Indy Theatre Habit

Well, color me embarrassed:   

I have been grumbling for a while now about the fact that out of the 50-some theatres in the Indianapolis area, only three or four bother emailing me press releases of their season announcements, even though I have said many times that I will post season announcements here on Indy Theatre Habit.  I’ve been growling at my house plants and saying things like “Who does a person have to sleep with around here to get on every theatre’s media distribution list?” and “Do you think they’ll take me seriously as a theatre writer after I’ve been doing it for FIVE YEARS, since two years is obviously not long enough?”

This morning when I went to the “Mailbox Monday” folder in my email to pull up a photo to go with a review I’m working on, I found not one, but TWO press releases about theatre season announcements that I had put in there and forgotten about.  Drat! 

I apologize.  I promise to post each of them immediately following this post so at least they will be here when someone looks in the “Season Announcement” category.

Also color me annoyed:

I have six radio stations “bookmarked” on my car radio – two talk/classical/blues/jazz stations, two country stations, and two oldies stations.  I flip back and forth between them depending on my mood.

My favorite oldies station is (was?) 107.9, aka The Track. I “met” and was attracted to host Greg Browning when I saw him in an Indy Fringe show a couple summers ago and ever since then I have enjoyed listening to his sexy voice and funny patter in the mornings on my way to my day job.  I even went out of my way to request his friendship on Facebook (and I almost NEVER request people’s friendship on Facebook; I wait for them to ask me.) 

On weekend nights on my way to and from theatres, I like the sexy-in-a-different-way voice and nightclub-y mix of a host called “J.C.”  

I also like the fact that some anonymous woman matter-of-factly states the name and artist at the end of every song.  As far as I know, no other radio station (or iPhone app) offers that.  You’d think that since it is an oldies station I would know the name and artist of every song, but I often don’t, especially since they actually play a broader mix than just oldies.  Hearing that info at the end of the song is much better than trying to read it on the radio screen while I’m driving (although I do appreciate radio stations that offer that service, too.)  It’s fun to try to remember the name and artist while I’m listening to the song, and comforting to know that I can count on being told whether I was right or not at the end.

The Track plays (played?) too much Fleetwood Mac and not enough Aretha Franklin, but that is true of the other oldies station I listen to, too.  Nobody’s perfect.  I accept that.  That one quibble is why I have more than one oldies station bookmarked.

But the head honchos at my favorite oldies station have apparently fired all of my favorite DJs and replaced the station’s formerly just-right music mix with… 24-7 Christmas music.

I like Christmas music very much…the week before Christmas.  I do not care to listen to it in November.  Or January.

If there was some kind of announcement about a programming change on the radio station itself, I missed it.  Also, I have had such a hectic week this past week that I haven’t had a moment in which to look around on the Internet for an official announcement or news coverage.  So…I probably shouldn’t be ranting about this until I have all the facts.  But what I do know is that now when I push the button on the end of my radio menu, ALL I get is all Christmas music and no Greg, no J.C.  If the anonymous woman is still there, I don’t know it because I have yet to stay tuned long enough to get to the end of a Christmas song.

Bah, humbug!

Hope Baugh – www.IndyTheatreHabit.com and @IndyTheatre on Twitter.com.

P.S. – I’m listening to Pandora on my iPhone as I write this, and I like it very much. However, when I’m driving I prefer not to have to futz around with extra technology.  So does anyone have a recommendation for a different radio station to be my sixth bookmark from now on?

P.S. 11/15/09 – I’ve been thinking some more about why I prefer to listen to a radio station with a live host instead of Pandora – which is only one song after another – while I’m driving my car:  A host with an engaging, likable personality (such as Greg Browning and J.C. have/had) makes me feel as if I have a friend in the car with me. 

This is especially true if I have seen that host in person at some local, community event – such as Greg’s performance in the Indy Fringe show – or if I have interacted with him in some other way – such as on Greg’s Facebook wall.  (Another example is WIBC guest host Lou Harry’s arts and entertainment blog for the Indianapolis Business Journal.  I sometimes write comments there.)   I would not enjoy them as much if they were in, say, Chicago or Seattle.

I also like knowing that other people in their own cars are listening to the same songs that the host and I are listening to.  Pandora personalizes the playlist to my specifications, which is great…but I am the only one listening to it.  I might not have picked every single song that a radio host chooses to play on a given day, but when I am listening to a radio station, I know that someone else is listening to a song with me in that exact moment in time, even if we aren’t interacting directly with each other.  And sometimes, if I arrive at my destination, pull out my iPhone and tweet “Hope Baugh is singing ‘I can’t get no satisfaction…’” or whatever, one of my Facebook friends will comment, “Hey!  I was just listening to that, too.”  So I know it was not just me and the radio host who shared that moment in time.

I know that this is probably a very challenging time to be trying to run a radio station and I’m sure the managers/owners of 107.9 are doing the best they can to make what they believe are good decisions for their stakeholders.

I’m just really going to miss “my” favorite oldies station.