The Best Show on Radio Nationally

[PKTrekGirl]

And if I think that, as a 40-something....I would imagine the 22 year olds in the crowd, generally speaking, are even less interested in talk.

*cough* I'm 24, and if I'm going to listen to the radio, it'll be CBC Radio 1, which is pretty much all talk. But I think I'm an exception.

Yes. But you sort of took me out of context.

My question was: Would you consistently listen to a 4 hour show, each and every week that covered 1 year of music (with accompanying talk from that era) going back to the mid 1950's...and presumably ending somewhere around the late 80's...since anything later than that can't really be given objective historical context as we don't have enough hindsight yet)? Or would you give such a show more of a chance particularly because you like Star Trek, after all, and that is from the 60's? That was the issue I expressed disbelief on...since Dennis took a shot at me based on the fact that people here like TOS. For him, it apparently followed that you folks in your 20's, since you like TOS, would probably be willing to give a 4 hour radio show covering 1959's music and talk a good try, since it was only a few years earlier than TOS. That was (presumably) his shot.

I was not really referring to 'current' music talk. Shoot - I listen to the one talk show (The All-Encompassing Trip) on Pearl Jam Radio if I happen to be in the car when it's on.

But I really don't think many people your age would be interested in a music show that took up four hours a week and covered music that was popular before you were born. I could be wrong...but I know that my nephews (ages 17 and 20) who also like Star Trek, would not be remotely interested in listening to a radio show of such length about music and talk from 3-4 decades ago even for one episode. Let alone every week (next week, 1960!).

Shoot...my 17 year old nephew wouldn't listen to ANY kind of music unless it involves current rap artists of a certain caliber. I can't even get him to try current rock and metal. So 1959? Fergetaboutit!

 

[Canadave]

^ Okay, that is true. I tend to get my music from the Internet these days, so the only talk is what I want to hear, basically.

 

[Bartholomew Diogenes]

If you tried to listen to wqla.net on Fri. May 27, the server in Massachusetts was down. Al did 1966, but I pretty much missed it because it's harder for me to listen Sun.. I doubt the show airs on only two stations. PKTrekGirl, how did you know this week is 1960? Did you catch the end of the 1966 show? I'm going to try to catch it again Sun. because it'll be worth it. I will strive to answer the further replies very soon.

 

[Bartholomew Diogenes]

marillion, I agree with and had anticipated your point; that's why I titled my thread, "The Best..." rather than with the name of the show, an effort to kindle interest in an undiscussed medium, with the implication which some of you have now gotten that you could propose your own choices for best show. The radio "industry" deserves its failure. With the blossom of television, they cried uncle; then they let television bleed them of broadcasters and creativity; when there were mostly hucksters left and not broadcasters, they cried Uncle Sam, and unqualified Presidents deregulated broadcast radio so it's now almost all hucksters. My proof? The internet. Radio could've done what the internet has been doing, and been very productive before the internet, not necessarily enough to pay essentially parasitic shareholders who came into play along the way, but enough for radio stations as privately owned entities, which are who should get licenses. I can't comment on radio outside the US, but Clear Channel Communications, e.g., has owned many stations in other countries, which I would oppose if I were in those nations. Do you still have your cassettes, and will they play? I hope mine will. I will look up the shows you mentioned. Thank you for your contribution.
_ _ _ _EnderAKH, you would want to listen to learn about the music and the artists, to increase your appreciation, unless you prefer to read the information.
_ _ _ _Squiggly, you cannot extrapolate two stations from those Facebook messages, but the show started in 2007.
_ _ _ _Morpheus 02, I like "Wait Wait..." but not the host knocking the movie "Kissin' Cousins" as garbage.
_ _ _ _Canadave, I used to listen to a radio segment here for snowbirds, "Canada Calling", news about Canada. I'll check your links.
_ _ _ _PKTrekGirl, four hours is inconvenient; I would prefer to break it up. It is heavily music, with a dozen songs an hour. Did you hear Eddie Vedder on Rockline years ago, the time he gave his phone number? I would like to have told you Def Leppard was going to be on WQLA to promote their new live album, but I didn't listen. If Dennis was taking a shot, it had to be a light one, but I think he was being ironic. In my generic section below I will list another reason to listen for EnderAKH and you without seeking to become an amateur music historian, I think. But you have the right attitude and the time to explore older rock without four hours in a sitting. I wish to appreciate rock from its beginning onward, but not necessarily music prior.
_ _ _ _Tomalok301, I'll check some of the shows you cited. Tony Bruno of "Into the Night" on Fox Sports Radio would talk hockey a bit, but more importantly he interviewed Kevin Sorbo and has a movie reviewer on Fridays who seemed fan-friendly.
_ _ _ _Zion Ravescene, you don't expect anyone outside Britain or the Commonwealth to understand Mornington Crescent? That show is obviously quite original (I skipped some of the middle video).

Everyone, upon further research I've learned that WQLA only pays for 150 people at once to be able to catch it on-line. That would account for its frequent unavailability, again Sun. Jun. 5. I'd been made four songs late Fri. by a call so I wanted to hear it again. Interestingly, I had been listening without knowing the year and trying to determine it. It had to be 1958 or later. Here lies another joy of appreciating music via this format: the subtle differences of the music at least at two- year intervals. It couldn't have been 1958 because there weren't enough teen-ager-related songs, but it couldn't have been 1962 because there was no folk influence or so-called girl groups. Obviously, it wasn't 1964, which would've been totally different. So it had to be in the middle, 1960; you could hear the mildness of the songs, almost hearkening back to prerock. Another reason I wanted to listen again, and I rearranged my whole weekend to do it, was because I only knew about 10 of the songs; 1960, apparently, has been neglected over the years. One commercial was for Paddy-cake (sp.) Cookies, unknown to me, and I forget the other. Al mentioned Dick Clark's and Jane Fonda's first movies and one other, but no tv that I recall.
_ _ _ _This week hits 1964, and Al has busted it again. It's the first hour, and I'm sitting at the table having brunch, not perfectly alert. Al has just played Terry Stafford's "I'll Touch a Star" (if you know what's coming, you are a hercules). Al casually says, from "I'll Touch a Star" to "Look for a Star" by so-and-so from "Circus of Horrors" from 1960. In fog, not quite catching it, I think to myself Circus of Horrors is an odd choice of name for an artist. Instantly, the song starts, and I KNOW. How do you reckon I feel about "Circus of Horrors"? How many times do you guess I've seen it? Al casually mentions it, as opposed to specifying "the movie..."; he goes out of his way to play "Look for a Star". These are indications Al might be a fan. As a concession, since I prefer not to look up such things, I checked the song, and four versions "charted" in the US in 1960, including an instrumental which I've heard and did recognize as such, whereas I wouldn't have known any song had even been released.
_ _ _ _Around Jun.5 I predicted Al would eventually play the theme from "The Blob", which was released; there's even a Spanish version. Now the opposite would surprise me. Around Jun. 5 I knew "In the Studio" and "Rockline"couldn't possibly stay with this show when Al's mentioning Gigantis, not that those aren't great. Now, "National Countdown Show" IS THE GREATEST MUSIC SERIES OF ALL TIME! Note that I've concentrated on the fannish stuff he has done. Two radio programs remain higher, both more akin to specials, for the greatest thing thing ever on radio, one music, one not.
_ _ _ _While on the subject of greatest, I want to single out Mike Sappol (pronounced SAY-pole), Leonard Lopate's "Round Midnight", and Mickey Waldman"s "The Next Swan", all of WBAI-FM in New York; these were call-in shows in earlier 1978. I can't find or recall the name of MS's show because it was perhaps so ad-hoc (yes, in Jul. his Sun.-Mon. show had four names). He did one of the most creative and capable things ever by letting a caller play recordings of crank calls made by them to the other two shows!! On more than one occasion! I don't readily laugh, but I did at least twice out loud! The incredible de facto deadpan of LL and especially MW to that caller's shenanigans was too much! I still remember the first call to MS, the key to his capability: MS had to get through the caller's defensive baloney and have the caller trust him and relax. I hope Mike Sappol will search for his name and see this. Let me advise, sadly, that MW passed in 2008 after smoking three packs a day regularly. She played the game boccaccio on the radio, introducing it to me. Previously, Bob Fass had dominated WBAI late nights with his call-in show, Radio Unnameable", his trick being to put multiple callers on with each other. Though he was popular, I found him tedious and never listened. Finally, he had a disagreement with management over freedom of speech and left, opening his slots to others like LL and MS, to whom I could listen. As I researched this writing, the names of people and programs from WBAI jumped out at and resonated with me like I was reading an old com. WBAI made quite an impression on me when I tuned in 1976-78, a period of flux in my life, before I left NYC for good, not a moment too soon considering the mess it and the world has been >1972 versus <1973.
_ _ _ _Returning to Al, his commercials were for a lip sunblock named Cody (sp.) and the Rambler vehicle, done by an artist. No movies or tv. After his first break I was able to harness the full aesthetic slam of "The Girl from Ipanema" by Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto - out of this world; later, "Do you want to Know a Secret?" and others, but four hours will weary when one starts tired.

 

[Bartholomew Diogenes]

It's official. Al Gross has to be a fan. Man! Are you comfy? Get so! It's 1958, the same year for which he had already mentioned Gigantis, so I was on guard. In the first hour he blurts out, in theaters "War of the Satellites" (which I've never seen) and HE GIVES A SYNOPSIS! Hold on. Then he continues, playing with it as a double feature is "Attack [(at that moment time literally stops, as I instantly recognize the enormity of what would and could be coming (with no reference to unaccounted movie release years), just like in those scenes where time goes into slow-motion. I'm not kidding; these circumstances require no embellishment.)] of the 50 Foot Woman" (!?!). Warning: if you utter a word against this movie, I will personally swamp and suffocate you with dirty laundry and the last thing you'll smell is staphylococci. It is bizarre and shameful one must be preemptively defensive but such is the brainwashing influence of the mundane. "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" is one of the greatest things ever put on film, a surrealistic soiree! Invincible! He gives a loose summary, then jokes that a fifty-foot woman couldn't just walk in and buy enlarged clothing in Sears. Seriously, I think his point wrong. My at latest 1973 memory tells me Nancy sported only a large piece of fabric wrapped as a covering, not an actual garment. Also, it's not unreasonable that something which enlarged humans could simultaneously enlarge clothing. Don't think I care to check such; I write as a fan, not a bloody film historian. Late in the show he drops that "The Fly" is in theaters and gives a summary (and says something fannish like it was filmed in Terrorvision) and as well for its double feature "Space Master X-7", of which I've never heard! I thought I was aware of all monster movies, at least with such desirable plots. Glad I'm wrong. Case closed on his fannishness. And there ain't no researcher! I did not track commercials or newscasts. The songs cumulate into a wallop because inevitably played are ones that pound. But I sometimes lose focus in the second and third hours. I have been spoiled by recorders. Staying on task for four hours isn't automatic.
_ _ _ _I post this as a courtesy, so you might listen at noon Sun.. I am no longer unaware why I post but you don't reply: I long for acknowledgment of fannish art in the mainstream whereas you don't. I don't recognize the events of 1975 on ("Jaws" and its progeny) or even 1968 on ("Planet of the Apes" and its progeny) as being such whereas you might and might even be habituated to thinking the former as the status quo, whereas it is a fakeout, a mirage, for mundanes will always acknowledge that which makes much money, especially when much has been spent on it. Fannish art remains a tiny and isolated cubbyhole in mainstream culture, and Al Gross busting this incarnates a spectacular godsend on top of his intended achievement of finally fulfilling the promise of rock on radio forty years in delay. Indeed, I have not for personal reasons integrated in any sense the events 1975 on into my aesthetic idioverse. Trust me, I shall find those hereto electrified.