Doesn't work both ways...

"I always thought I'd get out of broadcasting and go into professional sports.  It seems like the logical next step."

--A favorite quip from KYKY's Guy Phillips that I still remember from the '80s

Serendipitous "Wedding March" timing

This morning, on the Radio Arts Foundation's K297BI 107.3 FM, Jim Doyle played Felix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" from "A Midsummer Night's Dream."  He dedicated it to a couple celebrating 41 years of marriage.

My first reaction was, "Best wishes to them; 41 years is a long time."

Immediately after that, however, I thought, "Yes, 41 years is impressive, but I know a couple celebrating 48 years of marriage today."

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad.

Can't like every song...

Ordinarily, one of the biggest rules for an announcer at any commercial radio station is that you never denigrate any music you play on-air.  I was surprised, in the early '90s, to hear an album rock DJ say on the air, "That's the latest from (a well-known vocal group)--and I hated it."  Although the song he'd played was a far cry from the band's best work, it was surprising to hear him dismiss it so bluntly.  I sympathized, though.  Although I've enjoyed the majority of the music I've played on the air, I would sometimes play a grating tune because it was on the playlist and/or because I knew listeners would expect to hear it.  I never panned any song I played on the air, but I sometimes thought, "This is (or was) a big seller?  People are moved by this?  What do listeners hear in this?"   

During a music meeting at a station that had decided to stop using consultants, the powers that be encouraged the air staff to submit suggestions on what music to add to the station's rotation.  One announcer said there were certain songs we shouldn't be playing and started reading off a list of songs that she thought shouldn't be on the playlist.

One of the station's higher-ups clarified, "That's not really the kind of feedback we're looking for.  If you're a model, you don't say, 'I'm not going to wear green...'"

As much as I enjoy a great deal of music, I've had to remind myself as an announcer that my tastes are not everyone's tastes.  If you work in radio, you'll inevitably play songs that you can't stand.  When that has happened, I've reminded myself, "This isn't a great song, but some listeners like it, for whatever reason.  This is the agenda I'm paid to carry out."

Good taste, at the newscaster's discretion

Several months ago, I was listening to a noncommercial radio station from another state.  The announcer was treating the newscast rather casually, frequently pausing and letting dead air go by so he could skim a story before reading it on the air.  At one point, he even got up and looked around the studio for an events calendar that tied in with one of the stories he'd read.  Although this wasn't the most polished, prepared broadcast journalism I'd heard, I half-admired the way he handled one story.  During one story, he announced, "You know what?  I'm not going to read the rest of this.  It's too tawdry.  (So-and-so, whose name he'd mentioned in the story), good luck to you, man..."

When was the last time you heard any announcer censor a news story like that while reading it?

Persistent earworm alert LXII

In recent days, I've been hard-pressed to get Steve Martin's "King Tut" out of my mind.  I remember being amused by it when our chorus class sang it in sixth grade, but I hadn't thought about the tune much since then.  Looking back, it's funny to remember Mrs. B. playing the song on the piano and leading us in the spoken word parts--i.e. "Golden idols," "He's an Egyptian," and "He gave his life for tourism."  Although our in-class performances of "King Tut" weren't as humorous as Martin's on "Saturday Night Live," it makes me smile to think of our class singing such an offbeat tune at a young age and not being at all self-conscious about it.

An overlooked cover tune XXIX

Among the scores of easily accessible tunes Paul McCartney wrote for The Beatles, "I Will" stands out as especially easy to digest.  It's a highlight of the album, "The Beatles," a.k.a. "The White Album."  Lyrically, it's an easy-to-take-in tribute to one's significant other.  As Ed Gerhard demonstrates on his "House Of Guitars" CD, however, it also stands on its own as an engaging guitar instrumental.

"It was 50 years ago today..."

I woke up this morning to cloudy skies.  I put on music that I thought matched the atmosphere--Sarah Jarosz's "Run Away," "Midnight Lullaby" by Tom Waits, and Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Georgia On My Mind."  Then, as the sun began to peak through, I remembered that it's June 1--the date on which a Beatles album with seismic effects on rock music, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," was released 50 years ago in America.

After playing the original album in its entirety, I listened to the 18 tracks on the economy-size deluxe edition.  Among the highlights:

• A Day In The Life (Take 1 With Hums) (As a child, the structure of "A Day In The Life" struck me as one of the band's most impressive achievements.  It still does.  It's interesting to hear this rendition with a piano line instead of the orchestral crescendo that would lead into Paul McCartney's "Woke up, fell out of bed..." sequence and a group hum at the end instead of the famous last piano chord.)
• Fixing A Hole (Speech and Take 3) (It's enjoyable to hear McCartney sing a somewhat looser version of a tune I think is underrated, by Beatles standards.)
• Getting Better (Take 1/Instrumental and Speech At The End) (I've always liked the optimistic vibe of this tune, and it's a pleasure to realize, after all this time, how credible it sounds just as an instrumental.)
• Good Morning Good Morning (Take 8) (I like hearing John Lennon sing this without production gimmicks layered over his voice.  Some listeners might find it disorienting to hear the tune without the chorus, but it's a fun work-in-progress version.)
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (Speech and Take 8) (McCartney's yowl during the intro is well-placed and wouldn't have been out of place on the album.)
• Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 26) (A respectable experiment with a faster tempo.  Although "Strawberry Fields..." wasn't on the album, it was released as a single in 1967.)

It's also a pleasure to hear previously unreleased studio banter come to life five decades later, showing bits of the debate and experimentation that went into the group's creative process.  It speaks well of the music-buying public that this seminal concept album still garners monster sales and appreciation.  Here's hoping that anyone who enjoys the album as much as I do has time to hear it today.