The mysteries of Providence, part I
Jan. 27th, 2003 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupThe Ghost Jazz Station
From 3 pm to sometime in the morning on weekdays, and all day and night on weekends, 88.1 on the FM dial in Providence has an all-jazz format. (In the morning's it's current Latino music.) We like it because at least half of the jazz -- almost every other song, with clocklike regularity -- is silly 1930s stuff or entertaining 1940s stuff. It is something to listen to when the college stations are broadcasting hockey games or whatever.
The other half of the list is mostly torch songs or weak renditions of classics by more recent groups. They make me appreciate anew Kenneth's dad saying that there hasn't been any good music since Jolson died. (That's 1949, for the record.) What I personally take this to mean is that there has been good music since 1949, but that old folks' music made after that date is indeed terribly derivative and cheesy. One particular favorite from this station is a really bad version of Cole Porter's "Some Gentlemen." (I amuse myself and tick off the Mrs. by coming in and just randomly scatting, "They just liiike -- to KICK IT!")
Anyway, the thing about this station is that there are no announcers. Ever. Occasionally, between songs, they will play a public service announcement, or a standard promo: "New England's finest jazz. On WELH. The Wheeler School. 88.1, Providence." But there is no indication that there is a real human being in the studio. They also play the same songs over and over again in a given week. In addition to the aforementioned "KICK IT!", they really like "Flyin' Home," a few Benny Goodman tracks, and Robbie Williams doing "Ain't That a Kick in the Head."
So we wonder whether this station has a person in it, or whether it's just someone's CD collection being played at random by a computer. I imagine two CD trays, one with recordings from before 1950 and the other after 1950, automatically alternating between them on "shuffle" mode. Or maybe they just pick up a Jazz Music Satellite feed and rebroadcast it.
From 3 pm to sometime in the morning on weekdays, and all day and night on weekends, 88.1 on the FM dial in Providence has an all-jazz format. (In the morning's it's current Latino music.) We like it because at least half of the jazz -- almost every other song, with clocklike regularity -- is silly 1930s stuff or entertaining 1940s stuff. It is something to listen to when the college stations are broadcasting hockey games or whatever.
The other half of the list is mostly torch songs or weak renditions of classics by more recent groups. They make me appreciate anew Kenneth's dad saying that there hasn't been any good music since Jolson died. (That's 1949, for the record.) What I personally take this to mean is that there has been good music since 1949, but that old folks' music made after that date is indeed terribly derivative and cheesy. One particular favorite from this station is a really bad version of Cole Porter's "Some Gentlemen." (I amuse myself and tick off the Mrs. by coming in and just randomly scatting, "They just liiike -- to KICK IT!")
Anyway, the thing about this station is that there are no announcers. Ever. Occasionally, between songs, they will play a public service announcement, or a standard promo: "New England's finest jazz. On WELH. The Wheeler School. 88.1, Providence." But there is no indication that there is a real human being in the studio. They also play the same songs over and over again in a given week. In addition to the aforementioned "KICK IT!", they really like "Flyin' Home," a few Benny Goodman tracks, and Robbie Williams doing "Ain't That a Kick in the Head."
So we wonder whether this station has a person in it, or whether it's just someone's CD collection being played at random by a computer. I imagine two CD trays, one with recordings from before 1950 and the other after 1950, automatically alternating between them on "shuffle" mode. Or maybe they just pick up a Jazz Music Satellite feed and rebroadcast it.
