By Mark Schreiner
Vince Tillona thought he had died and gone to heaven.
Before him were tens of thousands of 78 rpm records, long-playing records (LPs), and opera box sets—each containing Great Classical Music (and more).
The place was The Classical Station’s archive of vinyl recordings. In spring 2025, Vince came to the station to interview for its announcer training program. While leaving the interview, Vince saw a room full of vinyl records in storage boxes, so he asked why they had been brought out of storage.
The station’s program director explained that the station was considering launching a new program that would play only vinyl records. They had taken a large sample of records and were organizing them, but they didn’t have anyone around anymore who really knew about records.
So Vince volunteered to help organize the records. An avid collector for 50 years, Vince had bought, sold, traded, and listened to many of the recordings before him. After watching him classify and sort records for several days, station staff recognized the depth of his knowledge. They offered him, as a new announcer, the opportunity to host the show.
Vince Tillona browses The Classical Station’s record collection, which includes dozens of releases from the Musical Heritage Society.
And so, with the electronic swipe through an ever-vigilant security system, he was given entrance to an Aladdin’s cave of musical treasure. From floor to ceiling stood shelves upon shelves of carefully organized recordings.
Vince ran his fingers along the spines of hundreds of albums and began to browse. They were all there, and more:
- Performers—Murray Perahia, Cho-Liang Lin, and Arleen Augér
- Conductors—Arturo Toscanini, Pierre Monteux, and Arthur Fiedler
- Labels—RCA Victor, London Records, and the Musical Heritage Society, along with imprints so obscure that few listeners would recognize them
Vince reviewed the entire collection—estimated at more than 25,000 records—and worked with the station’s Music Department to create a new program for our listeners.
Later in 2025, station engineers prepared turntables for on-air use for the first time in more than 35 years. Music director Emily Moss scheduled the new program for Mondays at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, and Vince began curating each broadcast from the archive. Drop the Needle was born.
In the 1980s, The Classical Station was among the first to broadcast from compact discs.
The Classical Station has been at the forefront of technological progress since its founding nearly 50 years ago. In the 1970s, music was played from stereo records and reel-to-reel magnetic tape. Through purchases and donations, the record collection grew. The last vinyl was played in the late 1980s.
At that time, The Classical Station was among the very first stations anywhere to embrace the compact disc and its dazzling digital clarity. Later, it was an early adopter of digital music storage and Internet streaming.
The WCPE vinyl archive represents a legacy rediscovered. It’s a nationwide trend. According to Camoin Associates’ overview of vinyl’s resurgence, vinyl records have outsold CDs since 2022. In 2024, U.S. sales of vinyl topped $1.4 billion—the most in 40 years. Again, The Classical Station is in the vanguard.
Listeners tell us they like to hear a few scratches and pops.
Since the warm, vital sound that only analog can offer returned to The Classical Station on Monday evenings, listener response has been immediate and overwhelmingly positive.
Listeners especially enjoy hearing the occasional scratch or pop, Vince says—audible confirmation that a record is spinning.
To honor Enrico Caruso on the anniversary of his birthday in February, Vince brought his restored Victor Talking Machine into the studio. No electricity required. He wound the crank and dropped the needle on a vintage 1902 recording of Caruso singing “Vesti la giubba” from Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci—a recording recognized by Guinness World Records as the first to sell more than a million copies.
Vince recorded a video of that special program:
During a recent visit to the archive, Vince told guests that he had examined every album but looked forward to going through the collection again. He suspected that he had returned a few records to the shelves that deserved a closer listen.
While browsing a section, he was drawn to a recording of Maurice Ravel’s music by the Hamilton Philharmonic Virtuosi conducted by Boris Brott, documented in Yale’s collection record as having been recorded in Ontario in 1976. That went into the pile he was taking home to review for possible inclusion in the show.
Then his eye caught sight of a 1977 album by instrumentalists Roy Christensen and Otto Eifert, Music for Bassoon & Cello.
That album joined the growing listening pile. Time had run short, but the visit ended with a promise: Vince would return to uncover more treasures for listeners of The Classical Station.