions other than “the usual workhorses.” In a brief exchange of emails, I was asked to broadcast something composed by Dave Brubeck’s son Chris. Two weeks later I aired a work Chris Brubeck had been commissioned to write by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, his Prague Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra. The Rhode Island listener emailed me saying “now that’s what I’m talking about!”
And then one morning I broadcast Beethoven’s Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise.” I noted on air this was a composition you were likely to have been introduced to if you took piano lessons. A very lovely WMNR member called me at the station after hearing Für Elise to advise she had such an experience early in a life of piano playing. As our conversation wrapped up, I asked if there was a Beethoven piano work she particularly favored and her response was the Moonlight Sonata which I played within weeks after our call. –Michael Salit of Tuesday Afternoon Classics and Wednesday Morning Classics
A listener emailed me to say “By chance I was by my radio composing an email to a friend who is a Vietnam vet when I realized you were playing your tribute to Vietnam vets program. It caught my attention for sure, so I made sure to pay further attention… Some of the songs you played brought back a lot of memories, particularly ‘Detroit City’ by Bobby Bare. The lines ‘I want to go home, I want to go home, oh how I want to go home’ always brought the house down when we had a small U.S.O. show in our enlisted men's club.”
–Garrett Stack of American Jukebox™ and Broadway Bound
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