Monday, April 2, 2007

Last Detroit radio rant... for awhile

Friday night/ early Saturday morning on WDET, Liz Copeland signed off. This morning Chuck Horne & his radio show, The Seventh Journey will sign off at 5:00 AM. As he said, "This is the final flight. There is no return flight".

I'm left to wonder where anyone in Detroit will get exposed to new electronica and techno on the airwaves now.

'tis another sad day for WDET and Detroit's cultural landscape as this show signs off.

4 comments:

Dave Chow Illustrations said...

What's really sad for the Detroit airwaves is that there really aren't any more true DJs anymore. I was at least blessed with hearing folks like the last of the WABX air aces, Judy Adams, Ann Delisi, Martin Bandyke, Dave Dixon, John Penney, the Electrifying Mojo and a whole list of other Detroit radio personalities that made music their passion. I always envsioned these people spending their non-broadcast hours hunkered over a stack of music listening and trying to find some gem for all of us to hear. I valued their vast musical knowledge! They, by their very nature of their jobs have heard more music than I have- and given a forum to play their musical likes (and sometimes dislikes) was great for expanding my musical interests.

And the one thing that was truly magical about free form radio such as WDET was the fact that you could play rock followed by classical followed by jazz followed by electronica followed by the blues. The selections themselves, in their order made a wonderful contrast and in essence, a wonderful melody unto itself.

I didn't have to like all of what they played on WDET over the years, but at least I had some exposure to new forms of music. In about 20 more minutes, the last vestige of brave Detroit music will go off the air at WDET.

Dave Chow Illustrations said...

Mark Isham's "On the Threshold of Liberty" was the last song played on Chuck Horne's show. Beautiful song and yet very ironic.

DMBoyleDesign said...

Whats happening with all the DJs? What are they doing after their WDET gigs?

Dave Chow Illustrations said...

First weekend listening since the changeover in format and it's tough to listen to. Don't get me wrong, it's interesting discussions they're having but I miss my music.