[Magdalen] Remembered radio, was Re: NPR now

[Scott Knitter]

In my high-school years, Detroit had a richly varied mix of music
stations. CKLW was the top 40 blowtorch, but rock-and-roll was on FM,
notably WRIF and WABX. These stations lacked the juvenile banter of
today's DJs, preferring rich-voiced men and women who focused on the
music and inserted minimal talk. WABX was known for having DJs who
basically said little except the occasional "ABX." between tracks, and
when they did say more it was really similar to classical DJs: a quiet
list of what we just heard in the last half-hour or even hour and what
to expect in the next. Sure, they had commercials--they weren't in
radio for their health--but for the most part they eschewed the sort
of incessant empty banter-with-themselves that DJs indulge in now.

I consider my senior year of listening to ABX and RIF as an important
part of my music education: what helped in this was how seriously the
DJs took the music. A few of them were also experts at juxtaposing
tracks in ways that added meaning or followed a theme.

On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 10:08 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen
<magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

> 1960 was the year for the changeover at UW-Madison, from the jazz
> era to rock and roll.  For the homecoming program in the old UW
> Fieldhouse we had Vaughn ("Racing with the Moon") Monroe and his
> band in 1959, and some sort of heavy rock group in 1960.  It was
> a tremendous shock.  I often attended the homecoming shows until
> that fateful day in 1960.  Not thereafter!
>
> I had the same feeling once again when the Philadelphia 24 hour
> commercial classical music station changed one midnight to
> all rock. Quelle horreur!


-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA