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Seattle On Radio: Seldom is heard a comedic word
Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Not radio, these days.
The passing last week of Robert "Madman
Moskowitz" Baron, who for years hosted a program of spoken and music
comedy, is an unhappy reminder of how little comedy remains on the
radio.
To be sure, some would argue that there's plenty
of humor still there, particularly in morning drive-time shows, and
hosts such as Garrison Keillor on NPR.
But comedy used to have a much greater presence
throughout the broadcast day. Comedy songs and novelty records from
performers such as Ray Stevens and Dickie Goodman
(he did records in a Q&A format, with cuts from songs providing the
responses) regularly appeared on the charts. Nationally syndicated
shows such as "Dr. Demento" and the "National Lampoon Radio Hour" were
regular features of radio schedules.
Stations even ran comedy serials, "Chickenman" and "Secret Adventures of the Toothfairy," produced by legendary ad man Dick Orkin
(you can hear his voice on a current series of ads for
PugetSoundHelpWanted .com). Longtime listeners remember signature bits
and recurring characters done by radio personalities ranging from Lan Roberts to Robin & Maynard.
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Pat Cashman, one of the last practitioners of
radio comedy, says character-driven bits and sketches and nuanced humor
have "definitely disappeared."
Why so?
Michael O'Shea,
onetime Seattle radio programmer and now head of All Comedy Radio, says
that with the advent of morning drive-time teams, radio stations
concentrated the time they devoted to humor or comedy in that segment.
But while listeners may want the information-and-conversation
orientation of those shows for their morning commute, the rest of the
day they use radio as a "mood button," he says. "After 9 a.m. (stations)
had to become music-intensive."
The homogenization of radio gets much of the
blame from critics like Jef Jaisun, a professional photographer who
achieved his bit of music-comedy fame with his song "Friendly
Neighborhood Narco Agent" (written 40 years ago and a major hit on "Dr.
Demento"). "People like to laugh, they like to hear (new) stuff and have
it presented in a creative fashion," he says. But "most program
directors, station managers and bean counters don't want to take
chances," particularly when it involves social commentary that may
irritate someone, as musical satire and spoken-word comedy often do.
O'Shea, whose network offers long-form comedy
formats and short-form segments, said he's seen a revival of interest in
comedy with some stations offering a short comedy selection in
afternoon drive. But that's not the same as devoting considerable time
to producing two-minute segments that could run throughout the day, as
Orkin did with serials heard on stations coast to coast.
While radio may have moved away from comedy,
Cashman wonders if listeners have: "I don't know that the percentage of
people who want or don't want a good laugh from the radio has changed."
In other radio notes:
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