By now, most of you have probably heard the news about the weekend passing of Rochester’s own Mitch Miller. Though he was best known for his “Sing Along With Mitch” network TV show—for which some of us are too young to have any memories (except in reruns, perhaps, and even those are a bit fuzzy)—I have some later radio-related memories to share.
Because his Holiday Sing Along With Mitch (vinyl) album was so popular in my childhood home, I tracked down the CD and made “Must Be Santa” a Christmastime staple on the Jukebox, in the late ’90s, on WKLX and WBBF-FM. One Saturday night, a caller told me she had waited all week to hear it again. She had requested it during the week (despite not knowing the title of the song or who sang it), but was told that I was the only one who played it (because it was my personal CD, after all). In fact, one night I aired it twice—back-to-back!
I came close to interviewing Mitch when he was in town for a show in 1999. Everything seemed to be coming together between me and an Eastman School publicist—until it fell through at the last minute. Though the publicist didn’t say specifically, I think it was because I had wanted to prerecord the interview and then play back snippets on the air (allowing me greater control over segment timing, since the Jukebox was a music-intensive all-request show), whereas I think he preferred doing it live.
One way or another, I wish it would have happened. But I’d still like to think that I helped “sell” a few copies of Mitch Miller CDs by airing his music 30+ years after the end of his popular television show.
Because his Holiday Sing Along With Mitch (vinyl) album was so popular in my childhood home, I tracked down the CD and made “Must Be Santa” a Christmastime staple on the Jukebox, in the late ’90s, on WKLX and WBBF-FM. One Saturday night, a caller told me she had waited all week to hear it again. She had requested it during the week (despite not knowing the title of the song or who sang it), but was told that I was the only one who played it (because it was my personal CD, after all). In fact, one night I aired it twice—back-to-back!
I came close to interviewing Mitch when he was in town for a show in 1999. Everything seemed to be coming together between me and an Eastman School publicist—until it fell through at the last minute. Though the publicist didn’t say specifically, I think it was because I had wanted to prerecord the interview and then play back snippets on the air (allowing me greater control over segment timing, since the Jukebox was a music-intensive all-request show), whereas I think he preferred doing it live.
One way or another, I wish it would have happened. But I’d still like to think that I helped “sell” a few copies of Mitch Miller CDs by airing his music 30+ years after the end of his popular television show.
