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102.9 The Whale All-Request Memorial Day Weekend
- Thread starter MarcB
- Start date
Only the requests that are compatible with the current format and playlist, I assume. No Supremes, no Herman's Hermits, no Monkees, no Ohio Express, no Donna Summer. Probably a chance to hear some deeper cuts from Zeppelin, U2, AC/DC and friends, but nothing really way out there. I'm sure they'll have plenty of suggestions to choose from.
How deep would their library be anyway? Do they have any CDs/LPs somewhere, or like most stations have they converted to digital libraries?
All libraries at major market stations are digital and have been since the mid-to-late-90's for the most part. There are services that sell, but the cut or by the library digital copies for broadcast use.
Gold based stations in significant markets can have as few as 300 songs (KRTH) or as many as 600 to 800. While there may be exceptions, don't look for them to be highly rated.
Half an hour in, and the titles played are:
Go Your Own Way -- Fleetwood Mac
Rock You Like a Hurricane -- Scorpions
Baby I Love Your Way -- Peter Frampton
We Gotta Get Out of This Place -- The Animals
Nightrain -- Guns N' Roses
Joe's Garage -- Frank Zappa
Renegade -- Styx
The Ultimate Sin -- Ozzy Osbourne
Only the GNR, Zappa and Ozzy tracks seem out of the ordinary to me, although I'm not a regular listener. Also, listener voices are not being played before every song, but the ones that are seem genuine. They're being asked their hometowns, unlike the people in the random "I love your station" testimonials that sister stations on the Kool oldies mini-network run. "Mike from Monroe" was the requester of the most recent cut.
Go Your Own Way -- Fleetwood Mac
Rock You Like a Hurricane -- Scorpions
Baby I Love Your Way -- Peter Frampton
We Gotta Get Out of This Place -- The Animals
Nightrain -- Guns N' Roses
Joe's Garage -- Frank Zappa
Renegade -- Styx
The Ultimate Sin -- Ozzy Osbourne
Only the GNR, Zappa and Ozzy tracks seem out of the ordinary to me, although I'm not a regular listener. Also, listener voices are not being played before every song, but the ones that are seem genuine. They're being asked their hometowns, unlike the people in the random "I love your station" testimonials that sister stations on the Kool oldies mini-network run. "Mike from Monroe" was the requester of the most recent cut.
I don't know if they were live until Midnight last night, but I know they were live when they're normally voiced-tracked. Also this morning Klonk was live in the studio taking requests. I don't listen to The Whale all the time, but I'm pretty certain they're usually on automation until 10AM on both Satuday and Sunday.
The Whale plays a lot of Guns N Roses tracks. And while I'm mainly not a fan of Ozzy, I know I've heard "Crazy Train" on the station a number of times
Think the large majority of Whale listeners would be smart enough to know not to call in and request a true pop song (and definitely not disco) on a true classic rock (not classic hits) station, even if it is a specialty show for Memorial Day weekend. But just hearing some lesser known songs from the artists The Whale plays frequently would give me a reason to actually listen to that station for once, just out of curiosity to hear which ones were requested.
Way back when Ron Sedaille still did ARSN over the FM airwaves, he sometimes would actually play calls when people requested songs that weren't compatible with the format just for fun/as a joke. For example, he refused to play Pink Floyd during his DRC days (before FTR), although someone did call and request it once. Nowadays it would be the exact opposite- Whale would take and play requests for Pink Floyd in a heartbeat, but of course would never play many of the songs DRC used to play unless they are really well known classics.
I'd say that We Gotta Get Out of This Place by Eric Burdon and the Animals is out of the ordinary as well, at least for The Whale. Usually if they are going to still play a 60s song in the year 2020, it is going to be one that is a true classic by a really well known group like the Stones, later Beatles or early Zeppelin.
Perhaps the Animals song that would be most fitting for Memorial Day weekend is Sky Pilot, although maybe playing a song with an anti war message might actually not be appropriate since the point of the holiday is to remember those who passed away regardless of whether the wars were necessary or not. You could look at it either way. Other than the subject matter, the other reason stations usually don't play that song is because of its length.
The only commercial radio station from CT on the FM dial that would ever play any of those three groups during regular programming (not counting Oldies 98 and WLNG which can be received in southern CT but are from LI) is obviously Kool Radio. Daydream Believer used to be in KR's regular rotation not too long ago, but haven't heard it quite as often recently. I do recall hearing I'm Into Something Good maybe once or twice during KR's regular programming but that's about it. As far as Ohio Express goes, usually not played on KR except for Rich Appel's show. I think their most well known song (Yummy Yummy Yummy) is actually their worst song, but am a fan of the group and bubblegum music in general otherwise. The one I always wished oldies stations would play more often is Beg Borrow and Steal (even though the riff is "borrowed" from another song, I still think it's a great song).
The "Louie, Louie" riff, specifically. It wasn't a big hit, to be fair, so I wouldn't expect many people to still remember it after 50+ years. I recall hearing it once on DRC-FM, during its "your iPod on shuffle" period under John Seville. In fact, I remember it being played back-to-back with Donovan's "Season of the Witch"! That experiment didn't last long, only a matter of a couple of months before the playlist was reined in somewhat.
Interesting. Definitely remember hearing Season of the Witch on DRC-FM during a Halloween special, but don't remember that. Do you know what year it was that John Seville did that show? I started really listening to the old DRC-FM around 2006- was it before or after then? Over time, the lesser known and/or novelty songs became reserved for ARSN although around 08-09 they would still play a fair amount of those songs during regular programming. By 2011, their playlists for both regular programming and ARSN became much more limited and the 60s were phased out in favor of the 80s, although they did do the month long Xmas thing for a surprise in late Nov/Dec 2011.
Getting back on topic....of all the times I've passed by The Whale on the dial and listened to it briefly just out of curiosity, the one song I was most surprised to hear playing during regular programming was The Devil Went Down to Georgia. And it wasn't around Halloween that they played it, it was during spring or summer. Can't remember exactly when. Generally speaking, The Whale's playlist doesn't seem to be that deep but occasionally they will throw in one or two songs you don't expect to hear.
I believe it was early 2005. John was doing the morning show with Beth Bradley at the time (having replaced the pink-slipped Mike Stevens, who is now heard on WJMJ along with several other DRC alumni), but the playlist was deepened throughout the day. The Ohio Express/Donovan segue came during the autopilot overnight shift.
I'm lucky enough that my boss plays that station sometimes at work. The fact that those songs have been moved to a non-commercial station left of 92 on the dial tells you all you need to know about how old they now are, but it's obviously much better than not hearing them at all. They also mix in some newer artists like Adele and Bruno Mars. They play songs with more family friendly lyrics since it's a Catholic station, and as you'd imagine Spirit in the Sky is played frequently. Never thought I'd hear Jimmy Buffett on WJMJ, but they did play Come Monday once (I believe Lite 100.5 has played it once or twice in the past as well).
I listen to WJMJ occasionally as well. No, you won't hear Arthur Brown proclaiming himself the God of Hellfire, but fun songs of any description -- including Buffett's "Margaritaville," incidentally -- are fine to play. So are enthusiastic celebrations of sex, including Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." Elton John is gay; WJMJ plays plenty of Elton. Rod Stewart has been unfaithful to several lovers and wives; WJMJ plays plenty of Rod. Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Barbra Streisand are Jewish and politically to the far left of the Catholic Church; all three are frequently heard on WJMJ, as are Cat Stevens, a Muslim, and Seals and Crofts, Baha'is.
The only reminders that I'm listening to the Archdiocese's radio voice are the Catholic newscasts and the hourly bits of dogma from Fr. Gatzak, some of which are followed with appropriate CCM tunes from Amy Grant and others. I'm not Catholic but I'm fine with the overall sound of the station. It's full of musical surprises, and I don't miss hearing "Fire" or any other "non-family-friendly" songs.
Oh yeah, they have plenty of listeners who aren't Catholic and tune in simply because they play songs you can't hear on any other station. And as you say, the only thing in question is whether the lyrics of the song are appropriate for families listening- they are welcoming of all listeners and would play any song they feel fits with their format regardless of whether the artist might happen to be of a different faith. Another interesting fact, now that you bring it up is that Norman Greenbaum who wrote Spirit in the Sky- which directly mentions Jesus in the lyrics -was actually Jewish (many people don't know that). Cat Stevens is an absolutely perfect fit for the station since he literally covered a traditional church hymn and turned it into a chart hit in the 70s. There is one Billy Joel song they almost certainly would not play (OTGDY), although that song has somewhat ironically actually been embraced by Catholics over the years. Otherwise, they would play just about anything else by Billy Joel.
They are the only station other than WLNG on the FM dial that I've heard play Early in the Morning by Vanity Fare recently. I heard it on WLNG (back to back with Morning Train/9 to 5 by Sheena Easton) in 2018, and several times on WJMJ last year.
I've never been a fan of him either, but Crazy Train is such a classic that I can understand why classic rock stations play it so frequently. I-95 plays a fair amount of Ozzy as well.
Heard the following four-song set on WJMJ with Mike Stevens this past weekend:
Holly Holy- Neil Diamond
Slip Slidin' Away- Paul Simon
Wear Your Love Like Heaven- Donovan
Love Her Madly- The Doors
Only one of those four with no religious references in the lyrics is Love Her Madly, which happens to be my favorite of those four songs.
When you drive on 691 towards Southington, WJMJ's signal gets blocked when you go past West Peak.
And speaking of musical surprises....also remember hearing Hakuna Matata from The Lion King on WJMJ last summer.
....but I did hear Live and Let Die (the original version by Paul McCartney and Wings) on WJMJ last weekend. Seriously. With the line "You got to give the other fella hell" left in.
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