On Wed, 25 Dec 1996, grady wrote:

> 
> Keith Weston wrote:
> 
> > A Republican catch-phrase it apt here: it's the economy, stupid.
> 
> Uh, that was a Democratic catch-phrase, but whatever.

Oooops.  Vapor lock.  I must've been thinking: "that phrase used by
Democrats to catch Republicans", hence Democratic catch-phrase, or
something.  Dyslexia: well, maybe not.  Actually, it was a careless
mistake.  Sorry.

> 
> > (with Arbitrons and Burkhart/Abrams
> > daypart/research: the concept of the consultant actually began at the old WQDR
> > and that's an interesting story in and of itself).
> 
> Really? Damn, sir, tell it. That's what we're here for. Sort of.

I'll have to dig up the details, but one of the leading developers of the
AOR format and phenom was a founder of Burkhart/Abrams (sp?) was either PD
or GM at WQDR.  I'll have to go dig up my newspaper articles on the
subjejct.  It's been so long that I forget the details.  However, suffice
it to say, that to some degree, AOR consulting sprang up from "this town",
erm, I mean "the triangle".

> 
> [I said:]
> > >Do I *wish* that G-105 would shake off the trappings of evil
> > >nationally-owned FM radio hell? No! All my statements don't add up to
> > >some naive desire on my part for commercial radio to be different. Fuck
> > >'em. There are too many good college radio stations in this town.
> > >
> > 
> > That's being rather provincial, don't you think?  Which "town"?  Chapel Hill?
> > Last time I looked there was only one college station and one public one.  But,
> > perhaps I am reading you too closely. 
> 
> Sorry. Regular a.m.c-h readers will recognize that I often use "this
> town" as shorthand for the Triangle. For some reason my fingers prefer
> to type one instead of the other. 

I realized the fine distinction, but wanted to make sure.

> 
> > Of course, there are other town's
> > stations "we" can recieve.... But, I think I hear an undercurrent of
> > provinciality which shows up in the belief that somehow music made *here*
> > [where ever *here* is] is somehow inheriently worthy of disproprotionate
> > praise, press and airplay.
> 
> Uh, strike the words "provinciality" and "disproportionate" and you'd be
> right. I'd like to remind you of a couple of things: 
> 
> 1) This is alt.music.chapel-hill. If you're going to find a bias towards
> local music *anywhere* in the world, you're gonna find it here. It's one
> of the main raisons d'etre of this group.
> 

Yes, true.  A bias does, however, connote little more than a strongly held
belief and beliefs qua beliefs can be false, subject to misinterpretation,
or other variegations of rationalisation...etc...

> 2) I obviously have a different attitude towards music than you do. I
> *do* believe local music is more deserving of my attention than other
> music, because it's being made in my community, by people who are my
> neighbors, and whose experiences are therefore often more closely in
> tune with my own. 

Yikes.  That's a somewhat frightening, or at least, troubling statement if
you deconstruct it and really think about it. 

> 
> In addition, local music provides the unique opportunity to watch
> someone's art grow and change from a very early point. And that process
> fascinates me more than just getting the end-result of a handful of
> 3-minute songs. If all goes well, you get the fun of watching the songs
> develop and grow, *and* you get the songs at the end.
> 

Granted.  I tend to be more interested in the end-project than its
development.  And, I tend to by and large be much more interested in the
record, the document than the live performance.  I am in total agreement
with Glenn Gould on the issue of live performance, even for popular music
forms.

> But the BUSINESS as a whole is so product-oriented that you can't really
> get that experience unless you dig in on a local level. Luckily for us,
> we've got one of the most dynamic and entertaining local music scenes in
> the country.
> 

It does seem that way when you are deeply immersed in it.  I just think
without some sorts of corrective it's too easy to over-inflate the value
of the immediate.  Truely worthwhile music transcends the local,
transcends the music made by your friends, transcends communitarian
experiences.  If anything, knowing the people who make the music is a
liability, a distraction from the music qua music. 

> So, uh, sure. Provincialism is a mean-spirited way to say
> "communitarianism." I prefer the latter term.
> 
> Grady
> 
Thanks, Grady.  I've enjoyed the exchange.  I'm glad I'm not like the
"like-minded" people on this list.  I expect to continue to contribute,
though.

jkw