Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

I was listening to The Point the other day. The music mix was okay, but then there was one of those moments that reminded me of why I am frustrated with radio.

They ran one of those ads that is supposed to tell you that you are listening to uninterrupted music (an irony so obvious that I really don't need to point it out), then the ad said "The best of the 80's, 90's and now, and no rap!"

Then, the very next song was...wait for it...Kelly Clarkson.

Kelly Clarkson? The best of now? The song was okay, but probably forgettable by even her hardcore fans, one of those oversung ballads but had a bit of over amplified Buck Dharma style stun guitar to make it "rock", but not too hard.


The other thing that I found a bit offensive was the "and no rap" comment. One thing I have learned from the kids I am around is that only white guys call the genre "rap" these days. And yeah, hip hop can be obnoxious. In fact, up until a few years ago, even "black" stations didn't play any hip hop if they expected to have any listeners over the age of 30. This has changed since then as the genre and its fans have grown up.

I wonder if there is a racial tinge to this. I'm not suggesting that there is out and out white sheet and crossburning racism; it is just in the back of their heads somewhere. They may not even know it. It sounds like the white-boy rocker chant of "Disco Sucks" back in the late seventies, one has to wonder if that was inspired because disco was so closely associated in its early years with blacks and gays. Funny thing, most disco rocked harder than whatever Journey or REO Speedwagon was doing at the time.

The Point's website has an animation that doesn't feature a single non-white artist.


To help out the folks at The Point, here is a non-exhaustive list of ten hip hop songs I would rather listen to than Kelly Clarkson:

1. "Rapper's Delight" - The Sugar Hill Gang
2. "I left My Wallet in El Segundo" - A Tribe Called Quest
3. "Bring the Noise" - Anthrax w/ Public Enemy
4. "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" - Digable Planets
5. "La Raza" - Kid Frost
6. "This Be The Def Beat" - Dana Dane
7. "Brooklyn Queens" - 3rd Bass
8. "Jump Around" - House of Pain
9. "Lowrider" - Latin Alliance w/ War
10. "Bridging the Gap" - Nas

A few years ago, Chuck Roast was hosting the "Eat Your 80's" show on KFMA. He played Run-DMC's cover of Aerosmith's "Walk this Way." Then, he played a call that he got that went something like this:

"Why are you playing this?"
"It's Run-DMC, it's cool."
"But, it's rap..."
"We play rap all the time, Beastie Boys, Eminem."
"But, that's different."
"Why is it different?"
"Well, you know."

I can't remember her answer getting much better than that.


Speaking of Mr. Roast, I spoke to singer and former KFMA and Point DJ Cathy Rivers the other night. I said "hi" to her and she admitted that she didn't remember me. I didn't really expect her to, since I only have spoken to her once before and I think it may have been a year ago. We ended up talking for about ten minutes, an awful lot of time to give a virtual stranger when there are plenty of other people to talk to. I felt bad because I was the one that cut the conversation short.

Cathy and I ended up talking about Chuck Roast. Back when I was station manager at KAMP, I gave him some rudimentary training when he was still Rob Cross (I think that was his real name, he adopted the nom de guerre shortly afterward.) Turns out that Cross/Roast is now producer for Howard Stern. Geez, I thought that tyring to manage college DJ's was bad enough.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.