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Letters: Lamenting ‘Le Show’

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Re “Off the air, on the line,” April 23

Granted, satirist and actor Harry Shearer’s humor is an acquired taste, but it has been acquired by many since he first came on the scene in the mid-1960s. I became a fan while at UCLA, where he wrote very original and funny pieces in Satyr, UCLA’s humor magazine. I have followed his work ever since.

I could understand Shearer’s “Le Show” being taken off KCRW’s live-broadcast Sunday lineup if, after five decades, his output had begun to run stale or had become less relevant. Far from it! His current output is as vital, original and downright funny as when I first read it.

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The decision by the powers-that-be at KCRW to remove Shearer from the Sunday morning lineup plucks a uniquely cut gem from local airwaves. It will deprive thousands of listeners in Southern California of its most unique sparkle.

John H. Mayer

Camarillo

I have listened to KCRW for decades. Both Shearer and Tom Schnabel’s Sunday music program have consistently provided some of the best radio programming of their era.

Though the decision to take them off the air and put them online comes as a shock, it’s no surprise that a new, young general manager, Jennifer Ferro, would seek to attract a younger audience with new on-air personalities. Unfortunately, the personalities she’s pushed off the air are the cream of the crop.

Curiously, it’s the younger audience that’s most likely to stream the shows online. Listeners like me, from Shearer’s and Schnabel’s generation, tune in to radio.

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But evidently, folks of my age are not important to KCRW management anymore.

Steve Freedman

Venice

“KCRW has to be more than a place on the radio dial,” says Ferro. Now that she has removed from the Sunday broadcast lineup the only two shows on her station that I always listened to, KCRW to me is nothing more than a place on the radio dial — a place I will be bypassing on my way to other stations.

Here’s hoping that Shearer and Schnabel will soon find other radio venues where these artists — and their audiences — will be respected and appreciated.

Preston Neal Jones

Hollywood

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