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A GREAT WEBSITE
www.theradiogypsies.com

Commentary
by Claude Hall

August 15, 2011

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So, my Mac G4, once state of the art, is now ancient history. It hurts to have your computer sneered at. The Apple Store, which had just informed me, rather too casually, that my old laptop could not be repaired – “They don’t make parts for that one anymore” – wasn’t even eager to sell me a MacBook Pro. They had plenty of customers! Recession? Not at Apple. They also sold me a cord so that I could transfer my old stuff onto the new laptop and the $49.99 cord doesn’t work and I’m too tired to drive back over there and go through that crowd and wait for an appointment. So, what the heck!

I didn’t bother to tell the kid at Apple that I’m still writing occasionally on a PowerMac that’s probably as old as she was (she had a pin in her nose and one in her bottom lip; how can they stand those things?). The drives have driven away on my PowerMac, except for a built-in Zip drive. But I use that to transfer to a laptop and then to a printer, if need be. Or the Internet. I wrote “Huecos,” for example, on the PowerMac. It’s a comfortable old thing. They do not make comfortable laptops, I’ve discovered…they only make frustrating laptops.

Difficult to believe that I wrote “This Business of Radio Programming” on a manual typewriter.

Note: I don’t understand these little icons at the bottom of the screen of my MacBook Pro. They sure look funny, though. I’d call up George Wilson and ask him except that I don’t do phone anymore.

As you can imagine, Barbara wasn’t all that happy about me buying a new computer. So, I bought her a Kindle. Mostly so she can read all of my novels now at Amazon.com/Kindle Books. Can you imagine? I had to buy a couple of my own novels for her Kindle! Sort of ignoble, if you ask me.

MEMORY MATTERS

We didn’t make the required number of listeners the other day, so I’m thinking we ought to try again come Sept. 3, which is a Saturday and more people will be likely home for a few minutes in the morning and have time to listen. So, come noon Eastern Time Sept. 3, if you’d tune into www.memorytunes.fm on your computer, I would be grateful. Tell everyone you know to listen for 15 in front and behind noon. Or, if you live in the Pacific Times zone, 9 a.m. That’s 10 a.m. in the Mountain Time zone. And 11 a.m. if you live in Texas or northward of that. This includes Missouri and Minnesota. Give the station a listen. If you like it – and one heck of a lot of people love it – you can listen longer and even listen again whenever you feel like it. But please have George Wilson’s Memorytunes.fm on for this grand collaborative effort to make George Wilson famous elsewhere beside with you, me, and Chuck Blore.

Just FYI: Quite a few people have already informed me that they’re going to be part of the crowd at Noon Eastern Sept. 3. I was thinking about writing a tearjerker set in radio and sending it out, with my compliments, to everyone who tells me they’re going to listen. Can I even write a tearjerker? I do not know. I ain’t the Claude Hall I usta was. If I ever was.

AIRCHECK MATTERS

It’s not fair sometimes to go back and listen to a disc jockey such as Bob Lewis (Bobaloo) on WABC-FM, New York, June 6, 1967. The show was called “Some Trust in Chariots.” The CD claims: “New improved Full Dimensional Stereo.” Don’t believe it. Bob Lewis was in great voice that day, but history hasn’t been kind to the music. And not a heck of a lot of records were even in stereo. I’m listening to something called “Benefit of Mr. Kite” and I’m wondering why in hell did Bob play that? Because it was by the Beatles? Still wasn’t any good. Music on left, drum center, vocal on right with more music. Obviously, George Martin wasn’t yet aware of what stereo was all about. This was one step better than ping pong, but….

Rather, there were too many other really good records around that should have been played. Bob was hip about the music scene, i.e., his patter about the Stone Ponys was on key, but I wouldn’t have even picked this particular tune. Again, better material around. And jingles? Reverb on Bob? Production sounds too artificial. Uptight. Like the show was taped in a studio to a script and a demanding, but uncaring director. I would have preferred Bob letting it all hang out. Because he’s good and a good jock can make the music better, so help me, if allowed to try.

The Electric Prunes, “Train for Tomorrow,” went where prunes were intended. Then Simon and Garfunkle, a mono record. Judy Collins, “Suzanne,” best and one of the few records I might have played. Grassroots, “Look Out, Girl.”

Point: I may criticize the music, but the truth is that there wasn’t a lot of great material around in 1967 for what Bob was trying to do. This was early in a culture change amidst the youth. Not a lot of people were hip to it yet.

My son John Alexander Hall, Esq., brought this CD over from Los Angeles. He will take it back on his next trip. His review of this CD would have been different than mine. John is more kind. Likes a better range of music than I do in my elderly years. Can get excited. And that’s another flaw with Bob’s show; he knows the music and talks about it well, but I find a certain excitement missing. A little too generic. I keep thinking: Rick Sklar, Rick Sklar, Rick Sklar!

Love you, Bob, but….

MISTAKE MATTERS

When falls the soldier brave,

Dead at the feet of wrong,

The poet sings and guards his grave,

With sentinels of song.

A.J. Ryan, “Sentinel Songs”

That wasn’t Timmy last week in the photo with Bobby Vee; it was Tom Murphy at KISN, Portland. I apologize enormously for the mistake. Remind me never to eat broccoli again. As punishment, I have properly flogged my left ear with a dead spaghetti noodle.

ROLLYE MATTERS

Scott St. James, Los Angeles: “That was very nice of you to print my thoughts about Don Barrett. And I'm very sorry to hear about the apparent rollercoaster ride that Rollye is having to go through. Don introduced me to her nine months or so ago. Good looking and a heck of a good storyteller.”

Rollye? Great storyteller. See “I Love Radio.” And somewhere around here, on computer, her tale of working at Billboard two or three years after I left. I’ve never printed it. Her story to tell.

DEEJAYS MATTER

Dick LaPalm just sent me the link to

http://www.thegreatdeejays.com

You’ll love it!

ROBBY MATTERS

If this guy had been around during the era of Elvis, he would have given Elvis a run for his money. The music rocks and it’s good. Robby Vee has a good voice. Something different here. Not like Elvis or Gene Vincent, but, yes, I sense something that would have driven little bobbysox girls all nuts back when girls did something like that. The CD is “Viva La Twang!” on Social Music TV Records. A couple of years old. The website is www.robbyvee.com. My son John, who grew up with Robby, brought the CD over. I especially enjoyed “Wink of an Eye” and “16 White Limousines,” but if I were programming a Top 40 radio station, I’d play the heck out of “Ali-Oop Talu.” Why? A fun record. I guess I pushed the serious song more than anyone walking on two feet during my day, but it’s probably culturally more feasible these days to play something like “Ali-Oop Talu.” I’d cut off the cute kid back and front for airplay, but the tune has it. As do much of the songs on this CD. Question: Do radio stations seek different records to build a sound these days? Or has “sound” and “target audience” disappeared along with radio?

Great on you, Robby!

LATE MATTERS

Jack Roberts, who once had a blog, is reviving it. The link is

http://wp.me/1LAK2

and you can email him via radiojack@sbcglobal.net. Good on you, Jack.

ALVIN MATTERS

I was going to take a listen to the Dave Alvin CD “Eleven Eleven,” but it will have to wait a week. Looking forward to it. Dave Alvin reminds me an awful lot of Jimmy Rabbitt. Don’t know why. But listening to these guys, just as with Tom Russell, they put their guts into their music.

Getting to be a Nairobi Trio thing, eh!

BOTOX MATTERS

Television news ain’t news anymore. It’s a chattering between views, fed on by botox babes as a rule. Most of it quite depressing. Should be labeled gutter entertainment instead of news. My beautiful bride of almost 50 years (Sept. 1, 50 for sure) and I can’t watch it. If Jon Stewart and/or Colbert aren’t on, she reads a book. If tennis, football, basketball isn’t on, I head for my laptop. The reason Apple is making so much money is because of MSNBC, CNN, and Fox. Some bright, young whippersnapper is going to discover news one day and do a real newscast and become famous.

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