I heard it on the radio.
So I'm in the unemployment office in Glendale awaiting my interview, when this gentleman I shall call Patrick strikes up a conversation with me. He's been out of work for just a month. He used to work in radio and is now unemployed. He used to live in Nashville. He tells me that he thinks what ruined country music is the perception by marketers and ad execs that only women buy country music, or that only women buy the products advertised on country music stations, meant that the records execs of Nashville created a market of soft-pop middle of the road "country". I tell him my theory is that country music became married to the whole idea of "God and Country", which meant that all the good songs about hard drinking, divorce, infidelity, and jail time went right out the window unless they could make it known that they were kidding or unless it had some moral at the end of the story. All contemporary country sounds like a truck commercial.
I told him that I went to school with Roger Miller's son (who now live and works in Nashville), and we both burst into the first verse of "King of the Road" together. I told him I thought there was still some good country out there and that none of it came out of Nashville.
He complained to me about how (he was an older chap) when he was a kid there was top 40 music which would offer a wide spectrum of rock, pop, motown, country etc. with no distinction among them...that because of the fracturing of the market into specific genres, with targeted advertising for specific groups that radio has died.
I suggest to Patrick that this is true, but then pointed out that for the adventurous there is always college radio with no play lists and no commercials. I then added that now with the proliferation of music on the internet and cable radio that there is really no end to the diversity in music...it's just not found on the radio. It may be harder for the artist to make a living but for the avid consumer of music times have never been more interesting or exciting.
He worked for Clearchannel, he tells me. He was in their talk radio division.
He next tells me that he helped launch the career of Rush Limbaugh.
He remembered, the guys saying there's this new guy that'll have his talk radio show and you may think he's crazy, but just give him a chance. Hear what he has to say, he's kind of interesting. "Oh, really". I say. He told me that the first month, maybe the first two months there were suddenly hundreds of angry phone calls of people saying, "Who is this jerk? Get this nut off the air", and then it got quiet. Then all the positive phone calls started coming in, and all these people going "he's got a point, there". Patrick said, "I watched him blow up all of a sudden, overnight this guy became huge."
He seemed so proud. All I could think to say was, "I wish that had never happened."
"Just think", he said, "Rush opened the door, paved the way for guys like Sean Hannity. It became a totally different ballgame than your grandpa's talk radio of reading the weather and big band music."
"I really wish that had never happened," was again all that I could think to say. I wish I could have been clever or quick or even a little sarcastic but I couldn't. How many times I wished I could just erase the last eight years, and here this guy, like me, was in the unemployment office filling out his paperwork... waiting his turn. I got called away then for my appointment then but it left me weirded out.
Tonight I listened to Barack Obama's speech on the radio. It was moving and inspiring, and a wonderfully odd counterpoint to the strange encounter with the ex-Clearchannel guy, who sold his soul to the machine and is now himself out of work. Obama talked about the unemployed and I thought of how the guy who helped launch Rush Limbaugh is out of a job, and I really felt bad for him. I listened to Obama and was really moved that perhaps the tide has turned. I can see the old ways fading away. I heard for the first time in my life, the Democratic party actually unite around something... anything, and it was kind of amazing. History is happening, regardless of the outcome. It's never happened like this before. It is happening right now. I heard it.
I told him that I went to school with Roger Miller's son (who now live and works in Nashville), and we both burst into the first verse of "King of the Road" together. I told him I thought there was still some good country out there and that none of it came out of Nashville.
He complained to me about how (he was an older chap) when he was a kid there was top 40 music which would offer a wide spectrum of rock, pop, motown, country etc. with no distinction among them...that because of the fracturing of the market into specific genres, with targeted advertising for specific groups that radio has died.
I suggest to Patrick that this is true, but then pointed out that for the adventurous there is always college radio with no play lists and no commercials. I then added that now with the proliferation of music on the internet and cable radio that there is really no end to the diversity in music...it's just not found on the radio. It may be harder for the artist to make a living but for the avid consumer of music times have never been more interesting or exciting.
He worked for Clearchannel, he tells me. He was in their talk radio division.
He next tells me that he helped launch the career of Rush Limbaugh.
He remembered, the guys saying there's this new guy that'll have his talk radio show and you may think he's crazy, but just give him a chance. Hear what he has to say, he's kind of interesting. "Oh, really". I say. He told me that the first month, maybe the first two months there were suddenly hundreds of angry phone calls of people saying, "Who is this jerk? Get this nut off the air", and then it got quiet. Then all the positive phone calls started coming in, and all these people going "he's got a point, there". Patrick said, "I watched him blow up all of a sudden, overnight this guy became huge."
He seemed so proud. All I could think to say was, "I wish that had never happened."
"Just think", he said, "Rush opened the door, paved the way for guys like Sean Hannity. It became a totally different ballgame than your grandpa's talk radio of reading the weather and big band music."
"I really wish that had never happened," was again all that I could think to say. I wish I could have been clever or quick or even a little sarcastic but I couldn't. How many times I wished I could just erase the last eight years, and here this guy, like me, was in the unemployment office filling out his paperwork... waiting his turn. I got called away then for my appointment then but it left me weirded out.
Tonight I listened to Barack Obama's speech on the radio. It was moving and inspiring, and a wonderfully odd counterpoint to the strange encounter with the ex-Clearchannel guy, who sold his soul to the machine and is now himself out of work. Obama talked about the unemployed and I thought of how the guy who helped launch Rush Limbaugh is out of a job, and I really felt bad for him. I listened to Obama and was really moved that perhaps the tide has turned. I can see the old ways fading away. I heard for the first time in my life, the Democratic party actually unite around something... anything, and it was kind of amazing. History is happening, regardless of the outcome. It's never happened like this before. It is happening right now. I heard it.