A year or two ago, I was just getting into a rental car in Indianapolis when I received an e-mail from my friend, Broadway diva Christine Pedi. Christine is a brilliant impressionist (see here) and singer. I forget what her message was asking me but I made a mental note to phone her when I had a chance.
Then I got into the rental car, turned on the radio and heard, "This is Christine Pedi." There she was. Along with all else she does, Christine is one of the disc jockeys (that's not quite the term I want) on the On Broadway Channel on SiriusXM satellite radio.
That was the first time I'd heard satellite radio but I enjoyed it — well, let's say some of it — while cruising Indiana in the rental. I did manage to find some channels that didn't have Howard Stern on them and I have never heard anyone talk about sex and make it sound as stupid and unappealing as those folks on Playboy Radio. (Aside to Rick Santorum, who I just know reads this blog every day: You want to end recreational sex in this country? Have the government buy everyone a subscription to Playboy Radio. It's the Saltpeter of the Airwaves.)
Soon after I returned to L.A., I bought a new car and I got one with SiriusXM radio on it. I liked it at first but now find myself growing lukewarm to it. I have CDs in my auto — I didn't in the rental — and the car also has a USB port. I can load MP3s onto a flash drive, plug the flash drive into the USB port and play those MP3s through my car radio. It's not only the audio I pick (as opposed to what the SiriusXM programmers pick) but I can pause and resume. Just as TiVo has spoiled me for watching live TV, I'm not as fond of live radio as I once was.
Sometimes though, I listen to SiriusXM and I do like the On Broadway channel…though I can't help but note some blurry distinctions. I also listen to couple of the oldies channels — usually the fifties, sixties and seventies stations. The other day, I found myself listening to "Dancing Queen" by ABBA and I assumed I was on the seventies station but I wasn't. Turned out, I was on the On Broadway channel. All the ABBA songs that were in the Broadway musical Mamma Mia are now, I guess, considered Show Tunes. The On Broadway channel was playing the original ABBA recording, not the version performed on the cast album. A little later, I did switch over to the seventies channel and I heard…the exact same record.
I guess the definition of Show Tune has changed. I'm not saying this is good or bad but it's changed. With Broadway shows featuring tunes first recorded by Elvis or Billy Joel or the Beatles or Frank Sinatra or Olivia Newton-John (etc.), all those works are now Show Tunes. It's not a distinction about style of music…it's just where it's been played. The Frankie Valli records that are re-created in Jersey Boys are apparently now Show Tunes. The other songs Frankie and his guys recorded that didn't make it into Jersey Boys are not Show Tunes. Just a point of information.
Anyway, I like listening to SiriusXM from time to time but I think I prefer the music I bring into my car. I like the SiriusXM jazz channels and some of the "talk radio" stations…though I can only listen to talk radio until I start feeling they're putting on a show the way WWE wrestlers do instead of addressing issues. So I rarely listen for long. I like Christine's interjections between songs she plays because she has something to say. Most other "jocks" there don't…although the day the death of Davy Jones was announced, Cousin Brucie over on the sixties channel threw together a nice tribute including call-ins from Monkees fans. I even heard one of them quote the story I posted on this blog about Shelly Goldstein and Davy.
There are two other things I don't like about SiriusXM but this is running long and I have work to do so I'll save them for later. But I can't leave the topic without mentioning that folks in Southern California have a rare (too rare) opportunity to see Christine Pedi perform live on our turf. She's doing her "Great Dames" show, which is quite a delight, on April 18 at the Gardenia, which is located at 7066 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. The show starts at 9 PM and you'd better call for reservations because Christine has a lot of fans and the place ain't that big.