Klarinet Archive - Posting 000937.txt from 2002/11

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Music for Dogs
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 18:08:38 -0500

Jim Fay wrote,
>Had a weekend WGMS announcer last year in my
>Community College Music History class (forget his
>name, he does sat evenings).
>
>He said the Program Director picks all the music,
>announcers have little say, and that they won't carry
>Peter Schikele's show because it doesn't suit the "mood"
>of WGMS!

The suits making these decisions must have boogers for brains. One piece of
good news: Two Washington area stations do carry PRI's "Schickele Mix."
It's on Saturday mornings at 11:00 a.m. on Washington D. C.'s WETA FM, 90.9
and also on Hagerstown, Maryland's WETH FM 89.1.

Someone asked about Schickele's program content: eclectic, "dedicated to the
proposition that all musics are created equal." His other motto is my
favorite quotation from Duke Ellington, "If it sounds good, it is good."
There's some humor (sometimes a bit too self-consciously, deliberately lame
and corny for my taste) on the program and Schickele sometimes tosses in an
example from the ouvre of P. D. Q. Bach, but mostly he makes interesting
connections between different kinds of music. For instance, he aired one
episode devoted to music in 5/4 time. He'll put an example from Beethoven
right next to an example from Bang On A Can if he damn well feels like it. I
think it's a brilliant program, one of the best things on the radio.

A couple of years ago, WETA cancelled "Schickele Mix" -- a bizarre decision,
considering that he's *local*. He lives in Arlington, Virginia and tapes the
broadcast out of his home. I've never met him, but from everything I've
heard, he's well-liked and well-respected by many people around here who do
know him personally -- and the local musical community took it personally
when WETA cancelled his weekly broadcast. The station earned enemies and
lost supporters with that move. Fortunately, when Schickele's fans quit
acting like meek little puppies and made like pit bulls, WETA realized it was
getting badly bitten and reinstated the program before the next beg-a-thon.

Speaking of classical WGMS 103.5 (also allegedly non-commerical, although the
messages from "supporters" that just happen to be businesses have been
allowed to grow to such a length that pretending they're not commercials is
nothing but a lie so transparent it makes these stations look bad, IMHO),
that station, in addition to not broadcasting Peter Schickele, does broadcast
another of my least-favorite announcers, Dennis Owens. Though his timbre is
a well- trained baritone, he's got a weird, melodramatic, Old Time Radio
delivery. That oily unctuousness makes him sound like one of those
over-the-top "Ghost Hosts" for cheesy old horror movies on late-night TV. I
love cheesy old horror movies, but I can't stand to listen to Owens on a
classical station at 9:00 a.m.. Too bad, because he's knowledgable and the
programming on his broadcast pleases me far better than most of the playlists
on that station (less of the Top Forty, with more variety; his programming
reminds me of Judy Gruber's). But then, I've pretty much given up on WGMS.

Bark bark bark bark bark!

Lelia

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