Posted by Steve Green on June 15, 2006 at 20:54:11:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Dumbing Down Of Radio posted by Dan on June 15, 2006 at 17:03:21:
Hya Dan,
We're still talking apples and oranges here, but this IS an interesting sidethread....
And while my claim that Dan Ingram could have done the Drake format very well (imho almost effortlessly) was based on the perfomrnaces of contemporaries, your disavowal has not been so based. It'd be enlightening to hear from The Man himself on the matter. My own 'ear' says he would have found it ripe for freshening up in his own fashion, and that if Bill Drake himself had the opportunity to put Ingram on WOR-FM or another flagship station, that Ingram would be cut the same slack as the other personalities who flourished to legendary status within the format -- maybe even down to his signature sounder. Perhaps we'll never know. So this is moot.
As well, WCBS-FM under Joe McCoy incoporated a lot of the 'more music' elements in its presentation, too, and Ingram worked with aplomb amid those.
>> " You also fail to acknowledge that part of Ingram's special magic was the rhytymn and momentum of his breaks " <<
Perhaps you mis-read me, then. His daily extemporizing (with a far shorter playlist than WOR-FM plus with network restrictions) plus his adaptability within the Sklar guidelines was sheer precision itself, spiced with mischief. He sounded as though he was enjoying himself hugely on the air, working at a station that itself was limited in emphasis musically and imagewise.
I was just suggesting that he would have had an easier time -- apples and oranges again, yeah -- adjusting to the Drake formatics than some might believe.