michaelshiloh said:
No, you want up-to-the-minute radio? At least Sunny (uh-eh-eh-Sunny?) and some other stations decided to play Jacko wall-to-wall (maybe they should have played it balls-to-the-wall).
Anyway, what do you want, like, what, news on FM? Or the days when FM stations had live DJs who could break the news of a great star's death and reminisce about their careers and then go to the latest facts from a newsperson and then lead you through a litany of the star's greatest music? Lots of big cities still have that. Not Houston. Houston's not big enough?
I'm going back to sleep. Just like most Houston radio listeners do 24/7.
I have to tell you that, in my last few years doing the Classic rock format, it became somewhat bittersweet when somebody died. I can recall hearing Cody announce John Entwhistle as I was driving in for the evening, and the volume of the phones were phenomenal. Back in '75 when the Summit opened, The Who played the second-ever show there (10 points if you can tell me who played the first show; if you can't tell me, please kindly leave Houston). The band members came outside to the parking lot, and then again at the airport, and spent some real, solid hours talking to fans, signing autographs, and posing for as many photos as they were asked to, for any fan who wanted them. Entwhistle, by all accounts, spent the most time with the fans and was the most gregarious of the four. Cody began taking calls in the afternoon, and when I knocked off at midnight, there were still compelling calls coming in. We opened the request lines; Who titles that hadn't seen the light of day in corporate ages were requested. I believe the listeners realized, too, that they might not have another chance to participate for awhile. I recall noting off-mic that
nobody asked me for Behind Blue Eyes or Pinball Wizard, which could be heard on the Arrow quite a bit in regular rotation. And you know what? As I drove home, jazzed and energized by a kickass, interactive with listeners, old-school airshift, I began to become a bit depressed that the only time that we ever got to open it up like that was when somebody died.
Of course, the deathwatch has since become quite rote and de rigueur. Funny, when Syd Barrett died, rock radio didn't actually have any music Barrett ever worked on in the studio, so to commemorate him, they were playing David Gilmour-heavy Pink Floyd. The fans wanted to spend the weekend mourning a man who founded a great group, an urge that rock radio tried lamely to satisfy by playing music from the guy who replaced him and, in Barrett's mind, stole his gig. I wasn't there for that, thank God. It may not matter much to some, but most of the rock fans I know are sticklers for credibility. If they know more about the music than their station does, that's just downright embarrassing.
This is what the guys on here were talking about in an earlier post. If something happens, someone should at least update something on the air so that the people could know.