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