The Schism
Thu., May 22, 11:38 AM
No, I’m not talking about the Catholic Church. Years ago in college, the term entered our general vocabulary as a joke. At Hillel, a Jewish college organization that — at our school, at least — offered the option of kosher meals, a disagreement had arisen regarding who was cooking or what was served. I don’t know exactly, because that was not one of my activities. I went there for folk dancing, or music, or just to study.
Anyhow, the dispute had reached the stage where there were two groups cooking separately. A “nonregular” came in one day, heard about the problem and exclaimed, “There’s a schism in the synagogue!” It struck us all as very funny and certainly broke the tension, though it did nothing to solve the disagreement… I digress.
Perhaps you remember my explanation about my kind of music, also known by such terms as American standards. About ten years ago, I was happy to discover The Music of Your Life, a satellite service that was played on my local radio station. As time went on, I noticed that there were two kinds of hosts on this service — professional hosts and celebrity hosts.
My preference was for the professional guys, not only because I felt they had a greater breadth of knowledge, but because the celebrities didn’t seem to know what was being played (their engineers took care of that). One time in particular, a celebrity host (who will remain nameless) was talking, at great length, about Andy Russell. Andy Russell was a popular singer in the 1940’s; one of his biggest hits, as the host mentioned, was “Bésame Mucho.” (Maybe you heard it on American Idol last year.)
Well, after all that talk, I expected the next recording I heard would be Andy Russell’s “Bésame Mucho.” If not that one, I thought they might play Russell singing something else, or even a different singer doing “Bésame Mucho.” Instead there was a Celine Dion recording, because obviously there was no communication between the host and his producer; he just talked about whatever was on his mind. I’m not really big on celebrities.
I became aware that they were picking up more “big names,” and then I began missing my old favorites, one after another. The MoYL web site was no help. I do realize that, in running any radio station, you have to sell air time; to do that, you have to demonstrate that you have an audience for the sponsor. Maybe the “big names,” seemed more attractive. I was no longer listening as closely; I wanted the music but not the talking heads.
Now, as I’ve mentioned, my local radio station does not run the satellite service 24/7. They pick up independent shows, like Dick Robinson’s “American Standards by the Sea” or a locally produced show, “Once Upon a Bandstand.” And I’m still not listening that hard, until I hear the voice of a professional host, Chuck Southcutt. I always liked him, and I dropped an e-mail to say, basically, I’m glad to hear you again. He did answer — from a different address.
I still didn’t get it right away; my station has changed to a different service. “The Greatest Music Ever Made” is also American standards, but it is not a copy of “Music of Your Life.” There has been a schism. (Aha!)
You know it’s all marketing — who is your audience and who will be your sponsors? After all, the face of the Baby Boomers has changed over the last ten years; an oldies station may be one that plays the Beatles. When I heard an ad for a retro CD of Journey, I don’t know which surprised me more — that Journey had aged that much or that I recognized the music before it was identified. (I told you my tastes were eclectic.)
Wikipedia goes into great detail about the differences among definitions of American Standards, most of which is irrelevant. I am amused that the division has taken place, just because I know someone, somewhere, still recognizes me as a valid audience. But I think I need to change my template.
