DJ Gives Classics a Top 25 Twist

There’s a new musical countdown show on the radio, but the announcer’s voice is nothing like Casey Kasem’s and the songs don’t have a beat you can dance to.

“Classical Countdown,” a survey of the 25 top-selling classical recordings as compiled by Billboard magazine, debuts today. Hosted by veteran Los Angeles classical announcer Rich Capparela, the weekly syndicated show can be heard locally on public radio station KCSN-FM (88.5) Wednesdays at 1 p.m. (and again on Fridays at 11 p.m.). It will also be heard on 20 other public radio stations around the country, with the hope that more stations will sign on later.

The goal of the hourlong program is to reach those who might not ordinarily listen to classical music, those who have been intimidated by pompous announcers or lugubrious presentations.

“I want to reach people who would like to listen to classical music but are kind of put off by the way it’s presented,” Capparela said. “They perceive they’re being told they’re undereducated or they’re not sophisticated enough. My hook is humor. I hope my humor will get people to say, ‘Listen to this guy, he’s really funny,’ so that in turn they’ll get hooked on the music. I want to make it seem alive and vital. You don’t hear people having fun with classical music.”

On the first show he describes the violinist Nigel Kennedy--whose rendition of “Vivaldi’s Four Seasons” ranks No. 25--in this way: “Ever seen a photograph of this guy? He’s got himself packaged to look like a kind of Bruce Springsteen’s younger brother from the wrong side of the tracks. Leather, buckles, headband and no shave in three days. Very intimidating looking. Then he picks up the violin and . . . “--the show plunges directly into the strains of Vivaldi’s Spring Concerto as played by Kennedy.

“On this show I’m not going to play Bruce Springsteen, but I’m certainly going to use his name in the same breath as Beethoven,” Capparela said in an interview at his Palms home, which doubles as a sound production studio.

Capparela figures that classical music purists will put up with his more informal style in the interest of the greater good.

“It’s a balancing act,” he said. “The cognoscenti will accept it and put up with me because it sounds like I can pronounce the names and I’m an insider and they’ll stay with it, I hope.”

But will they?

Henri Temianka, violinist-conductor and founder of the Paganini String Quartet and California Chamber Symphony, said he will tune in. “I applaud it,” Temianka said of the countdown format. “I think that wherever there’s an opportunity to expose people to classical music, especially if they’re not familiar with it, all the more reason to do it so they can discover how wonderful it is.”

And public radio station managers who are carrying the program are also banking on attracting the masses.

Tom Calmeyer, general manager of public radio station WCVE-FM in Richmond, Va., said: “I like the whole approach to the show. . . . I’ve always been a big advocate of taking classical music off the pedestal and making it relevant to our life. And they approach it in a non-scholarly manner. They highlight some of the best current classical music in a very light manner, so it’s very accessible. It’s very comfortable-sounding.”

The show’s format is unlike that of pop music countdown programs, which play each entry on the list in its entirety. “Classical Countdown” will run down the entire Top 25, but will play only about half a dozen selections. This is done not only because classical pieces are considerably longer than pop tunes but also because the classical chart is not nearly as volatile as the pop chart.

Capparela explains at the program’s start: “If you’ve ever actually followed the Billboard Top 25, you’ve probably noticed that, at least when it comes to the top 10 or so, there’s not much change. Sometimes an album will stay in the No. 1 spot, say, for several weeks, or months--or years. Now, unless you want to hear Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo sing ‘Nessun dorma’ again and again and again for, more than likely, the rest of our lives, we need to broaden our scope here just a bit.”

The program broadens its scope by ensuring that the audience hears different pieces each week.

“Sure, we’ll pay our respects to the Three Tenors and Vladimir Horowitz and whatever Itzhak Perlman’s next album is, but we’ll hear a lot more as well,” Capparela explained.

What the audience will hear are interviews with artists as well as some of the newest releases, a “pick of the week,” “sleeper of the week” and sometimes even a “turkey of the week.”

Besides serving as host of the program, Capparela produces it out of the home studio he built for $25,000.

Capparela is a well-known voice to local audiences. After nearly 20 years as a classical radio announer, Capparela announced in February that he was retiring from life as a full-time disc jockey. He said he had grown tired of “preaching to the choir.”

Capparela worked for KUSC-FM for seven years, spent two years at the now-defunct KFAC-FM and then returned briefly to KUSC. Most recently, until February, he was heard on KKGO-FM.

Capparela even had a brief stint as a pop deejay last year at what was then KJOI-FM. But he realized his heart--and his talent--was still in classical music.

“I stunk as a pop deejay,” he said with characteristic frankness. “I was awful. I tried it and went, ‘Oops.’ ”

Ken Mills, KCSN general manager and the executive producer of the program, considers Capparela the ideal voice for the countdown show.

“I’ve always admired Rich’s ability to relate one to one to the listeners and I thought he’d be the perfect person for a show of this type,” Mills said.

But Capparela doesn’t take most things--including himself--too seriously.

“I was once asked what makes a a good classical announcer. I said being able to say Dmitri Hvorostovsky( without either giggling or choking.”