Dial Global (Jeff Rollins and Carl Hampton) has gone all-Christmas

[vchimpanzee]

I had listened a total of ten minutes when I heard what I call "Sarajevo". It has a longer title than that, but the one-word title is appropriate. During the
war in Bosnia, Beirut no longer had the negative meaning, but Sarajevo had become a replacement for Beirut, and for this song, that sounds about right.

A few minutes later, I heard what I thought was Mannheim Steamroller, but it was just their style if instrumentals. Ironically, the song WAS "Deck the Halls".

There was also junk like "This Christmas". I don't know who does it.

Plus some song about how Christmas isn't what it used to be by some girl who either is or sounds black who puts in extra syllables and starts the song making
terrible noises that don't sound like any English words except possibly "Ah" and "Whoa". No, I don't mean "Ahh" like Ray Conniff. I would really like that mess,
and all I have mentioned so far, kept off my radio.

But I heard mostly good stuff.

Steve Tyrell did "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town". I normally don't want to hear fast-moving big band music for Christmas, but I couldn't help but enjoy the
instruments on this.

Not 30 minutes after the other version, I heard a very good version of "Deck the Halls". It was violin-based with chimes in the middle and a bassoon toward the end, and then a bassoon with a clarinet.

There was Ray Conniff's "O Christmas Tree", which was the only one Jeff Rollins identified (wait, isn't that supposed to be Carl Hampton at 11 Eastern?), which
came two songs after another Ray Conniff style performance of a medley. I can't remember which two songs now. But in one they sang the words one at a time with a break after each, which was actually kind of annoying.


Also Dean Martin and Martina McBride on "Baby It's Cold Outside" through the magic of technolgy.

 

[amlover]

Sounds like a total mess! MOYL has the best mix of music now with only the classic Christmas songs. BTW...Carl Hampton is a great guy and good friend.

 

[Prais]

I enjoy Dial Global alot. Good research - generall great music mix When Chick has Selector fired up - it's unbeatable.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Correction. "Uh", not "Ah". And it's not one syllable.

The song is "Where Are You Christmas".

The instrumentals are not that bad. I know because it played at precisely the same time as yesterday. This was followed by "The Gift" by Jim Brickman. Which I would like to return. By the way, it's not an instrumental.

But what followed was really worth it. "It Came upon the Midnight Clear" by Ray Conniff.

I heard Vanessa Williams and someone do "Baby It's Cold Outside". I heard "Tommy" but that's not very descriptive. Maybe I heard it wrong.

Andy Williams' "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", one of the most wonderful songs of the year.

There was some group from London that was sort of like Ray Conniff. Very nice.

On the other hand, I heard 'N Sync's "O Holy Night". Jeff Rollins said that was beautiful. Yes, I suppose their harmonies could be beautiful. But they sing the way they usually do, which means it's not worth hearing.

It would have been nice to continue listening as I put up my tree and addressed Christmas cards, but The Beach Boys did some rock and roll song just before the clock radio turned itself off after two hours. Most of that first hour I was out walking, and not with music. And then there was a weird version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", in case I had any doubts. Probably Mannheim Steamroller (who did a really nice acoustic version that sounded like it was done when the song was first performed, but this wasn't it) or the evil Trans-Siberian Orchestra, who make me want to say "Bah, Humbug".

Yesterday, Steve and Eydie did "Sleigh Ride". I hated this version, which was on my parents' "Album Five", whatever that is, because it was so corny. Now, corny is good.

My other clock radio came on at 3 for Mike Huckabee. Another reason for not listening to this station: I'm getting terrible interference, and I'm getting
other stations. I don't know what's causing the interference because no one's mowing grass.

 

[Prais]

Afternoon interference may be caused by "lowered power" for "critical hours" if it's an AM station - or "changning the directional pattern" if it's a directional am station, putting less power over the chimp's area than other places.

Chimp, YOU are of course, entitled to your own taste - and to share it here - but in a VERY heavily researched format like "adult standards" MANY people said they liked the piece of the song they heard in the research group.

Also, Steve and Eydie probably appeal to people around age 70. I presume you have not yet reached that age. I REALLY like nearly EVERYTHING they do (I've had a crush on Eydie for years) and I'm only 60. Mannheim Steamroller is the Christmas version of "Anne Murray" in the adult standards format - very "mass appeal."

One function of a dj is to "sell the music." You may think "if Jeff didn't like it why did he play it?" Not sure, but Jeff may NOT like many of the songs he plays. He may like them all. I don't know. What I DO know, is that he gets PAID to like it and sell it. He sells the music VERY well, despite having heard every one of those songs a zillion times each and making his audience believe that HE LOVES THEM. Whatever he likes, or not, Jeff is an exceptional talent.

NOBODY on ANY satellite fed format "picks their own music." He may pick a song once in a while - but those playlists are determined LONG in advance so every affiliate has access to the order of the songs for music licensing, logging, timing, and other purposes. Lots of those affiliates get the music playlist for the day via teletype that lists the national ads that will run.

O, and BLAME THEM.... I mean those people who voted in the research (probably done in California) ....NOT the format... based on that research for those songs that YOU don't like.

Thanks

 

[vchimpanzee]

Afternoon interference may be caused by "lowered power" for "critical hours" if it's an AM station - or "changning the directional pattern" if it's a directional am station, putting less power over the chimp's area than other places.

Neither of those is the case here,. The interference stopped briefly and it stopped for good on Thursday.

Chimp, YOU are of course, entitled to your own taste - and to share it here - but in a VERY heavily researched format like "adult standards" MANY people said they liked the piece of the song they heard in the research group.

Also, Steve and Eydie probably appeal to people around age 70. I presume you have not yet reached that age. I REALLY like nearly EVERYTHING they do (I've had a crush on Eydie for years) and I'm only 60. Mannheim Steamroller is the Christmas version of "Anne Murray" in the adult standards format - very "mass appeal."

One function of a dj is to "sell the music." You may think "if Jeff didn't like it why did he play it?" Not sure, but Jeff may NOT like many of the songs he plays. He may like them all. I don't know. What I DO know, is that he gets PAID to like it and sell it. He sells the music VERY well, despite having heard every one of those songs a zillion times each and making his audience believe that HE LOVES THEM. Whatever he likes, or not, Jeff is an exceptional talent.

NOBODY on ANY satellite fed format "picks their own music." He may pick a song once in a while - but those playlists are determined LONG in advance so every affiliate has access to the order of the songs for music licensing, logging, timing, and other purposes. Lots of those affiliates get the music playlist for the day via teletype that lists the national ads that will run.

O, and BLAME THEM.... I mean those people who voted in the research (probably done in California) ....NOT the format... based on that research for those songs that YOU don't like.

Thanks

I never said I don't like Steve and Eydie. I have liked them for years. But when I was a kid I hated their version of "Sleigh Ride". I liked everything else on that album. Mannheim Steamroller, on the other hand: garbage, except "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". "Deck the Halls" was an interesting novelty song, but that's not the sort of thing I want to hear at Christmas. REAL instruments are all that is acceptable.

 

[Prais]

I find it interesting that you are all over these boards "critical" of some types of music/songs. It's only YOUR opinion.

Here are YOUR own words;
"Steve and Eydie did "Sleigh Ride". I hated this version, which was on my parents' "Album Five", whatever that is, because it was so corny. Now, corny is good."
____
I saw them do that song on the 60's on the Mike Douglas show. That album with that song was a HUGE seller. It was a 60's vocal of that song, originally a beautiful lush instrumental by the Boston Pops and the bigger hit instrumental in 1950 by Leroy Anderson with the first vocal of this in 1950 by The Andrews Sisters.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I find it interesting that you are all over these boards "critical" of some types of music/songs. It's only YOUR opinion.

Here are YOUR own words;
"Steve and Eydie did "Sleigh Ride". I hated this version, which was on my parents' "Album Five", whatever that is, because it was so corny. Now, corny is good."
____
I saw them do that song on the 60's on the Mike Douglas show. That album with that song was a HUGE seller. It was a 60's vocal of that song, originally a beautiful lush instrumental by the Boston Pops and the bigger hit instrumental in 1950 by Leroy Anderson with the first vocal of this in 1950 by The Andrews Sisters.

Oh, come on. I was five or six when I hated this version. That doesn't count.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I find it interesting that you are all over these boards "critical" of some types of music/songs. It's only YOUR opinion.

Maybe, but I sure do feel better when I say it. It doesn't necessarily change anything, but I feel less of an urge to complain to the people who could actually do something. Which is probably just as well because I'd have to be one of many for it to work. Occasionally, people do agree with me.

Now regarding "Sarajevo" and other contemporary-sounding music, I was ready to have nothing at all to do with Christmas music a few years back. I'm amazed I even put up decorations. Things have just changed too much and the holiday isn't what it was. Hearing new songs and contemporary versions of old songs just drives that point home. So I am quite intolerant of songs that don't make me feel good about the holiday. My mind changed about Christmas music in general one day when I heard The New Christy Minstrels while walking in a mall. I realized that sounds so good I have to listen to some holiday music.

It is my opinion that Dial Global shouldn't be LESS traditional at Christmas than they are the rest of the year. After all, everyone else is MORE traditional. And "Sarajevo" doesn't belong in the format at all. I also heard Mannheim Steamroller's "Deck the Halls". It's a wonder I leave the radio on as long as I do.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Afternoon interference may be caused by "lowered power" for "critical hours" if it's an AM station - or "changning the directional pattern" if it's a directional am station, putting less power over the chimp's area than other places.

No problems today.

One function of a dj is to "sell the music." You may think "if Jeff didn't like it why did he play it?" Not sure, but Jeff may NOT like many of the songs he plays. He may like them all. I don't know. What I DO know, is that he gets PAID to like it and sell it. He sells the music VERY well, despite having heard every one of those songs a zillion times each and making his audience believe that HE LOVES THEM. Whatever he likes, or not, Jeff is an exceptional talent..

Jeff did admit to not liking a song today. He said the song "Frosty the Snowman" used to scare him. And then he said this, too, was scary. He played Regis Philbin. Now I have no objection to someone who doesn't really have singing talent if we like him the way we used to like George Burns. It's a different kind of talent. On the other hand, the only redeeming quality of Bruce Willis' "Respect Yourself" was The Pointer Sisters signing backup. Maybe he should have just sung on "Moonlighting", where we somehow thought he was talented.

 

[Prais]

Are you telling us this with a straight face?

I've known Jeff for about 20 years and he is a big tease. MOST of what he says is with his tongue in his cheek. As a dj, He is GREAT!!! If "Frosty" scares him, it must have been when he was 5 years old and (like you) it "doesn't count ."

One Example of 10 thousand;
In the song Volare (in Italian) Dominico Modugno sounds like he says "lucky boy." The Italian lyrics are "Scompare negli occhi tuoi blu", which translated means something like "Disappears in your blue eyes." No "lucky boy."

 

[publisher]

I could be mistaken, but I believe Dial Global has tinkered with the Christmas playlist for the Adult Standards service this year. I think it is a major improvement over prior years. Traditional music seems to figure more prominently in the mix this go around. In the last half hour (I listen to KHUI's webcast) I have heard Dean Martin, Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, Percy Faith and Johnny Mathis. Good stuff.

Doesn't seem to be quite the gravitation to country artists this year as in the past. (Haven't heard Christmas Shoes yet, thankfully). Anyway, they seem to have traditionalized the Christmas playlist in the same way they have turned the regular playlist more toward standards this past year. Perry Como is airing now. Terrific!

 

[vchimpanzee]

I could be mistaken, but I believe Dial Global has tinkered with the Christmas playlist for the Adult Standards service this year. I think it is a major improvement over prior years. Traditional music seems to figure more prominently in the mix this go around. In the last half hour (I listen to KHUI's webcast) I have heard Dean Martin, Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, Percy Faith and Johnny Mathis. Good stuff.

Doesn't seem to be quite the gravitation to country artists this year as in the past. (Haven't heard Christmas Shoes yet, thankfully). Anyway, they seem to have traditionalized the Christmas playlist in the same way they have turned the regular playlist more toward standards this past year. Perry Como is airing now. Terrific!

I do hear a lot of good stuff, and I was ready to be more tolerant this morning because there was so much of what I like. However, they did play "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", so ther goes the theory about less country. Plus Lorrie Morgan's "My Favorite Things", which was kind of weird. Not bad, though.

Then there was "No Child Should Ever Cry on Christmas" by Hall and Oates. Okay, at this point it's beginning to get on my nerves. The Beach Boys finished the hour with a song that has the words "Run, run reindeer". I'm losing my patience with this contemporary stuff. No, anything rock and roll is contemporary when it's Christmas.

And then it happened. "This Christmas" by Gloria Estefan. I will not, I can not tolerate garbage like this. They don't even do that kind of pounding on drums during the rest of the year, and at Christmas it's inexcusable. Not just drums, of course, but annoying keyboards. At some point Wynonna Judd did "It's the Messiah". I don't care for that style the rest of the year and certainly don't at Christmas. And it wasn't country, since I think I heard a black choir.

Some kid that sounded like Taylor Swift was making noises like she had been exercising (let's call it that) when the clock radio cut itself off for the day, and I had no incentive to turn it back on.

And here's what I said on another site last Wednesday:

I'm ready to be a Scrooge now.

I was listening yesterday and heard Barbra Streisand do something absolutely wonderful, one of the familiar secular songs, but I can't remember which one. Then Dean Martin did "Rudolph (Rudy) the Red Nosed Reindeer" (which I also heard this morning). This was followed by one of those 'N Sync type singers, along with the terrible instrumentals that go with them. I just switched stations and listened to country music. I heard what might have been Floyd Cramer doing one of the familiar religious songs.

This morning things were better, for a while. Then I heard "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" by Aaron Shust, and later a medley by Point of Grace. Either of these turns me into a Scrooge who doesn't want to bother with turning on the radio this time of year. To make matters worse, Jeff called the Shust performance "Wonderful" and also said he liked Point of Grace. Bah Humbug!

On the other hand, I heard "Happy Holidays" by Andy Williams, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters, "Silver Bells" by a Ray Conniff-type group, and "Christmas Canon" (Pachelbel) by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I like the children on that one, but the synthesizers in place of violins are irritating.

I still keep the clock radio on for the full two hours so I won't make a mistake turning it off and miss Mike Huckabee or, on Sunday, oversleep.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Are you telling us this with a straight face?

I've known Jeff for about 20 years and he is a big tease. MOST of what he says is with his tongue in his cheek. As a dj, He is GREAT!!! If "Frosty" scares him, it must have been when he was 5 years old and (like you) it "doesn't count ."

Okay, I knew that. I should use the wink smilie. We had no smilies for a while.

This morning he said he didn't grow up with Bing Crosby but his mother liked him. Someone told him years ago that he was the Bing Crosby of DJs. He didn't believe it, but now he realizes they do have similar voices.

By the way, Charlotte's standards station is still playing regular music--and good music it is! About five of the songs I heard, out of a total of maybe 10 or 15, were Christmas songs, and good ones of course. It was one song out of the first four. It's too bad the signal doesn't reach Charlotte very well, and it's non-existent at night. I don't turn it on at home because this time of year, there's just not a lot of time to listen before other stations mess it up even before sunset. And forget it in the car uless I'm close by. Charlotte is so lucky to have a GOOD standards station but with the degree of advertiser support and the changes already, I don't predict much of a future.