Re: College radio and politics

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@erols.com>]

>Case in point: The station's "programmaments" circa 1990 included
>a strict prohibition against "judging" music.  Which is to say, if
>I'd pressed a CD of myself singing tunelessly (the only way I
>know how!)

Go aheah, hum a few bars...  We're all listening.

with the West Suburban Boston white pages as the lyrics,
>and submitted it to the station as "music," it would have been
>treated as no better, and no worse, than a Beethoven symphony,
>a Bob Dylan album, or a Charlie Mingus track.

Oh, that was YOU on the famous "Two five four...five six seven eight!"

<snip> only to end up spending several hours in a studio
>engaged in a screaming match with several board members because --
>yes, that's right -- she had tried to "judge" a piece of music.

Always amazed me was at THEE one time in one's life, college, "free radio,"
to be free in more ways than describable, and roadblocks and unfounded
limits were the norm.  At WJUL in the late 70s/early 80s, I think there was
an _attempt_ to keep that from devolving what the station was about.  From
the PD side of things, I recall listening to skimmed air checks with jocks,
reminding them that I was not in the position to critique their music
choices as I was to how they worked their stop sets.  Even that seemed
somewhat invasive, albeit educational/supporting.

>Similar arguments seemed to erupt at almost every board meeting.  The
>board meetings were all recorded, and some board members collected
>the best moments for a montage of yelling, screaming, throwing
>various objects, and crying.

Now, what district does this person represent in DC?  Sen. Blutarski? <g>
(RIP John Belushi).

>After that, it was an absolute breath of fresh air to enter the
>"real" world of commercial radio, where the decisions were just
>as arbitrary, but at least they were coming from a couple of elderly
>guys who actually signed the paychecks,

...could not have expressed that better myself.

not from a power-hungry,
>hormone-addled (you'd be amazed the role THAT played) college
>junior.

...precursor to over-priced potency formulas.

 I was still at Brandeis at the time, and it was amazing
>how insignificant the fights at WBRS seemed by comparison with what
>I was doing up in Lowell.
>
>Oh yeah, I also got to work with an up-and-coming star
>of talk radio, some Bill O'something-or-other, but that's another
>story entirely ;-)
>
>-s

Aw shucks. ;--))

Bill O'Neill, future PRESIDENT, Worldwide Scott Fybush Admiration Society
(WSFAS)

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