WKFY

[Mark Connelly]

I think that 99.1 and 104.7 down here are already providing "pleasant background noise".  It's sad that "give 'em valium" is the mission statement in the boardroom these days.  No one is saying that a "surprise" cut has to be more than one or two per hour.  I have to be realistic and know that no DJ today is going to unload the entire '60s garage-rock contents of the 3-CD Rhino Nuggets compilation in one show (as cool as that would be).  Beyond the music there are the on-air people.  Or in many cases, lack thereof.

Radio was interesting, i.e. "foreground", both in the era of on-air drama and later as the late '60s / early '70s free-form / progressive music movement took hold.  Even the Drake-Chenault Top 40's exuded excitement compared to most offerings now.

DJ's had personality whether it was MoR Carl DeSuze and Jess Cain or rockers like Laquidara, Sartori, and Garabedian.  There was wit in the talk and genuine interest in the music.  I don't see why a natural desire for mentally-engaging radio, whether in a music or a talk format, would be considered snobbery.

Of course that kind of radio doesn't mix well with cost-cutting concepts of having stations run by computers using canned talk from so-called personalities setting things up in cities far from the audience.  Running things cheap means running things dull.  There are still some bits of genius between 88 and 92 MHz but things are even getting a bit too cookie-cutter down there too.

Mark Connelly
South Yarmouth, MA

-----Original Message-----
From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@bimajority.org>
To: Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@aol.com>
Cc: boston-radio-interest <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Wed, Aug 21, 2013 12:22 am
Subject: Re: WKFY


<<On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 00:00:11 -0400 (EDT), Mark Connelly <markwa1ion@aol.com> 
said:

> Radio exec's follow what I would call "too vanilla" programming
> concepts.  Dull and predictable with few jaw-dropping surprise cuts.

Because the target demo *doesn't like that*.  Those cuts are turn-offs
for most listeners.  Of course it's different obscure tracks for
different listeners, but a station can't afford *everyone* tuning out.

You are displaying classic rock-snobbism, I'm afraid.  Just because
music geeks like being surprised, it does not follow that Jane
Background Listener wants to hear that in the coffee shop or on her
drive to the supermarket -- particularly if it takes the music out of
the realm of "pleasant background noise" and demands that she pay
attention to it.

-GAWollman