My SO Hopes for a Near-Future Headline Reading "JACK Off"

[tmcg]

So on Friday I drove to a semi-nearby Babies R Us store to pick up a registry gift for a baby shower. The radio was playing the Coasters. It was playing good oldies. Stuff you just don't hear on other stations anymore, the way you mostly don't hear standards since WNEW-AM died. Traffic started to thicken as I neared my destination, because I hadn't left early enough and I was starting to hit an infusion of rush hour. When I got out of the store and back in the car and was paying attention to the radio again, it was playing "Just Another Manic Monday." Huh? I hadn't changed the station. I thought I was listening to CBS. Home of good oldies. Home of the resoundingly reverbed Cousin Brucie. But the station identification insisted that I was listening to ... JACK.

On Saturday evening, we were driving back from the baby shower and post-shower reception at the house, and on "Idiot's Delight" Vin Scelsa was delivering an impassioned eulogy for WCBS-FM and playing "Another One Bites the Dust." The oldies died as of five o'clock on Friday. JACK is just another pop-mix station. And oh boy. I was there at its debut.

Comments

[readwrite.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's more than the music, though that's certainly part of it. Cousin Brucie, Harry Harrison, et al. didn't just spin the platters; they knew it inside out, could tell you interesting things about it, what local artists were up to. Cousin Brucie even has his own jingle recorded especially for him by the Four Seasons!

BTW, I'm proofreading a book you copy edited right now...

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's such a great point! The anecdotes and information a good DJ provides add so much to the experience. Not to mention the DJ's personality. Gah, now I'm mourning this whole trend even more.

Neat, re the book. :)