AUGUSTA – Though the public hearing Wednesday before the Legislature’s Appropriation’s Committee was on Maine Public Broadcasting Corp.’s state funding, the only comments by the public concerned recent changes in the network’s radio programming.

But unlike recent exchanges between listeners and MPBC officials, in which network heads have been accused of unresponsiveness, one vocal critic said after this hearing he was pleased with the network’s increasing willingness to listen.

Doug Hall of Orono said that he liked what he heard Wednesday, especially comments by Neil Rolde, MPBC board of trustees chairman, that trustees were seriously listening to the complaints.

The public radio and television network has asked for a 2.5 percent increase in its state appropriations, which would lift it from the current $2.33 million to $2.39 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1. Under Gov. Angus King’s two-year state budget, the sum would increase another 2.5 percent, to $2.45 million the next fiscal year.

That represents roughly a fifth of MPBC’s budget. The state appropriation goes exclusively to ensure the network’s “technical ability” to broadcast its signal to every corner of the state, Rolde told the budget-writing Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

But it was the network’s programming that drew comments from two lawmakers and three members of the public.

Changes in December that cut the Saturday afternoon opera broadcasts and chopped weekday afternoon classical music from the schedule triggered numerous letters from constituents, said Sen. Jill Goldthwait, an independent from Bar Harbor, the Appropriations Committee’s co-chair. They have been “absolutely Victorian in their wrath,” she said.

The perception among the letter writers is that Maine Public Radio is becoming more like commercial radio, Goldthwait added.

Listeners’ accusations of increasing commercialism have tended to focus on the switch from the afternoon classical music programming to news-talk programs. MPBC officials have said that the change was necessary because too many listeners were tuning out during the weekday afternoons and the opera on Saturday.

Sen. Mary Cathcart, D-Orono, told Rolde that her constituents are angry, in part, because they feel they weren’t consulted on the changes, especially when listeners in central and eastern Maine can’t get the opera from other sources.

Rolde reiterated his intention to use an already existing community advisory board to handle the complaints the network has received.

Network trustee Bonnie Adams, a former member of the advisory board, said the 25-member panel discussed the changes at its November meeting and was split on them.

Clyde MacDonald, an MPR listener from Hampden, called the panel “meaningless” and urged the creation of a new, stronger mechanism for taking heed of public concerns.

As of Tuesday, the network had received 2,035 comments on the changes, according to spokeswoman Rhonda Morin. Complaints were outpacing positive comments by a ratio of 10-to-1.

Rob Gardiner, MPBC’s president, said the network would “see how it plays out” before taking action. So far, the reaction has been what network executives expected, he said. Typically, in the immediate wake of changes, opponents speak up loudly, but as things calm down, overall listener reaction comes out clearly. There already has been a noticeable change in the tone of complaints, he said.

In reaction to MacDonald’s suggestion about a stronger community advisory board, Gardiner said it is “structurally wrong to report to two masters.”

And though the board of trustees doesn’t involve itself in specific programming changes, he said every trustee had been consulted before the December changes were made.