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ivan@stellysee.de
From | "David Bash" <bashpop@earthlink.net> |
Subject | Re: WNEW-FM |
Date | Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:50:34 -0700 |
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--- In audities@yahoogroups.com, <zoogang@...> wrote:
>
> Bash bashing WNEW-FM? You're stomping on some of my most cherished
> memories, David! :o)
Sorry, Alan. Somebody had to... :-)
Please don't get the idea that I hated everything about the station. I
loved most of the music they played, and I admired them for their integrity,
being the only rock station I knew at the time who didn't have a playlist,
basically thumbing their nose at traditional programming and saying "we'll
play whatever the hell we want" (although they did play some songs a bit too
often for my taste).
In fact, I used to tell of their integrity to my very cynical friend Bruce,
who said "yeah right, like any of them wouldn't switch over to WABC (the big
Top 40 AM station in NY at the time) if they had the chance", and proceeded
to explain how WABC jocks made ten times the $$ as WNEW-FM DJs. I refused
to believe him, taking the position that these people took the WNEW job
because they didn't want to have to suck up to the corporate machine. Bruce
said "here, I'll prove it to you", and called his good friend and DJ
"Frankie C". He told Frankie what we were talking about, and Frankie
laughed and said "I actually asked Vin Scelsa this very question a few weeks
ago, and he said "are you kidding, where do I sign???", emphasizing how much
money the ABC jocks made!
As much contempt as I'd felt for Scelsa after our phone conversation, this
news should have made me feel both glad and vindicated, but instead it made
me feel quite empty; despite my feelings about Scelsa, I really wanted to
believe that he did have integrity and that he truly believed in the music
first and foremost.
Sorry to deflate a few more myths here...
As the Persuaders so eloquently put, back in 1971, "it's a thin line between
love and hate".
David
N.P. Real Life Permanent Dreams: A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia
1965-1970, a really cool 4 CD box on Sanctuary.
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