The Best/Worst Moments of last night's show

[Steve of Bloomington]

I wonder how often people whose voices are naturally off call in and get the heave ho for doing a voice. Surely it's happened a few times.

[Jason from Huntsville, AL]

I'm pretty sure the doofus doing the muppet voice asking Tom about the fund-raiser was Zilch, had the same bone-headed inflection and lack of talent oozing from the voice. Also, I feel like I pretty much only get on here to talk about him, I clearly need to reflect on my life.

I thought it was Z*** as well.

Also, I understand your concern. The M** H***** plague walks your streets, not just your airwaves/Internet. You're the first line in the war. Z*** is pulling the whole city's rep down.

You have my sympathy.

[RVARichmond]

I'm pretty sure the doofus doing the muppet voice asking Tom about the fund-raiser was Zilch, had the same bone-headed inflection and lack of talent oozing from the voice. Also, I feel like I pretty much only get on here to talk about him, I clearly need to reflect on my life.

I thought it was Z*** as well.

Also, I understand your concern. The M** H***** plague walks your streets, not just your airwaves/Internet. You're the first line in the war. Z*** is pulling the whole city's rep down.

You have my sympathy.

Thank you, Mr. Jason. And to think, people were finally forgetting we were the capitol of the Confederacy.

[Dan of Orange]

I feel that Darth Zach from Richmond was at least one of the callers from last week and that the South will rise up again...on a anti-*it *a***e tide of sentiment.

[BadGuyZero]

Oh yeah, another obnoxious thing about the Classic Rock attitude is that a huge proportion of the music it venerates blows chunks.

The thing I don't understand about Classic Rock stations is the unpredictable playlists. The format is essentially the smoldering remains of the Album-Oriented Rock, a format that prided itself on playing "deep cuts" that Top 40 stations didn't play [as well as many artists outside the Top 40 format]. But when the on-air person at the classic rock station tells you there's some Led Zeppelin on the way after the five minute commercial break you can pretty much guarantee it'll be one of these ten songs:

• Over the Hills and Far Away
• Communication Breakdown
• Black Dog
• Dazed and Confused
• Whole Lotta Love
• Good Times Bad Times
• Kasmir
• Immigrant Song
• D'yer Mak'er
• Stairway to Heaven

There's maybe another five songs that receive semi-frequent play. But out of the group's seventy-three songs on their studio albums [including Coda] these are the ten you're most likely to hear. Imagine if the local UHF station only aired twenty different episodes of Seinfeld or Star Trek in some random order. It was only after a decade-plus of not listening to commercial [and most independent/public] radio stations that I've been able to fully appreciate Led Zeppelin and some of the other groups that are Classic Rock radio staples. Factor in that they don't seem to play anything released after 1987 [I use this year as I have heard material from U2's The Joshua Tree on Classic Rock radio] and it's a pretty confined format. By comparison Top 40 is more open-minded since artists come and go from that format.

The Alternative/Modern Rock format is even worse. Every time I happen to hear "The Edge" [as the station in the D/FW area calls itself] I hear three or four songs from the 1982-1995 era for every new "cutting edge" song. If you want to hear Bush there's no longer any need to head to the nearest strip club; just flip to your local Alternative station. "Oldies" radio seems to have the largest playlist of any radio format and seems to add more new [well, new to the format anyway] songs than the other formats.

Ultimately this is the direct result of Clear Channel, CBS, Entercom and a couple of others amassing huge media conglomerates that attempt to provide the "atmosphere" of our lives whether it be via radio, television, outdoor advertisements, etc. "It's all about the money, man; not the art!"

And that's one of the main reasons why I love and financially support WFMU. I hear stuff I'll never hear on another radio station. The Best Show is a gem. You may not fully appreciate it until you're subjected to your local Classic Rock station's "morning zoo" doing the same trite, hackneyed material they were doing 30/35 years ago during the "glory days" of AOR ["Man, we could play whatever song we wanted to!"].

Apologies for rambling/ranting.

:steps off soapbox:

EDIT: Boy did I fail at using the "quote" function.  :rollseyes:

[MiddleBro]

I'm pretty sure the doofus doing the muppet voice asking Tom about the fund-raiser was Zilch, had the same bone-headed inflection and lack of talent oozing from the voice. Also, I feel like I pretty much only get on here to talk about him, I clearly need to reflect on my life.

I thought it was Z*** as well.

Also, I understand your concern. The M** H***** plague walks your streets, not just your airwaves/Internet. You're the first line in the war. Z*** is pulling the whole city's rep down.

You have my sympathy.

AAARRRGGGHHH!  That my given name (an awesome one) has to be treated as a curse-word, because of one bad apple spoiling the bunch is infuriating.  That's the real main reason I called into The Rest Show episode.  It stinks, too, because this dope actually spells it the right way.  I grew up with Morris and Lego Maniac jokes galore.  I'd trade those, in a heartbeat, for what this schmoe has done to my name in the FOT community.


   -Zach (Big Z/Z-Man/Wally's Human/Whatever Else)

[Steve of Bloomington]

Oh yeah, another obnoxious thing about the Classic Rock attitude is that a huge proportion of the music it venerates blows chunks.

The thing I don't understand about Classic Rock stations is the unpredictable playlists. The format is essentially the smoldering remains of the Album-Oriented Rock, a format that prided itself on playing "deep cuts" that Top 40 stations didn't play [as well as many artists outside the Top 40 format]. But when the on-air person at the classic rock station tells you there's some Led Zeppelin on the way after the five minute commercial break you can pretty much guarantee it'll be one of these ten songs:

• Over the Hills and Far Away
• Communication Breakdown
• Black Dog
• Dazed and Confused
• Whole Lotta Love
• Good Times Bad Times
• Kasmir
• Immigrant Song
• D'yer Mak'er
• Stairway to Heaven

There's maybe another five songs that receive semi-frequent play. But out of the group's seventy-three songs on their studio albums [including Coda] these are the ten you're most likely to hear. Imagine if the local UHF station only aired twenty different episodes of Seinfeld or Star Trek in some random order. It was only after a decade-plus of not listening to commercial [and most independent/public] radio stations that I've been able to fully appreciate Led Zeppelin and some of the other groups that are Classic Rock radio staples. Factor in that they don't seem to play anything released after 1987 [I use this year as I have heard material from U2's The Joshua Tree on Classic Rock radio] and it's a pretty confined format. By comparison Top 40 is more open-minded since artists come and go from that format.

The Alternative/Modern Rock format is even worse. Every time I happen to hear "The Edge" [as the station in the D/FW area calls itself] I hear three or four songs from the 1982-1995 era for every new "cutting edge" song. If you want to hear Bush there's no longer any need to head to the nearest strip club; just flip to your local Alternative station. "Oldies" radio seems to have the largest playlist of any radio format and seems to add more new [well, new to the format anyway] songs than the other formats.

Ultimately this is the direct result of Clear Channel, CBS, Entercom and a couple of others amassing huge media conglomerates that attempt to provide the "atmosphere" of our lives whether it be via radio, television, outdoor advertisements, etc. "It's all about the money, man; not the art!"

And that's one of the main reasons why I love and financially support WFMU. I hear stuff I'll never hear on another radio station. The Best Show is a gem. You may not fully appreciate it until you're subjected to your local Classic Rock station's "morning zoo" doing the same trite, hackneyed material they were doing 30/35 years ago during the "glory days" of AOR ["Man, we could play whatever song we wanted to!"].

Apologies for rambling/ranting.

:steps off soapbox:

I've got to admit WFMU is more or less the only radio station I listen to ever anymore, w/ the exception of occasionally listening to Radio Disney because my daughter likes it. When I had a long commute, I had XM radio, so between that and podcasts and streaming radio I'm kind of surprised big commercial radio stations continue to exist at all. I'm even more amazed to hear they still exist than to see a video store. I don't particularly miss or feel nostalgic for them at all, and share a loathing for 'modern rock' as the most loathsome format by many miles (in part perhaps due to being most involved and obsessed with music during the early and mid 90s when the modern rock format got started and I felt bad for all those kids listening to really bad music that was kind of a farcical imitation of (or alternative to) great stuff that was out there at the time). Oh geez look at the time.

[Sashamak]

Modern rock station's Led Zeppelin is Nirvana and they'll maybe play 5 different Nirvana songs to those 10 Led Zeppelin songs. I personally hate my local modern rock station(the Edge as well from Toronto) and modern rock is really stretching what they play. They'll play that stupid "A face A laugh!" song that soccer commercials play or AWOL Nation and garbage like that.  Before I discovered WFMU, I did not know what Pavement, Sleater Kinney, or Dinosaur Jr. was and I hate myself a little for not finding out about them sooner but part of that is just that the modern rock outlets were garbage and will always be garbage and will always play Stone Temple Pilots or Muse. And even with the Canadian content law, they'll ignore bands like Fucked Up(You can totally play Queen of Hearts on the radio) and other great bands. And this radio station produces 10 part oral histories on Our Lady Peace and Finger 11.

[Flood]

So, who's this Alex character? He called in saying he was calling from Detroit @ 2:38:34, then called back as Alex from Anchorage @ 2:47:57. I remember that he's been calling a couple of times in the past, but the only specific instance I could identify was as "Alex in Bitters, Arkansas" @ 0:36:39 from the January 31 episode.

FWIW, he's a regular caller on Shut Up Weirdo as "George"…

The callers who call all shows are really freaky. Until I listened to old Best Show episodes, I had no idea who the Kansas creep was that called into Seven Second Delay a couple of times. I also didn't fully get the way that Ken made fun of him.

Spike is one of the more normal "all FMU show" callers and that should tell you all you need to know right there.

He didn't used to be like that, though. He didn't start calling 7SD until a couple of months ago, for instance. Ken has also developed a strategy against him: If Spike is the first caller, Ken will hang up on him instantly.

[Chad from Oregon]

One day, Clay Pigeon may happen upon Spike wandering the streets and proceed to innocently ask him about whatever happens to be happening in the world at the moment. What's more likely to happen is that Spike will "find" him first and follow him around for a few hours.

Or days.

[Flood]

The mentioning of Doc Sarno. I remember Ken recommending his book Mind Over Back Pain years ago.

[Christina]

I just laughed myself silly at the Robert Klein stuff w/Matt Walsh on the phone -- "Remember how he couldn't stop his leg?"

[Christina]

I just laughed myself silly at the Robert Klein stuff w/Matt Walsh on the phone -- "Remember how he couldn't stop his leg?"

PS I cannot believe Tom just made an Elephant's Memory reference. Jesus.

[break]

Gary Boosey. 

[Drew D]

"caucasian refuse...Newbridge to the bone."

 Great to have a Ratmen call to tie in with Opening day tomorrow.