WKFY

[Dale H. Cook]

At 11:26 AM 8/21/2013, Mark Connelly wrote:

>Within the same age group, roughly those born in the 1948-1958 range, there were widely divergent sets of musical tastes by the mid to late '70s.

I am of that age group, and as an individual I have a widely divergent set of musical tastes, which were already developing in the early '70s. I listen to all sorts of things from '20s and '30s jazz and blues to some recent artists (a few weeks ago I bought the latest CD by Sara Bareilles). I still buy the latest CDs by long-term artists who are still active (including, in the last year or so, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Steve Miller, Neil Young, Heart, David Bowie, Iggy and the Stooges, Sheryl Crow, Rush, and Leonard Cohen). There are no formats on my local radio stations that are diverse enough to strongly appeal to me. The two that come closest are Classic Rock (the local outlet for which has a library so small that I no longer listen to them) and AAA (also available locally, but poorly programmed, so instead I listen to XPoNential Radio from Philadelphia on my NPR station's HD3). Mostly I listen to my CD collection. My wheelhouses are the British Invasion and Progressive Rock (aka "Art Rock"), but the selection of CDs that I have in the car at any given moment generally also includes hard rock, southern rock, folk, blues, hybrids (such as folk-rock or blues based rock), and difficult-to-pigeonhole artists such as Talking Heads or the recent CD by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.

Of course, my tastes are derived partly from the variety of formats within which I've worked over the last 40+ years, and partly from the records introduced by friends (especially those I've worked with in radio). I realize that I am 1) not a typical radio listener, and 2) likely not someone who would spend much time listening to WKFY. If I still lived in southeastern MA, though, I would certainly sample John's stations on the Cape to see what they are doing. I still have an interest in his work as a programmer dating back to WMEX, and revived during several years at an OHP affiliate (though I haven't spoken to or exchanged email with him in some years).

Dale H. Cook, Market Chief Engineer, Centennial Broadcasting, Roanoke/Lynchburg, VA
http://plymouthcolony.net/starcityeng/index.html