Hit the road, Jack
Hello World,
Happy July! It seems impossible to believe that the year is more than half over already, but that's exactly where we find ourselves. Not only that, but we're poised on the brink of Independence Day weekend, since July 4th is Monday, and many of us are looking forward to a three-day weekend. We have plans to be out enjoying the sun and fun, and I hope that you will also declare your independence with some rip-roaring, rootin'-tootin' and double-barreled good times. You can go right ahead and give Uncle Sam a kiss for me, while you're at it.
I'm sure that everyone will be relieved to hear that I have returned home, safe and sound from my adventures in Crusade-Land, and it was interesting, if exhausting. At the Saturday evening Concert of Hope, the announcer introduced the present Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, who received a nice round of polite applause, and who made a very nice and benevolent speech. For those of us watching the festivities on jumbo screens in the overflow areas, you could see the cameras pan across the stage, where other dignitaries were located, such as Senator Charles Schumer. All of a sudden, the camera picked up another recognizable figure, and to say that the roof came off the place would be an understatement of epic proportion. There on the screen, big as life and for all the world to see, was former President Bill Clinton, and you can believe me when I say that 75,000 people came out of their seats and just went wild. It was total pandemonium and they went so crazy, screaming and cheering, that when the camera showed him sitting next to his wife, Hillary Clinton and she waved, everyone screamed and cheered for her too, and it's a well-known fact that everybody in the world hates her. But not Saturday night at the Crusade, there was nothing but love for both of them, and I'm telling you that Bill Clinton could get elected President, at least in Queens, right this second. It was just the most amazing thing. I had to feel sorry for the poor Mayor, who is Mayor right now, and gives a speech and gets a nice polite hand, and then someone who hasn't been in office in 5 years turns up (and not to mention whatever scandals and innuendo have dogged his heels) and they hail him like he's Pope John Paul II come back to life. The poor Mayor probably went back to his office and cried.
This may be old news to a lot of people, but it was a big deal in New York early in June, when we woke up to find the plug had been pulled on the oldies radio station that many folks grew up listening to, WCBS-FM, 101.1 on the dial. This was a perennial favorite station, with a powerful signal that could be heard for hundreds of miles in every direction. They boasted a stable of DJs well known for years in the New York radio market, like Harry Harrison, Dan Ingram, "Cousin" Bruce Morrow, Bill Brown, Dandy Dan Daniel, Ron Lundy and Norm N. Nite. It would be impossible to imagine New York without its fabled oldies station, any more than you could imagine it without the Brooklyn Bridge. And then the unthinkable happened. Suddenly on the morning of June 5th, totally out of the blue and without a word of warning to anybody, here's some extremely renegade station playing songs on 101.1, where CBS-FM is supposed to be. I suspected that something was wrong right away, when I heard them playing a song by Motley Crue, and in my experience, CBS would rather cut off their arm than play anything like that. That was my welcome to the world of Jack-FM.
Apparently this "Jack" concept is a new one in radio stations, where they program a very wide and diverse array of pop tunes, drawing liberally from many different eras or many different genres, and entirely without a single radio personality to hold it together. They have recorded spots featuring the "spokesperson" for Jack-FM, but he usually just makes fresh remarks, and doesn't announce the songs or anything. It seems they've done this successfully in other markets, and this is our first one in New York. Of course, everyone here was up in arms about it, it was all over the media, angry phone calls, chat rooms flooded with hysterical listeners, and even Mayor Bloomberg got his licks in for good measure. I have to say that I've listened to CBS-FM for years and years, and I couldn't believe it would just disappear overnight like that.
Having said that, however, I have to admit that Jack has won me over. I hate to be disloyal or radical, but I found myself loving the new format in spite of myself. For one thing, their playlist is so deep, that you would almost never hear the same song twice, ever. I've been listening to Jack for weeks, and so far, the only songs I've heard twice are "Mercy, Mercy Me" by Marvin Gaye and "Take Me To The River" by Talking Heads. This compares very favorably with the other stations I have listened to, where I not only hear "Carry On, My Wayward Son" twice in the same day, but sometimes on two different stations at the same time. If Jack plays a song you don't like, there's a good chance that you'll never hear it again ever. They also tend to play more upbeat songs, and you are never going to hear "Honey" or "Feelings" on Jack, which I personally think is a good thing. Most of what they play is familiar, without having been over-played and wearing out its welcome. Even the songs that I don't know are consistently entertaining, and unlike other more mainstream stations, they don't shy away from popping in the occasional disco, hip-hop, Latin, heavy metal, reggae or alternative choices. On Jack, you're just as likely to hear "Blue Suede Shoes" as "Bust A Move," or "Satisfaction" as "Shake Your Booty." It wouldn't be unusual for them to play in a row, Aerosmith, ELO, Mary Jane Girls, Def Leppard, Blondie, Jimmy Eat World, Duran Duran, Outkast, Stevie Wonder, Queen, TLC, Blue Oyster Cult, Nelly Furtado, KISS, U2, Kool & the Gang, Billy Idol and James Brown. When I heard them play "Come on, Feel the Noise" by Quiet Riot, I knew this was not your grandfather's CBS-FM!
At the risk of sounding hopelessly superficial and low-brow, I have to say that my favorite part of Jack is that they have entirely eliminated the five things that I like least about listening to the radio, which are News, Weather, Traffic, Sports, and people in the studio making forced chatter with each other, or even worse, with listeners who call in to play their silly contests. Because Jack is pre-programmed and pre-recorded, they can't tell you anything that's happening at the time you're listening, and that suits me just fine. There are lots of other stations where I can get that information if I want it, but Jack does something that I have never found any other station doing. They play plenty of good, peppy music in a wide variety of styles, that is usually recognizable without being boring, or is new without being unlistenable, where you practically never hear the same song twice. It's sort of like having your own satellite radio station, or iPod with unlimited files, churning out music in shuffle mode, so you never know what's going to come along next. I really hate to leave the purists and the traditionalists behind, weeping and gnashing their teeth, but Jack sold me on their format, and I haven't looked back. I can see where not everyone would be enamored of the change, but for me, it really hit the spot.
Speaking of things that hit the spot, I saw a story in the local newspaper about pizza, and what a big business it is, not just made fresh in pizzerias everywhere, but also sold frozen in supermarkets. The article pointed out that the newer brands of frozen pizzas, like DiGiorno's, feature more mature seasonings, while the oldest brand in the field, Ellios Pizza, is bland enough to be favored by children. They claim (and here, as Dave Barry always says, "I'm not making this up") this is because, "They have a different pallet." Of course, I realize that times have changed a lot since I and the dinosaurs were young and carefree, but I remember when they didn't let children have packing materials made out of scrap lumber, you had to be a full-blown warehouse or factory before you could have your own pallets. Well, as we all know, times have certainly changed, and not always for the better, I can tell you that. In fact, you can just ask any of the legions of angry listeners left in the lurch when CBS-FM got yanked. You can tell them Jack sent you.
Happy July! It seems impossible to believe that the year is more than half over already, but that's exactly where we find ourselves. Not only that, but we're poised on the brink of Independence Day weekend, since July 4th is Monday, and many of us are looking forward to a three-day weekend. We have plans to be out enjoying the sun and fun, and I hope that you will also declare your independence with some rip-roaring, rootin'-tootin' and double-barreled good times. You can go right ahead and give Uncle Sam a kiss for me, while you're at it.
I'm sure that everyone will be relieved to hear that I have returned home, safe and sound from my adventures in Crusade-Land, and it was interesting, if exhausting. At the Saturday evening Concert of Hope, the announcer introduced the present Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, who received a nice round of polite applause, and who made a very nice and benevolent speech. For those of us watching the festivities on jumbo screens in the overflow areas, you could see the cameras pan across the stage, where other dignitaries were located, such as Senator Charles Schumer. All of a sudden, the camera picked up another recognizable figure, and to say that the roof came off the place would be an understatement of epic proportion. There on the screen, big as life and for all the world to see, was former President Bill Clinton, and you can believe me when I say that 75,000 people came out of their seats and just went wild. It was total pandemonium and they went so crazy, screaming and cheering, that when the camera showed him sitting next to his wife, Hillary Clinton and she waved, everyone screamed and cheered for her too, and it's a well-known fact that everybody in the world hates her. But not Saturday night at the Crusade, there was nothing but love for both of them, and I'm telling you that Bill Clinton could get elected President, at least in Queens, right this second. It was just the most amazing thing. I had to feel sorry for the poor Mayor, who is Mayor right now, and gives a speech and gets a nice polite hand, and then someone who hasn't been in office in 5 years turns up (and not to mention whatever scandals and innuendo have dogged his heels) and they hail him like he's Pope John Paul II come back to life. The poor Mayor probably went back to his office and cried.
This may be old news to a lot of people, but it was a big deal in New York early in June, when we woke up to find the plug had been pulled on the oldies radio station that many folks grew up listening to, WCBS-FM, 101.1 on the dial. This was a perennial favorite station, with a powerful signal that could be heard for hundreds of miles in every direction. They boasted a stable of DJs well known for years in the New York radio market, like Harry Harrison, Dan Ingram, "Cousin" Bruce Morrow, Bill Brown, Dandy Dan Daniel, Ron Lundy and Norm N. Nite. It would be impossible to imagine New York without its fabled oldies station, any more than you could imagine it without the Brooklyn Bridge. And then the unthinkable happened. Suddenly on the morning of June 5th, totally out of the blue and without a word of warning to anybody, here's some extremely renegade station playing songs on 101.1, where CBS-FM is supposed to be. I suspected that something was wrong right away, when I heard them playing a song by Motley Crue, and in my experience, CBS would rather cut off their arm than play anything like that. That was my welcome to the world of Jack-FM.
Apparently this "Jack" concept is a new one in radio stations, where they program a very wide and diverse array of pop tunes, drawing liberally from many different eras or many different genres, and entirely without a single radio personality to hold it together. They have recorded spots featuring the "spokesperson" for Jack-FM, but he usually just makes fresh remarks, and doesn't announce the songs or anything. It seems they've done this successfully in other markets, and this is our first one in New York. Of course, everyone here was up in arms about it, it was all over the media, angry phone calls, chat rooms flooded with hysterical listeners, and even Mayor Bloomberg got his licks in for good measure. I have to say that I've listened to CBS-FM for years and years, and I couldn't believe it would just disappear overnight like that.
Having said that, however, I have to admit that Jack has won me over. I hate to be disloyal or radical, but I found myself loving the new format in spite of myself. For one thing, their playlist is so deep, that you would almost never hear the same song twice, ever. I've been listening to Jack for weeks, and so far, the only songs I've heard twice are "Mercy, Mercy Me" by Marvin Gaye and "Take Me To The River" by Talking Heads. This compares very favorably with the other stations I have listened to, where I not only hear "Carry On, My Wayward Son" twice in the same day, but sometimes on two different stations at the same time. If Jack plays a song you don't like, there's a good chance that you'll never hear it again ever. They also tend to play more upbeat songs, and you are never going to hear "Honey" or "Feelings" on Jack, which I personally think is a good thing. Most of what they play is familiar, without having been over-played and wearing out its welcome. Even the songs that I don't know are consistently entertaining, and unlike other more mainstream stations, they don't shy away from popping in the occasional disco, hip-hop, Latin, heavy metal, reggae or alternative choices. On Jack, you're just as likely to hear "Blue Suede Shoes" as "Bust A Move," or "Satisfaction" as "Shake Your Booty." It wouldn't be unusual for them to play in a row, Aerosmith, ELO, Mary Jane Girls, Def Leppard, Blondie, Jimmy Eat World, Duran Duran, Outkast, Stevie Wonder, Queen, TLC, Blue Oyster Cult, Nelly Furtado, KISS, U2, Kool & the Gang, Billy Idol and James Brown. When I heard them play "Come on, Feel the Noise" by Quiet Riot, I knew this was not your grandfather's CBS-FM!
At the risk of sounding hopelessly superficial and low-brow, I have to say that my favorite part of Jack is that they have entirely eliminated the five things that I like least about listening to the radio, which are News, Weather, Traffic, Sports, and people in the studio making forced chatter with each other, or even worse, with listeners who call in to play their silly contests. Because Jack is pre-programmed and pre-recorded, they can't tell you anything that's happening at the time you're listening, and that suits me just fine. There are lots of other stations where I can get that information if I want it, but Jack does something that I have never found any other station doing. They play plenty of good, peppy music in a wide variety of styles, that is usually recognizable without being boring, or is new without being unlistenable, where you practically never hear the same song twice. It's sort of like having your own satellite radio station, or iPod with unlimited files, churning out music in shuffle mode, so you never know what's going to come along next. I really hate to leave the purists and the traditionalists behind, weeping and gnashing their teeth, but Jack sold me on their format, and I haven't looked back. I can see where not everyone would be enamored of the change, but for me, it really hit the spot.
Speaking of things that hit the spot, I saw a story in the local newspaper about pizza, and what a big business it is, not just made fresh in pizzerias everywhere, but also sold frozen in supermarkets. The article pointed out that the newer brands of frozen pizzas, like DiGiorno's, feature more mature seasonings, while the oldest brand in the field, Ellios Pizza, is bland enough to be favored by children. They claim (and here, as Dave Barry always says, "I'm not making this up") this is because, "They have a different pallet." Of course, I realize that times have changed a lot since I and the dinosaurs were young and carefree, but I remember when they didn't let children have packing materials made out of scrap lumber, you had to be a full-blown warehouse or factory before you could have your own pallets. Well, as we all know, times have certainly changed, and not always for the better, I can tell you that. In fact, you can just ask any of the legions of angry listeners left in the lurch when CBS-FM got yanked. You can tell them Jack sent you.
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 7:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home