Rachel Maddow, who has done a tremendous job both as a guest and guest-host on Keith Countdown with Keith Olbermann, will now follow him on the cable channel with her own show. Great move by MSNBC.
Where rock returns?
This is interesting and probably shows my age, but WNEW has been revived as a high-def radio station broadcasting on HD Radio and on the Web.
WNEW 102.7 FM in New York, which billed itself as the place where rock lives, was the place — and I mean THE place — for rock ‘n’ roll, especially rock that ignored traditional boundaries. When I was in high school, which was at the tail end of the station’s real heyday, you could hear The Beatles and Led Zeppelin mixed with The Vapors, Jim Carroll and Elvis Costello (this was back when he wasn’t considered mainstream). The mix may not seem that revolutionary now, but consider how rare it is — outside of satellite radio — to hear Kings of Leon, The Fratellis and Art Brut, Zep, the Stones and early Aerosmith on the same playlist.
That cross-pollination was encouraged by a management that valued music and creativity.
That came to an end as the ’80s wore on — the station would continue as a shell of itself until the late 1990s — as the changes in the radio world, the return to extremely segregated playlists and an aversion to experimentation, a devotion to marketing at the expense of the music, replaced the creative impulse. The station moved through various rock formats — classic rock, “new” rock, etc. — that gutted what made the station so vital.
The new technology — the expanded HD spectrum, Web broadcasting — may allow an endrun around the marketers and bring back what made WNEW the station it was.
Grassroots: Energy crises
My Progressive Populist column — on energy policy and the presidential race — is up.
More on race and the race
Just to add an exclamation point to my earlier posts and column on race and the race, check out this Reuters piece posted on The Raw Story:
Elements of Obama’s biography including the fact that his father was from Kenya and he grew up in Hawaii make him seem strange to some voters, said David Leege, emeritus professor of politics at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Other factors making it harder for Obama were reservations about his race and concern he would use presidential powers to favor African Americans over whites when distributing government resources, Leege said.
In recent elections, nearly 20 percent of voters were susceptible to subtle appeals to race, though a smaller percentage were repelled by those kinds of appeals, Leege said.
“The reason the polls are close is partly because of the sense of antagonism that Obama might serve interests other than white interests and the doubt about: ‘Should you really take a risk on someone who is very different from us,'” Leege said.
The day the music died
Jerry Wexler, one of the most important music producers in the history of American popular music, died early this morning.
Paul Wexler told the AP his father’s death was “a tremendous loss.”
“The number of artists that he was involved with and helped significantly or just made great records with, the list is almost unbelievable,” Paul Wexler added. “And many of them are gone now.”
Wexler earned his reputation as a music industry giant while a partner at Atlantic Records with another legendary music figure, the late Ahmet Ertegun. Atlantic provided an outlet for the groundbreaking work of African-American performers in the 1950s and 1960s. Later, it was a home to rock icons like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. He later helped Dylan win his first Grammy by producing his 1979 “Slow Train Coming” album.
Wexler helped boost the careers of both the “King of Soul,” Charles, and the “Queen of Soul,” Franklin. Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge were among the other R&B greats who benefited from Wexler’s deft recording touch. He also produced Dusty Springfield’s classic “Dusty in Memphis,” considered a masterpiece of “blue-eyed” soul.
Wexler’s influence on music can best be summed up, I think, by this quote from Solomon Burke:
“He loved black music, R&B music and rhythm and blues was his foundation. He had a feeling for it, he had the knack to keep it going in his heart and recognize the talent that he felt was real,” Burke told the AP after learning of his death. “Jerry Wexler didn’t change the sound of America, he put the sound to the public. He open the doors and windows to the radio stations … and made everybody listen.”
