Re: Sinatra stuff...

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

        I have a few very (late) Sinatra thoughts:
        I tend to think the news media coverage of him was not nearly as
much overkill as has been true for a lot of other stories. Take Seinfeld,
for example. Bono, the lead singer of U2, called Sinatra (I don't have the
quote exactly) the most important singer of the 20th century. Clearly, he
was a very major figure of popular culture, whether you appreciated his
bad-mouthing of rock 'n' roll or not, or whether you disliked him because
he supposedly was a pal of mobsters. And he was an Academy Award-winning
actor, even though acting was not his first talent. Several of his other
acting performances were very good (Von Ryan's Express comes to mind).
        WQEW in NY did, indeed, do a great job with Sinatra. Watching the
newsgroup, I'm glad I live where I can hear it, if you'll excuse me here,
"Night and Day." They played old tapes of interviews and had live
interviews with various people who knew him, and with music commentators,
including some people on their own staff such as Jonathan Schwartz. They
also asked listeners to call in and leave taped comments and played back
some of them. One man in his 20s described quite eloquently why he loved
Sinatra's music, and I heard similar comments from 20-somethings on other
stations. It was interesting that by Friday afternoon, WQEW was not using
Sinatra as the top story on its news. It already had moved him down to
second.
        The various satellite MOYL / nostalgia services all seem to have
gone to all-Sinatra. Some of the programming showed preparation in terms of
tape clips and such. WHLI, a locally programmed nostalgia format daytimer
on 1100 on Long Island did, too. Over the weekend they used the "Sinatra A
to Z" gimmick.
        I think this focus on Sinatra might have been good for the
nostalgia stations, as some people may have discovered them if they were
tuning around for Sinatra. My wife was out on a community cleanup project
Saturday morning at a busy intersection and said she was amazed at the
number of cars going by with Sinatra playing, although you can't tell if
that's the radio. In Hartford, at least one station put on a bit of Sinatra
although it's way off the normal format. The jock on WTIC-FM (hot AC), in
afternoon drive on Friday, said he had been trying to find "Night and Day,"
but came up with "Summer Wind" instead and played that.

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