An Appreciation of Jess Cain

[Eli Polonsky]

> > From: "Bill O'Neill" <billohno@gmail.com>
> CC: Ed Forry <eforry@bostonirish.com>,
>     boston-radio-interest@lists.bostonradio.org
> To: Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>
> Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:52:50 -0500
> Subject: Re: An Appreciation of Jess Cain
> 
> Donna Halper wrote:
> > The music was very soft top-40-- we even edited out
> > guitar bridges in hit songs if they were perceived as
> > too rock and roll sounding. Very much like what Magic
> > 106.7 would have great success with.

I vividly remember hearing a WHDH-only edited version of
"Come Dancing" by The Kinks in the early '80s. It was a
light bouncy tune, with the exception of a mid-song break
with a repeating hard rock-ish guitar riff which served to
connect the "bridge" of the song to the next main verse.
The guitar break was chopped out on WHDH. I heard this
version on WHDH only, and at all different times of day.

It sounded to me that it was done more to make the song
fit WHDH's very light, innocuous pop format than to make
the track fit time constraints. I'm sure that the soft
Top 40 format in WHDH's later years had been tailored to
(hopefully) hold on to some of their older listeners from
their MOR heritage, or at least not make them grimace and
want to change the station due to rockin' guitar breaks.

EP