Killing folk and bluegrass music has been a favorite sport at WAMU-FM for years. Dick Spottswood's two hours on Sunday afternoon, and one hour of "Thistle and Shamrock" are all that's left on a station that used to air HOURS of folk and bluegrass music every single day. Lee Michael Demsey's WAMU folk show was trashed years ago--despite the protests of myself and many other financial supporters of the station. Bluegrass programming every afternoon has long since been dumped. Both "public" radio stations in Washington have gone the way of endless news/talk interspersed (in WETA's case) by classical pablum (the same 25 or so tired old warhorses that you can hear on any greatest classical hits compilations. I think the only reason Mary Cliff's folk music show, "Traditions," is still on the air is that they wouldn't dare mess with something that's been an institution for 30 years, and Mary's history with the station includes being WETA's shop steward. Not a combination to trifle with. It is worth noting, though, that the station did nothing at all to mark Mary's three decades of contribution to folk music programming earlier this year. That took a privately sponsored celebration coordinated by Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer. Folks like Detroit's Ms. Mathes are where public radio is going all over the country. Driven by market research rather than listeners. A sad thing! D.C. has TWO public radio stations, and they air the same program(Morning Edition) at exactly the same time. They air All Things Considered from 4-6:30 and from 5-8:00 p.m., respectively. How dumb is that? Up here in my new home in Maine, the big-city news-talk trends have not yet gained a foothold, thank goodness. Maine public radio still has a wide variety of non-news programming, and a great variety of music. There's also an alternative community radio station that plays four full hours of terrific folk music on Saturday mornings. I discovered it while roaming the dial a couple of weeks ago and hearing Coope Boyes & Simpson singing their incredible harmonies on MY radio dial. Yippee.