I have to admit that I was skeptical when the new PD took over. That little kerfuffle with Tim Goodman (which I posted about here) seemed like a red flag. But I'm slowly becoming impressed with what Mr Constantine is trying to do.
There was a fear that he would mess with 10@10 (which Annalisa has been doing wonderful things with for the past 2 years) but he seems to be taking a hands-off approach there. The syndicated show he added on Sun nites, "Lost & Found" is not bad at all.
Musically, there's a lot of "oh wow" stuff going on: Tom Waits' "Fumbling With the Blues" popped up recently for no apparent reason, as did Jackson Browne's "Our Lady of the Well". These are fairly obscure '70s prog-FM cuts that I hadn't heard in decades. Another thing I'm noticing is the addition of more pop-leaning "classics", like "Dannys Song" (the Loggins/Messina version, not Anne Murray), "Rock On" and "Ride Captain Ride". These are songs K-Fox and The Bone would never touch because they're not rocking enuf, but they're in the same demographic wheelhouse as tired warhorses like "Sweet Home AlaBummer" and "Rocket man". A clever gambit, I think... as long as these songs don't become equally overplayed. He's running a promo in which he says "Hand-picked music is better than computer-generated playlists". Hope that's more than an empty slogan.
Now if he can do something about the 17 women who all sound like Feist, and the endless supply of Snow Patrol clones...
There was a fear that he would mess with 10@10 (which Annalisa has been doing wonderful things with for the past 2 years) but he seems to be taking a hands-off approach there. The syndicated show he added on Sun nites, "Lost & Found" is not bad at all.
Musically, there's a lot of "oh wow" stuff going on: Tom Waits' "Fumbling With the Blues" popped up recently for no apparent reason, as did Jackson Browne's "Our Lady of the Well". These are fairly obscure '70s prog-FM cuts that I hadn't heard in decades. Another thing I'm noticing is the addition of more pop-leaning "classics", like "Dannys Song" (the Loggins/Messina version, not Anne Murray), "Rock On" and "Ride Captain Ride". These are songs K-Fox and The Bone would never touch because they're not rocking enuf, but they're in the same demographic wheelhouse as tired warhorses like "Sweet Home AlaBummer" and "Rocket man". A clever gambit, I think... as long as these songs don't become equally overplayed. He's running a promo in which he says "Hand-picked music is better than computer-generated playlists". Hope that's more than an empty slogan.
Now if he can do something about the 17 women who all sound like Feist, and the endless supply of Snow Patrol clones...