Re: Popular Standards in NYC

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

>Steve Low wrote, about Disney taking WQEW:
>This is a shocking atrocity--a sort of Kristillnacht in which commercial
>interests have turned openly violent in their search for a final solution
>for eradicating the American song from public spaces and, ultimately from
>our consciousness. Classical is next (or was it first?). It's time that we,
>as a nation, develop a strategy for using the airwaves to preserve our
>culture before it's too late.
>
        I wish people on this group would step right up and tell us what
they really think <g>.
        I generally agree with this, but let's wait to see if American
popular standards lands anywhere else in NY. Those of us in New England
will lose it, because it's almost sure not to land on a Class A AM station.
I wonder if WEVD / 1050 might try it. Although, in radio today, there's
probably more money in leasing out time to quack medical weirdos than in
playing great music.
        As to Disney: Sure it's a bird feed, but it's also a worthwhile
programming, IMO, especially in comparison to what else is out there today.
Sure, it's basically Disney selling to children everything that's Disney,
24 hours a day. But for parents it's also a station their children can
listen to that's rated G and that presents some positive values. So, I
think it's encouraging that Disney is going on a big signal in  the biggest
market. Does this mean they've been getting results elsewhere? You wouldn't
know it looking at the Boston ratings, where WPZE doesn't show up on the
version posted on Radio and Records, which is just the raw Mo-Su totals.
        As a parent, I'm a Disney fan. A quick anecdote: Visiting within
the signal area of WPZE over the weekend, I was helping my 9-year-old son
turn on the radio to get his favorite Radio Disney (don't get a good signal
from a Disney station at home; 1560 will become the best Disney signal we
get, day and night). My brother had left the radio on WBCN. So, in the
three seconds before I started punching buttons, my son hears Howard Stern
say something about someone getting his penis cut off. Of course, what do I
know. I have no idea why an adult would listen to Stern. In fact, adult and
Stern are completely incompatible terms, IMO. Compared to him, Disney is
damn sophisticated. Play me another Weird Al song, please.

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