Motor City People At Work
(Photo in center of article with caption:)
Motor City People at Work - Judy Adams
"Here at WDET we are rnore
than just disc jockies and announcers," a
personable Judy Adams tells us as we
sit in the station's FM studios up on
the top floor of the Schools Center
Building n Detroit's Cultural Center.
"Disc jockeys usually play what
other people tell them to play. Here
it's up to each host to listen to music,
get into it, and share it with others.
"We try to teach about music.
I present things in a different
context to show the rela-
tionships of various kinds
of music.
"On my show you
can hear Bird fol-
lowed by Bartok,
and there s a direct
í connection. I play
anything that's real."
Judy Adams ma-
jored in music at Oak-
land University and has
been involved with it for
some 20 years since she
started piano lessons at age five.
She started working at commercial
radio stations like WWWW, WRIF, and
WXYZ in 1969, doing sales, traffic,
and secretarial work, and she finally
got a more fulfilling on-the-air
position at WDET, Detroit's Public
Radio station, three years ago.
"On other stations, programming
is determined by the sales of commer-
cials. Our format is not limited, so we
can present real things. We can turn
people on because we have this freedom.
"I could never understand why some
people liked only one kind of music.
You're supposed to like either classi-
cal, or rock, or country, or jazz, for
example- but I feel that all of these
things are relevant.
"Music is divided into classes so
that the people in power can decide
which class you're going to listen to
and which ones you're not.
"Musicians, as far as social status is
concerned, get screwed by all of this.
Most do not get their deserved res-
pect, and many really good
artists don't have the free-
dom to create, because
they receive no support.
Vienna spends more on
art than this whole
country."
Judy lives in the
Cultural Center, directly across the
street from the Detroit
Institute of Arts and
only one block from
WDET's 15th-floor head-
quarters. She says she "loves"
working and living n the city,
"When the station gets its new
equipment, I would like to have bands
and other musical groups 'live' on the
air, and we may also be covering con-
certs 'live,' using remote facilities,"
she enthuses.
You can catch Judy's Morphogene-
sis program on WDET (101 .9 FM) five
days a week, from 3-5 pm, M-F. Tune
her in and she will turn you on to a
whole new world of music.
--Patricia Hughey
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