Tuesday evening The Boston Musical Intelligencer presented a panel discussion – “What Can We Do for Classical Music Radio in Boston?” – at the Old South Church in Copley Square.

The moderator:

William M. Bulger, former Massachusetts Senate President and President, University of Massachusetts, board member of the Boston Public Library and Boston Symphony Orchestra

The panelists:

Richard Dyer, former classical music critic, The Boston Globe; Christopher Lydon, Radio Talk Host; Dave MacNeill, for many decades announcer, then general manager at the old WCRB; andJohn Voci, general manager, WGBH

The issues, occasioned by WGBH’s purchase of all-classical WCRB, which allows ‘GBH to offload its classical radio programming to ‘CRB and refashion 89.7 FM as a news and talk station:

• Friday afternoon broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra are cancelled.

• In Boston’s Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and areas south of Boston, listeners are

unable to receive a clear signal from “all-classical” WCRB.

• Much of the music on WCRB is programed by a Minneapolis syndicate.

• Area listeners have lost fifty hours a week of quality classical music.

• Do we really need more talk radio and duplicative NPR programming?

• Are WGBH contributors pleased with the changes?

• Are WCRB listeners pleased?

•Will the administration at WGBH reconsider?

Let’s start, as always, with the optics: Beautiful place, the Old South Church, and arrayed in front of the altar were 12 people (moderator, panelists, and “respondents” from The Boston Musical Intelligencer – one of whom was a woman and none of whom was a person of color.

Billy Bulger (who’s got to have a portrait in the attic) delivered a series of introductions that ranged from the interminable to the unlistenable. (He also, despite being a board member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, referred to the HAYden Society.)

But it was the sight of Chris Lydon and Bulger within several feet of one another (isn’t there some Temporary Restraining Order still in effect?) that was most attention-getting, especially when Bulger tweaked Lydon about his tony address, then said, “How nice to give a needle to Chris Lydon . . . a gentle needle . . . he’s an old friend.”

Good to know Bulger hasn’t lost an ounce of his oozing insincerity.

Lydon, for his part, was entirely sincere in highlighting “really just two points:”

1) “If we can cover the Red Sox, we can cover everything James Levine does.”

2)  “This town we live in is wildly interesting” – from traditional Boston to Cambridge, “the frontal lobe of the universe.”

As for the other panelists, Richard Dyer sounded like an auctioneer making his comments, and John Voci stuck to the WGBH party line, which is that ‘GBH saved classical music in Boston by buying WCRB, is presenting a 140% increase in Boston Symphony Orchestra performances (despite cancelling Friday afternoon BSO broadcasts)

Meanwhile, former WCRBnik Dave MacNeill – how to say this? – totally HIJACKED the proceedings with his long-winded and repetitive bloviations about ‘CRB minutia, radio-industry inside baseball, and revisionist history.

And then there was the audience segment of the program.

The commenters ranged from classical gasbags to insufferable Me-Me’s to the crowd favorite who 1) complained about “the dumbing down of music on WCRB,” 2) asked “how many times can we hear Vivaldi’s ‘The Seasons’?” and 3) concluded “I don’t believe the purpose of art and music is to make us relax.”

All the while, the panel sat like some stonefaced government body listening to victim impact statements.

In the end, the once-iron-handed Bulger allowed the proceedings to descend into a public broadcast pity party. Exhibit A: half the house left before Bulger could issue his perfunctory thank-yous.

And so we come to the takeaway, as they have it on WGBH: Two-thirds of the audience gets crappy reception of WCRB.

That’s the most telling detail of all.