If my radio show continues, so will the playlists. Not sure about the blog. Maybe I'll really need music to lift my spirits and will write just as much as I used to.
If you've got a good life, I hope it continues with few bumps.
Lost my job today. About twenty years.
If my radio show continues, so will the playlists. Not sure about the blog. Maybe I'll really need music to lift my spirits and will write just as much as I used to. If you've got a good life, I hope it continues with few bumps.
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Fabulous things happened at KAOS radio today. First, at 9am, we broadcast the quarterly "Laugh Tracks Special" with Randy Hodgins and Steve McLellan.
Randy and Steve hosted this superb comedy show (featuring 60 years of classic recorded stuff plus their own bits and remarkable rapport) every Saturday for many years, but stopped a few years back when Randy's work schedule created some big changes in his life. They're still really good at it, and I'm glad they're continuing with one of KAOS' all-time finest programs. I feel tremendously fortunate, because today at the station's annual awards banquet, it was announced that my program was voted the co-favorite of my KAOS peers. I shared the award with Scott Stevens, whose World Music show "Spin the Globe" (Fridays at 10am Pacific Time/U.S.) is one of the best things going on non-commericial radio. If I remember correctly, Scott and I are the only KAOS programmers to win the award more than once. See the website: www.earball.net/spintheglobe; just don't compare it to my rather unstylish site (my own fault, of course). I think Scott is one of the best broadcasters in the country--he's a great interviewer, and a friendly, engaging host. While "Spin the Globe" is well-planned, it's never rigid--it manages to sound informative, natural and effortless. Indeed, even if I'm not in the mood for World Music on a Friday morning, I will tune in just to hear one of the best. Congrats, Scott! One thing that really bugs me about voicetracking--where an announcer pre-records all the breaks, like weather and the backsells of songs--is that it often takes away from the fun and spontaniety of live radio.
I have a favorite memory from about twenty years ago, when I was monitoring a California station and the male/female morning team aired the 1967 Supremes hit "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone" (no "Diana Ross &" for the Motown trio until later in '67). You don't have to know the song to be able to tell from its title that there's some tension going on in the story line. There's about a six or seven second introduction (where the phenomenal James Jamerson, Jr. plays standup bass), leading to the chorus that begins the tune. This gives the woman announcer a bit of time to tell the radio audience that they'd be doing the weather or whatever in a few minutes. So she says something like, "Here are the Supremes with..." and it's quickly evident that she didn't realize that the song is about a promising love relationship gone sour. The female DJ reads the unfamiliar song title and says, " 'Love Is Here and Now You're...Gone'??? Whaaaat???" Live radio! So funny! When thinking about best friends that I've never met, Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell (1918-2010) always comes to mind. He will forever be in that select group.
Before I heard the Beatles and Rock'n'Roll on the radio, I heard Ernie, who joined the Detroit Tigers in 1960. He was the voice of the Tigers and yet so much more: the voice of reason, the voice of non-judgement, the voice of kindness. I feel like a big chunk of my life has faded with Ernie gone. I treasured his play-by-play work, and although he was paired with other announcers over the course of his career, Ernie didn't need anyone to do "color commentary." The stories he could tell about baseball players from virtually any era were works of art. He was a religious man but didn't beat you over the head with his convictions. He promoted peace and unity just by being himself. When some were outraged over Jose Feliciano's interpretation of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the 1968 World Series, Ernie said he thought it was beautiful. It was Harwell who chose Feliciano to sing at the game. Ernie wrote fun songs about the game he loved, including that April day in 1974 when Hank Aaron hit home run #715 to surpass Babe Ruth's all-time record. There were hateful folks who dreaded that approaching milestone but Ernie nailed it: "Move Over Babe (Here Comes Henry)." And tell Tchaikovsky the news! (If Chuck Berry hadn't already written that lyric, Ernie would have.) His skills were ravishing for so many years, filled with imagination and respect for the game, and I'll never forget his work...or him. How many times did I hear Ernie say something like, "Here's a ball hit sharply to Rollins at third--over to Killebrew for the out." I mention this because most announcers, especially today, will say "third baseman" before the name of the player on a team they might not be that familiar with. Lesser announcers need a second or two to come up with a player's name--they might even quickly look at the roster before stating it. Ernie knew the game through and through, and he knew who was on the field. The atmosphere he tapped into at the ballpark, saying that a foul ball was caught by someone from "Paw Paw, Michigan" or "Toledo, Ohio" always made me smile. Ernie never felt the need to give you a million statistics or continually talk. He'd pause and you'd hear what was going on at the ballpark: sounds from the diamond, the chanting vendors, the mood of the crowd. I love baseball because it's just like life: lots of reflection and nonaction, and then suddenly, a huge moment. Ernie Harwell, just like my Dad, taught me how to appreciate life, and how to appreciate baseball. They're one in the same. And, yes, he had a terrific home run call ("That one is loooooooong gone!") but when you think about it, any announcer or even baseball's most casual fan can get excited about a homer. I preferred how he described a hitter taking a called third strike. The casual fan might say, "there's no action in a called strike three." But Ernie brought it all to the forefront: the batter's embarrassment, the disappointment of half of the players, the elation of the other half. Ernie's schtick was so country, and a stroke of genius: "He stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched it go by!" Hank Williams--make that Tennessee Williams--couldn't have said it better. Thank you Ernie Harwell, for being my friend from age five to 55. Music playlists are like baseball box scores to me--I still love looking at them.
Doesn't matter whether or not I know most of the artists, or the songs. When I recognize even one title suggesting that someone's breathing life into that once-smokin' form known as radio, I'm thrilled. Practically every song I've ever played on KAOS-FM's Retroactive show from 1994 to the present is now listed on this site. From the early days of trying to figure out how to mix 80% percent indie music with my take on classic Rock'n'Soul (because 80% from independent sources is still the rule at KAOS) to my more balanced programming of recent years, I'm proud of my work. So it's all on there, warts and all. At the beginning, I bent or broke that 80/20 rule quite a bit. And nowadays, it's rare when I play the same artist on two weekly programs in-a-row; I'd rather have a great new album on every other week rather than overdoing it by airing it for several shows straight. That one is my own rule. So is the one where I don't repeat a song for ten years unless it's requested. Silly perhaps, but it's important to me to go to extremes in order to keep things fresh for myself. Some of my programming bumps aren't necessarily from a lack of imagination. When I played obvious 1950s landmarks week after week ("Tutti Frutti," "Blue Suede Shoes") it was because I was chatting about the Jim Dawson and Steve Propes book, What Was The First Rock'n'Roll Record? (Faber & Faber, 1992) and using some of their samples. The first year or so of programs have a lot of Elvis Costello because he'd gotten back the rights to his songs and reissued his albums on Rykodisc, which was considered an indie label at the time. So there's more repetition along those lines than I'd like, but all in all, if you dig playlists, you'll appreciate this compilation, which focuses on underappreciated roots rockers and unforgettable legends. In general, it's simply my plea to the radio heavens to keep thoughtfulness in the process. Because I heard the opposite on a big time station today: after the one hour Beatle Brunch aired, that station went back to regular programming. And to show their troubling lack of creativity, the third song was by--you guessed it--the Beatles. Great bumpersticker--and I told the woman so, because she was pulling into the library just as I was: "God bless the whole world. No exceptions."
T-Shirt on a guy (in his 20s) in the waiting area, getting his car oil changed when I was: "I know the credit card is for emergencies, but she was hot." I had nothing to say. |
The J2 Blog J.J. Syrja (born in Detroit, 1955) is a journalist and radio broadcaster. The son of an electrician and a teacher, he has written for Goldmine magazine,
spinitron.com
(Playlists--all KAOS shows) ---------------------------------- kaosradio.org ---------------------------------- democracynow.org ---------------------------------- commondreams.org ---------------------------------- actionslacksnerdout. blogspot.com (The history of soul music) ---------------------------------- rockrapconfidential.com (Rock and Rap Confidential) ---------------------------------- manifestojoestexasblues. blogspot.com ---------------------------------- fairportiajewelry.com (Gina's fabulous work) ---------------------------------- allmusic.com (Their design looks like a big, desperate ad for what's left of the music industry, but the info is still helpful) Archives
March 2024
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