Persistent earworm alert CDLVI

While working recently, the rhythmic chorus of Neil Diamond's "The Boat That I Row" came to mind early in the shift and stayed there for the duration.  I'm surprised that didn't happen years earlier, as even on its best days, work carries the inevitable feeling of repetitive rowing with it.

FM dial scan highlights CCCXIII

Five recommended tunes heard today:

WSIE 88.7 FM

• Vertical Horizon-Carol Albert (Easy-on-the-ears midtempo smooth jazz piano and guitar.)
• Peculiar Situation-Earl Klugh (A brief mystical intro segues into a steady midtempo jazz guitar groove.  Klugh's career goes all the way back to the '70s, and he's one of the most consistent guitarists I've heard.  I have yet to hear a Klugh track that I dislike.)

KWUR 90.3 FM

• Paris-Feeble Little Horse (A brief, interesting dream pop interlude.)
• Angel-Lizzy McAlpine (As in "Older," there's an endearing sensitivity in McAlpine's lyrics and vocals.  This new track is one of 2026's more heartfelt releases.)

KPNT 105.7 FM

• The Unforgiven-Metallica (As these lyrics illustrate, it's possible to be too much of a conformist.)

Context? CDLXI

This morning, a fill-in radio talk show host read a listener's text on-air that asked, "When is (the show's regular host) coming back?  The show is boring now."

The host responded gracefully, "Tough but fair.  We take all kinds of feedback."

I'd like to think I'd have been equally diplomatic in that situation--but I wouldn't guarantee it.

Context? CDLX

Recently, a radio talk show host read a complaint from a listener, saying that the host allowed someone, most likely a caller, to "bloviate on topics he knows nothing about."

I joined in the host's chuckling when he asked the listener rhetorically, "Are you new to talk radio?"

If one thing is inevitable on talk radio, it's bloviating.

A linguistic irritant XXXVII

It doesn't happen that often, but it irks me just a little when radio personalities refer to their station's commercials as ads.  It's not technically incorrect, but I've always thought of ads as a term for print media and commercials as a term for radio and TV.

Admittedly, I could just as easily have written this extremely minor complaint as one of my "A petty fixation" posts. 

Segue suggestion XX

Whenever I got to choose the music for a radio shift, I liked to segue a familiar melody with an obscure, compatible one.  Thus, I recommend playing almost any version of "The Girl From Ipanema" before "Robin's Egg Blue" by Hot Club Of St. Louis; the rhythmic similarity between both tunes makes it a sound pairing. 

Linguistic bemusement XIV

As a DJ on former smooth jazz station KNJZ, I was required to say every so often, "You're in the middle of another extended set of today's smooth jazz."

I understood the business logic behind summarizing the type of music we played and reinforcing the concept that listeners were going to hear a lot of it.  I also thought, however, "Isn't this interrupting the musical flow by reminding listeners of this, using this exact phrasing, so frequently?"