I love putting together WOLX's Madison 500 Countdown. We get lots of votes, and it is interesting how much things can change fro year to year. I remember when Don't Stop Believin' from Journey used to land below 300---and then it was used in the final scene of the last Soprano's episode. It shot up to the top 100---then it was used in Glee and this year it looks like it will be in the 20 maybe even top 10 depending on how the voting goes.
Hope you get a chance to tune in. It starts Friday, May 25th, at 10am and the #1 song will come up sometime late afternoon on Monday, May 28th.
Sometimes in radio we are guilty of overplaying a good idea. Maybe that is what we have done with Super 70s Weekends. We know lots of people like them and as the program director here at WOLX I monitor the ratings pretty carefully---since we began airing Super 70s Weekends regularly our weekend ratings have increased. But as some people on Facebook have pointed out, they would like to hear something different every now and then. So this weekend is a British Invasion Weekend. That does not mean only music from the original 60s British Invasion, although there will be plenty of that with music from the Beatles, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones and more---it also means that you will hear lots of songs from the second and third waves of British artists like Elton John and Rod Stewart. Hope you enjoy it and let us know if you have any other great ideas for weekends. The British Invasion was suggest by Shannon Hintz, a regular WOLX listener.
It is January 11th and here in Madison we have had no appreciable snowfall yet. I am excited about the predicted 3-6" of snow coming in the next 24 hours. I love shoveling snow, especially at night when it is all quiet and the only thing you can hear is an occasional car crunching on the snow or the sound of my neighbors shoveling their driveways. I am sure my late father would be amazed to hear me talk about how much I love shoveling snow since it was a major point of contention in my teenage years in Michigan. I have a new shovel, a new pair of gloves and a new ice breaker...I am ready to clear a path!
One other thing about the snow, it makes watching the Packers way more fun when there is snow on the ground. I don't know why that is...but it is.
Our nine-year old son is spending a few days with his maternal grandparents in Florida and that was where he watched the Rose Bowl yesterday. As a little boy raised in Madison and possessing an intense love for football it is not surprising that he loves the Badgers. He obsesses over rankings and has still not gotten over the heartbreaking loss to Michigan State earlier in the season. We talked to him right after the game yesterday and he was inconsolable. He told me that he just wanted to see the Badgers "win one bowl game...that's all I want." I tried to take his mind off of the Badgers by pointing out that the Packers beat the Lions and ended the season at 15 and 1. His response between the sobs was "Of course they did, they never lose to the Lions at home." He also pointed out that trying to spike the ball with two seconds left was a move almost guaranteed to fail...I have to agree with him there.
As much as I love the Christmas music, I am always happy when the Classic Hits return. I spend the first couple of weeks saying "Oh Yeah, I love that song!" I hope you are enjoying it as much.
One of the more interesting things about programming Christmas music is that there are not nearly as many songs as one would assume. Seemingly there are thousands and thousands of Christmas songs and every year there are several popular Christmas albums. In my opinion, Michael Buble's new one is fantastic. The challenge is that almost all of the albums have many of the same songs like Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bells and I'll Be Home for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, these are some of the best songs ever, but it becomes hard to mix things up when every year's biggest Christmas albums pretty much have the same songs. Luckily we have You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch and Snoopy vs the Red Baron to spice it up.
I have two brothers and two sisters, all of whom are older than me---I was one of those mid-life accident kids that come along in big families. My oldest brother was nearly finished with college when I was born and he has a son only 11 months younger than me. As a kid it was always interesting to watch people's reactions when they figured out that I had a nephew almost my age---we were more like brothers than nephew and uncle. He was one of seven nephews and nieces, and now most of them have kids so there is an entirely different group of kids ranging from pre-K to college. I am thankful to come from a loving and kind family, even if they do tend to get a bit loud at times. I regularly tell people that I am the fourth-loudest of five...if you have ever spent any time in my presence you will know that I tend to get a bit loud and my oldest brother and both sisters can outdo me. My other brother did not get the loud gene.
I hope you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones.
I never listen to Mariah Carey; she's a good singer and everything, just not really my style of music and I don't think I can think of any of her songs. With one seasonal exception, All I Want for Christmas is You is a song I turn up every time we play it on WOLX. It seems to channel all the great girl-group Christmas songs with a modern twist. It is one of the highlights of this time of year and I try to make sure I hear this song as frequently as possible from now through Christmas day. Go ahead and turn it up...you are gonna' love it.
I had the Santa Claus discussion with my nine-year old son Sam a few weeks ago. He was clearly questioning the whole thing and had heard some talk at school that made him dubious. Then it became apparent last week that he thought that because he found out about Santa Claus there would be no Christmas decorations in our house and that all Christmas celebrating would cease. We had to explain to him that everything would be the same at Christmas. I felt pretty bad for him, he assumed it was all over. He seemed relieved when he found out that Christmas was still on in the Moore household and that he would still be receiving presents and participating in celebrations. Now if I can just get him to stop asking for all these Lego sets that invariably get built once and then tossed into a gigantic tub of past Lego sets.
Christmas music starts at 2pm today. We were going to wait a couple of more days, but after being inundated with e-mails, phone calls and Facebook posts we decided it was time to officially kick-off the Christmas season.
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