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ROCKOLLECTIONS: BROKEN AND BREAKING RADIOS

CHAPTER EIGHT: BROKEN AND BREAKING RADIOS

Continuing the Salute to Radio and my 10 Years as the host of Rock Lives, Rockollections or anything else you want to call it…as long as it’s nice, lol!
I am going to pick up exactly where we left off, and even on my feel-good show, not all love stories have happy endings. Under our BIG umbrella of what I consider Rock & Roll, the great George Jones will sing.
Followed by a short set regarding Broken Radios.
Then going in the other direction, how Radio can do the Breaking- unknowingly breaking your heart!
How many times have you had the radio on at home or in the car, a song comes on and you are transported back to a sense of sadness or loneliness over the loss of an ex-love?
Just another example of Radio being a part of, and affecting, our lives.
I’ll play a beautiful song by Merrie Amsterburg, and a rocker by Roy Orbison to illuminate that circumstance.
Got a song that Engineer Ken turned me on to, and a Beatles’ theme they did for their own BBC show.
Finally, I am very much aware of the special relationship- the attachment- that forms between the listener and the guy on the radio. I have had a part in both sides of that.
So, I will close this episode with a tradition born on Dec. 18, 1967- the day Scott Muni started at WNEW-FM, and stayed for 31 years!
For his first 3 to 6 years- I wish I could recall precisely- he would end his show with this song, 7 days a week, and making it easy for me to tell when it was a few minutes till 7PM.
After that, during his remaining years there, he would always use the song to end his anniversary shows, and always leave me with a huge lump in my throat.
For a man who provided such a musical style and education for me, I could do much worse than to close my own 10th Anniversary with it in honor of him.
I am sure there will be 2 more parts to this Salute To Radio, so I will have more gratitude to express.
But for now, to anyone who has EVER listened to my little radio show/podcast, a great big thank you!

Mike

Tags: BBC, Beatles, Engineer Ken, George Jones, Merrie Amsterburg, Rock Lives, Roy Orbison, Scott Muni, WNEW-FM

ROCKOLLECTIONS: THE FALL OF FM RADIO

CHAPTER SIX: THE FALL OF FM RADIO

Anyone who has ever listened to my show or podcast knows that I do not have any rules about what I am going to play.
Most times doing a theme, the opening or the last song comes to me, sometimes both.
After that, I think of every song I can on the topic.
Then the most important part- I play them!
And while one is playing, the song that should come next becomes apparent to me.
No other song will do.
I have spent days looking for that next song- it HAS to be that one!
Most times I find it, sometimes I have to give up and think of what might be the 2nd best song to play next.
Sort of like an artist searching for a particular color, but I am not so egotistical as to regard that as a real comparison.
Then I go to the station, and sometimes because of time, I have to cut that song from the set, lol!
But for me, that is how I play the music.
No playlist, nobody tells me what I can or can’t play.
I am very aware of how lucky I am.
However, there was a brief time when that was the accepted way of doing radio.
For example, we had two commercial free-form stations here in New York- WABC-FM/WPLJ and WNEW-FM.
At ABC/PLJ that free-form format lasted less than 3 years, 1968-71.
Scott Muni, bless him, fought the good fight at WNEW-FM from 1967, as Program Director and just because he was the way he was, for himself and all the other DJ’s, until 1981!!!
If you detect some lingering animosity and bitterness on my part, you are correct.
Now, I will go after those sleazy beancounters who changed all that.
First up, a song about a guy after my own heart, who will hang up on you if you question why after Madonna he played George Jones.
Because he WANTED to!
And notice the statio he was at is WANT…as in what the people WANT?
Then the highlight, the centerpiece of not only this chapter but the whole series.
An epic poem by the singer/songwriter Mike Agranoff- Ballad Of The Sandman.
If you have never heard it, you are in for a treat and will never forget it.
If you have heard it, it is like a fine brandy, taken out on special occassions and savored.
In any case, it captures what 1960’s radio was like better than I ever could.
It is just a BRILLIANT piece of work, and I always get a huge reaction when I play it.
I will close this episode out with a song concerning something we all have experienced; losing our favorite DJ!
They hardly ever say anything and we are reduced to searching for him or her Around The Dial.
Now in this case I will admit to some ego in the lyrics, “you never gave in to fashion, you never followed any trend”.
Yeah, that’s me- just trying to play what I think is the best music!
There’s Magic in the Radio, Enchantment in the Ether!
Come join me for a look at how good the Radio COULD be, if it would DARE!

Mike

Tags: Around The Dial, Ballad Of The Sandman, George Jones, Madonna, Mike Agranoff, Scott Muni, WABC-FM, WNEW-FM, WPLJ