Not because I don't like to, or because I don't have time, or because record stores are fewer and farther between these days.
It's simply because I don't have to go to a record store to dig through stacks.
It's true that, more and more, instead of getting CDs sent to the station, we receive MP3s. But still, mostly, music comes to us via the mailbox.
Every day Mike-from-the-front-desk comes back from our PO Box with a plastic mail carton full of envelopes. Barbara or Jess or I will tear through envelopes and pile up the bounty, sampling as much as we can, setting aside what might go to What's New For Lunch or to Bill for The Blues or to Alison for the Local Music Cafe, etc.
A tiny fraction of what comes in makes it's way to regular rotation. The rest can pile up. And pile up. And pile up.
When there's time, it's good to go for a second look. Or in the old days, a first look.
I first arrived at WMVY in 2000, after 6 years at a small, independent station in a fairly rural part of the South. Being small, we didn't get much service from the record companies. We were never awash in CDs, on the level that I discovered when I got to MVY. Barbara Dacey was Program Director at the time, and it was she who sorted through the mail that came in.
In the short period it took me to find my feet and get comfortable at the station, I asked if I could dig through the piles to see if there were any treasures in there I might like to check out.
When I found something I was interested in, I asked Barbara if I could take it home.
"Who is this?"
I told her what I knew about Ryan Adams, about his previous band Whiskeytown and about the good reviews for his solo debut "Heartbreaker."
"Let me hang onto that one."
So, the bad news was that I didn't get to snatch that disc. The good news was that we added his first solo single, and for the last 13 years his subsequent releases have been a regular part of mvyradio.
A little extra digging can make a difference.
Hear the song on Youtube.
No comments:
Post a Comment