Billie Holiday on WKCR

[Christiern]

My point is, if WKCR's fundraising falters in "ideal" form once in a while, big deal... they aren't professionals at it, never pretended to be & I'd rather THAT then...

That's not much of an excuse. Back in the mid-60's, I was running a listener-sponsored station in NYC. We were in desperate need of $25,000 and faced the station becoming commercial if we didn't raise that amount rather quickly. I asked myself what the listeners tuned in for, why many of them subscribed at $12.50 a year, and drew the obvious conclusion that it was all about our programming. So, I decided to take it away until we had the needed money. In the middle of our even newscast, I broke in and announced our need, adding that we would not return to regular programming until we had $25,000 in pledges. To make long story short, our listeners came through and--guess what--we received $10,000 above the amount pledged.

All this to say that we were rank amateurs when it came to fund-raising. In fact, we did not have the advantage of a model, as WKCR has, for we were the first to perform marathon on-air fund-raising. I did not learn that until many years later, when a writer sought me out as "the father of on-the-air funding pleas." I don't know if that is so, and it surely is not something to be proud of, but we did succeed. $25,000 is a laughable amount today, but it meant a lot to a little station in 1965--it may even be why WBAI is still going strong as a non-commercial, listener-sponsored station.

Yes, we were probably every bit as obnoxious as Phil was the other night, but we performed our task with humor and we attracted amazing people who came in a pitched with us. Here are a couple of items from the NYC, who afterwards plugged us in an editorial.

[Lazaro Vega]

I see...It would be nice to be a privately funded station, to have as much money as needs be to do live radio with bands that need to fill a night whenever their need arises....working towards that at our end...and yes, if they have to fundraise to stay on the air, then stay on the air -- By all means.

[Lazaro Vega]

Ah, heard Schapp shlep this afternoon right before 5. Right. When Sidney Bechet's grand neice is contributing to your station you can say, "Bubber, we're not in Washington anymore."

He did a great job, then went into Lady in Satin, all of it -- alternate takes, studio talk.

"And Bub, I don't think we're going back."

That type of radio IS rare. We've done similar things in that once upon a time a week of broadcasting radio waves that carried all of Bird's Dial Recordings has long since past Neptune in their flight to infinity. In the terrestrial human realm we heard incredulous voices over the telephone, people helping us, nice people calling to say, "Hey, you're playing the same song again." If you can gather a large enough group of people who "get" the alternate take is one more window into an artist's conception of the song as it turns into a commercial artifact, well, then you woke up in New York.

And Sunday, Tavern on the Green, what will the people talk about?

"Teacher! I know! John Pizzarelli!?"

"No, those people were from Connecticut. Anyone else?"

And using the author of a jazz book on the air to promote the station is an exciting resonation from New York's jazz aorta where those "Main Vein" taps save another piece of soul.

"Call me when you get some money," Amri Baraka said over the coat slung from his shoulder as he walked down the Holiday Inn hallway towards another room after another night.

Too bad I blew discretionary cash on the election.

Bet on Black. That sounds like a good logo line for a jazz radio station's fund drive.

Nightly.

[AllenLowe]

Funny Schaap story: I asked Al Haig if he would do Schaap's show; he said to me:

"I did it once; I tell him I made such and such a recording on such and such a date; he tells, me, 'no you didn't, you made it on this date, not that date.' I figure, he knows everything already, so why the hell does he need me?"

[Christiern]

I have heard him do the same sort of thing to another musician--correcting his birthday.

I wonder what that Billie book will be like. Phil keeps referring to it as "my book," but there are two co-authors. The other guys plug the book as a "hand book," and always mention the other two authors. The funniest (saddest, perhaps) thing is the Phil repeatedly tells listeners that $250 will get the the "deluxe edition" and that he will sign it--in the same breath, he mentions the recent auction at Lincoln Center Jazz, pointing out that some books sold for thousands of dollars and that "his" book, which will be "definitive" and--in the "deluxe edition"--"rare," will very likely be extremely valuable in years to come. Unbelievable!

Am I the only one who thinks devoting 15 days and 15 nights to Billie Holiday is excessive? I love Billie, but hearing the sam recordings over and over again, day in and day out, soon ceases to be a pleasure. Then, too, I think that playing every little scrap (including some very unfortunate ones) does the artist an injustice--there comes a time when one has to wonder where the line between tribute and exploitation lies.

[ghost of miles]

Am I the only one who thinks devoting 15 days and 15 nights to Billie Holiday is excessive?

No. And she is my favorite jazz singer.

Both times I've tuned in I've heard lots of talk-talk and no music. I have a higher appetite for good jazz talk than the radio "average" that we're told we should observe (70-30 music-to-talk ratio), but nope... the only WKCR festival for which I've been grateful was the Grimes 100-hour deal. Very cool, and I am grateful for WKCR, but... I rarely listen.

Some folks love 'em (the festivals), and I respect that. I also have respect for WBGO, but frankly, when it comes to Internet listening I'm more drawn to WGBH out of Boston... they seem to find a nice balance between WBGO's increasing commercial slickness (whenever I've tuned in recently, anyway) and WKCR's over-the-top academic-cram delivery.

[indigo]

Chris, earlier I rose to Phil's defense .... or, more accurately, defense of his presence on the station. Although some of the points I made may well be correct, I would now rather be wrong -- Phil has finally gone over the top as far as I'm concerned. After hearing the endlessly repeated references to "my book" and his cheap-trick literal scream for help in the middle of "Embraceable You," I went ballistic. I started to pick up the phone to call and tell them to get that guy off the air, but I held back and instead waited to see what the reaction would be. To my great amazement he generated a huge amount of pledges in a few hours. Could it be that a large segment of the audience likes the sensationalist talk-radio approach?

Yes, 15 days is excessive, or so I thought at the outset. After a week of fairly steady listening, I'm surprised to find myself still enjoying it, although I'm now turning it off for hours at a time.

Thanks for the funny story, Allen.

[Brad]

As much as I may like him, what he did to Embraceable You yesterday was unforgiveable. I wasn't happy.

[Harold_Z]

As much as I may like him, what he did to Embraceable You yesterday was unforgiveable. I wasn't happy.

Agreed.