Christmas Music

[Parttimer]

I'd like to hear from the people who insisted that WLTJ was going to go all-christmas before 3WS.

 

[71dude]

As long as they don't play "The Christmas Shoes" I can handle it. If they do play it, I'm taking a blowtorch to my radio.

Or this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aiYg0BOsOs

 

[corporateradiosucks]

LOL at some of the images in that Dominick the Donkey video.

I was going to say "Santa Baby" by Madonna is the one that puts me over the edge, but that Dear Mr Jesus song that 71dude posted....just no words for how hideous that is.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Here's the one that makes me bring out the blowtorch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrdxtWgHbE

When I worked in New York City, at Christmastime this was practically the National Anthem. I've played
it enough for one lifetime.

C.

That's "the damn donkey song" I mentioned in #12.

 

[db59]

To all you people dissing Dominick, may you have an Italian curse fall on you and your Christmas tree.

 

[apostate]

WSHH flipped last Saturday, one day after 3WS.

 

[Boss Radio]

A few years ago, 3WS wasn't playing "Christmas Shoes." I heard the first few notes of it the other morning and....click.

BTW, the new morning guy wanted callers to talk about their worst Thanksgiving experience. He told one about a baby throwing up on the turkey. Now there's a story you want to hear at 5 a.m.

 

[cingram]

To all you people dissing Dominick, may you have an Italian curse fall on you and your Christmas tree.

Hey, I like Dominick. I just got my lifedose of it working for three years at a station in New York City, where
it played like it was in current rotation. I suppose it was. ;D

C.

 

[DToTheJ]

Dominick is so popular, he's got his own Facebook fan page. (It's true - look it up...)

... the new [3WS] morning guy wanted callers to talk about their worst Thanksgiving experience. He told one about a baby throwing up on the turkey. Now there's a story you want to hear at 5 a.m.

I have a nomination for worst Thanksgiving experience: listening to a jock on the radio solicit "worst Thanksgiving experience" stories from listeners! But I digress...

 

[db59]

All you Dominick haters will like this one. 3WS is not playing "Dominick the Donkey" this year. I called SVD today to ask why I haven't heard the song yet, and she told me that her boss will not let her play it. I reminded her that Dominick has been a 3WS Xmas tradition every year, and although she agreed with me, she reiterated that although she wants to play it, she is not allowed by the powers that be. That must also be why there have not been any of the usual Bob Rivers comedy songs either, like "There's Something Stuck Up in the Chimney", "The 12 Pains of Xmas", or my favorite, "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire". There's several other songs that have also been banished this year too. Their PD must be a real joy to work with. After all the years 3WS has been doing this, you'd think the PD would let SVD handle the Xmas Music without his sticking his nose in. However, he must love "Sleigh Ride" That damn song, especially the version by Leroy Anderson, must play at least 5x each day. Then there's the version by the Carpenters, which is absolutely horrible and also plays multiple times each day. I guess "Sleigh Ride" is their Xmas version of "Piano Man". Their Xmas music used to be fun. Now even that has changed. Is their PD's last name Scrooge?

 

[Talk_Dude]

All you Dominick haters will like this one. 3WS is not playing "Dominick the Donkey" this year. I called SVD today to ask why I haven't heard the song yet, and she told me that her boss will not let her play it. I reminded her that Dominick has been a 3WS Xmas tradition every year, and although she agreed with me, she reiterated that although she wants to play it, she is not allowed by the powers that be. That must also be why there have not been any of the usual Bob Rivers comedy songs either, like "There's Something Stuck Up in the Chimney", "The 12 Pains of Xmas", or my favorite, "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire". There's several other songs that have also been banished this year too. Their PD must be a real joy to work with. After all the years 3WS has been doing this, you'd think the PD would let SVD handle the Xmas Music without his sticking his nose in. However, he must love "Sleigh Ride" That damn song, especially the version by Leroy Anderson, must play at least 5x each day. Then there's the version by the Carpenters, which is absolutely horrible and also plays multiple times each day. I guess "Sleigh Ride" is their Xmas version of "Piano Man". Their Xmas music used to be fun. Now even that has changed. Is their PD's last name Scrooge?

I'm relieved to know that I won't have to endure that damn donkey song when we visit Pittsburgh. I'm also totally confused about why "Sleigh Ride" is considered a Christmas song. There is nothing in it at all about either the religious or secular celebration of Christmas. It would be equally appropriate in January or February when there's still plenty of snow in northern areas. What does that song have to do with Christmas? And for that matter, the same goes for "Frosty the Snowman".

 

[dB]

I'm also totally confused about why "Sleigh Ride" is considered a Christmas song. There is nothing in it at all about either the religious or secular celebration of Christmas. It would be equally appropriate in January or February when there's still plenty of snow in northern areas. What does that song have to do with Christmas? And for that matter, the same goes for "Frosty the Snowman".

Maybe it's because radio stations don't flip formats for Valentine's Day???

 

[Raymond]

All you Dominick haters will like this one. 3WS is not playing "Dominick the Donkey" this year. I called SVD today to ask why I haven't heard the song yet, and she told me that her boss will not let her play it. I reminded her that Dominick has been a 3WS Xmas tradition every year, and although she agreed with me, she reiterated that although she wants to play it, she is not allowed by the powers that be. That must also be why there have not been any of the usual Bob Rivers comedy songs either, like "There's Something Stuck Up in the Chimney", "The 12 Pains of Xmas", or my favorite, "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire". There's several other songs that have also been banished this year too. Their PD must be a real joy to work with. After all the years 3WS has been doing this, you'd think the PD would let SVD handle the Xmas Music without his sticking his nose in. However, he must love "Sleigh Ride" That damn song, especially the version by Leroy Anderson, must play at least 5x each day. Then there's the version by the Carpenters, which is absolutely horrible and also plays multiple times each day. I guess "Sleigh Ride" is their Xmas version of "Piano Man". Their Xmas music used to be fun. Now even that has changed. Is their PD's last name Scrooge?

Db59 I think the music they played last year was much better. More variety. I can tolerate Dominick.

To answer your last question, from the sources I have at the Cube, "moron" has been used and that's mild. I've heard several people call him much worse.

 

[hypwr]

May I suggest an interesting concept? The PD could schedule music which the listeners want to hear rather than to his/her personal taste. Reminds me when J M Hammond put WNUF on the air and played only his big-band favorites.

 

[Talk_Dude]

May I suggest an interesting concept? The PD could schedule music which the listeners want to hear rather than to his/her personal taste. Reminds me when J M Hammond put WNUF on the air and played only his big-band favorites.

I remember those days well. My parent were in a desirable advertiser demographic in those days, and they and many of their friends shared Hammond's taste and tuned in WNUF whenever they could. In those days, they only had an AM radio in the car, which they tuned to WRYT no matter how much we kids kvetched. But when my mother was at home doing housewife stuff, she had WNUF on. My dad would change between WKJF and WNUF.

It also seems to me that the extreme affection displayed for Porky Chedwick, Terry Lee, and other oldies DJs tends to be based on the fact that they play what they like, which just happened to be what their fans like as well. It seems that throughout the history of entertainment, entertainers that do things they enjoy achieve fame and success when what they like happens to be what audiences also like.

So here's an alternative concept that might be even more interesting. Instead of having some clueless suit guess at what he thinks maybe the audience might like based on pseudo-scientific tests, maybe the people in charge of radio stations should seek out individuals whose personal taste matches what the public wants. I'm talking people with good instincts for what the public wants, like the the people who ran vaudeville circuits, or old-school movie moguls, or TV pioneers like Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen, or DJs like Chedwick, Freed, and the other pioneers.

Using your own personal taste to decide what to put on the air is only a mistake if your own personal taste sucks.

 

[Raymond]

Using your own personal taste to decide what to put on the air is only a mistake if your own personal taste sucks.

Talk Dude, I think that the PD of 3WS has no knowledge of what music his audience wants to hear. I think his MD does. She's their demo. That is especially true of Christmas music. Sherri is way more in tune with the audience and Pittsburgh. She's been here long enough, at least 2 decades.

And I also think that the PD/Om & GM has no clue about what Pittsburgh wants in general. Take for instance that abortion that happened on DVE earlier this year with Randy sittting out a contract. People didn't want to hear Krenn. They wanted Randy. When they heard the awful sound of Krenn sans Randy, they should've let Krenn go. I remember thinking at that time "glad I didin't buy time on that show". So, my point, outsiders don't know what's going on. Even if they are at the helm. God help the Cube's workers.

 

[Raymond]

My first sentence should've had quotes on it. My bad. :-[

 

[corporateradiosucks]

The PDs at several CC stations HAVE DJs with knowledge of what the public likes and wants to hear. They don't need to be sought out, they are already there. They just won't let them play it because they want to see it on a piece of paper with a bar graph.

 

[apostate]

Using your own personal taste to decide what to put on the air is only a mistake if your own personal taste sucks.

Talk Dude, I think that the PD of 3WS has no knowledge of what music his audience wants to hear. I think his MD does. She's their demo. That is especially true of Christmas music. Sherri is way more in tune with the audience and Pittsburgh. She's been here long enough, at least 2 decades.

And I also think that the PD/Om & GM has no clue about what Pittsburgh wants in general. Take for instance that abortion that happened on DVE earlier this year with Randy sittting out a contract. People didn't want to hear Krenn. They wanted Randy. When they heard the awful sound of Krenn sans Randy, they should've let Krenn go. I remember thinking at that time "glad I didin't buy time on that show". So, my point, outsiders don't know what's going on. Even if they are at the helm. God help the Cube's workers.

The PD at 3WS was at doing production at B-94 when I was there, beginning in 1992. He later served as PD at the B, and was there for 8 1/2 years. He, too, is in their demo. I'm not saying it's well-programmed, or that it's poorly programmed, but doesn't 3WS cater to folks who listened to B-94 when they were younger?

 

[Talk_Dude]

The PD at 3WS was at doing production at B-94 when I was there, beginning in 1992. He later served as PD at the B, and was there for 8 1/2 years. He, too, is in their demo. I'm not saying it's well-programmed, or that it's poorly programmed, but doesn't 3WS cater to folks who listened to B-94 when they were younger?

I don't know the guy, and wouldn't recognize him if I tripped over him. But having a good gut feel for what the audience wants is not something that everyone born during certain years automatically has. And, having that intuitive empathy with what an audience wants to hear has nothing to do with production experience. Those are two totally separate skills. You can work in a studio on production for years and it won't have any impact at all on having empathetic understanding of what a target market wants to hear.

I know my own taste is totally unsuited for picking music for a radio station, even for a station that targets aging Baby Boomers. When I make suggestions for what I think other people would like to hear, it's not based on what I'd like to hear.