1980's CCM Spec Show

©2009 The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

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  I had so much fun with the music in this show from the late 80's. Contemporary Christian Music was worlds apart from today's counterpart. Listen as I echo the then popular CHR format in this unscoped gem from 1987 that was done in my Atlanta studio at radio home number two. This recording did not air on any radio station and was only intended to be a speculative demonstration of the J900 format I invented at my original radio home. The idea has not been presented unedited until now. Enjoy.

Stay tuned.

Let's Roll!

  For those of us schooled in the Pentecostal and Southern Baptist conventions dancing and rock music, for instance, was taboo in any form so the youth of my day felt they needed a substitute. The ultra conservative “Holiness” sects would argue that even innocuous substitutes for raunchy dancing and, by extension, even roller skating was just as sinful and viewed as a gateway to Hell.

  Shoot, in modern churches dance teams Rock-n-roll bands are very common in worship; my, how times have changed. I recently attended a church youth presentation of a mainline denomination that featured fast paced dancing to secular popular music accompaniment with no pretense of using a Christian alternative. Funny how even the churches are becoming more politically correct, omitting Christ when convenient. Those kids knew nothing of the restrictions I grew up with so I took no offense, especially considering the current rueful tone of Christian music.

  Winning the “lost” teens of my day involved using our generation's happier gospel music set to a modern beat. As I have noted in a previous post; I briefly moonlighted as DJ on Christian skate nights. The pairing of Southern Gospel and skates has always been surreal to me. I never thought the genre was compatible. So in 1984 I jumped at the opportunity to spin rock derived Contemporary Christian music (CCM) for the attending youth groups each week at the Savannah Skate Inn on Saturdays . The tunes were fast paced and skate-able, freedom for our otherwise restricted youth. Not so in today's more bland homogeneous and bleak themed CCM. Christian skate night simply would not work for the present generation.

  It was hard enough selling the idea of rolling to gospel music in my day when CCM was generally better, stylistically. The unchurched scoffed; we were preaching to the choir of those who attended (maybe a few invited their “unsaved” friends.) The ultra conservative simply weren't allowed or came without the knowledge of their pastor. It was a wholesome activity, I figured, so why did it fail? It might just boil down to a fickle public that summer. Who knows?

  My passion was reaching my peers. In some ways I was successful. My 2 years of persistent argument finally broke down the tradition machine that was my radio employer. They allowed us CCM six hours in the afternoon where I had been playing mostly Southern Gospel. Previously one or two CCM selections would sneak through unnoticed. Because of my commitment to the music, I finally got up enough courage and did a whole unauthorized contemporary show early one Saturday morning with the same record collection featured in the skating parties. Listener response, although small, was mostly favorable.

  It seemed that management was afraid of the CCM genre due to the possible backlash from our bread and butter religious brokered programs until we broke the ice with a few experiments. Spooked by the possibility of financial ruin they never totally committed; most of the conservative local preachers were on mid-day, but I believe the station would have reached more listeners with an all day consistent format of more modern sounds. That has been a purely hypothetical idea, of course. My second radio home was 100% Contemporary Christian weekdays and they never lost a brokered program because of music format, go figure.

Stay Tuned

© 2009 The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

Let's Roll!

At the close of the Disco era was a fad known as Roller Disco. The popular dances and music moved into the roller skating rinks for those skilled enough.

I was not one of them. I had two left feet but learned to circle around the floor until I fell and hurt my backside on an eighth grade field trip and experienced pain for most of my high school years thus ending my skating “career.” I was too chicken to ever try again until tempted thirty years later when I had my own children. I'm still as clumsy as ever, but as far as my kids know, I can skate even though I am actually wearing shoes. That will be our little secret, dear reader. Shhh!

Disco is dead, but not forgotten. The genre evolved into “Dance” music. It is still played sometimes in its original form at the rinks around here, especially on special skate nights for old folks like me. Well, I'm not a fan of the music but it was designed to dance and later roll to; not many other forms of music are as compatible.

For those of us schooled in the Pentecostal and Southern Baptist conventions dancing was taboo in any form so the youth of my day needed a substitute. The ultra conservative of our sects would argue that even innocuous substitutes for the raunchy dancing and skating was just as bad and viewed as a gateway to Hell. Shoot, in modern churches dance teams are very common; my, how times have changed. I recently attended a church youth presentation of a mainline denomination that featured fast paced dancing to secular popular music accompaniment with no pretense of using a Christian substitute. Funny how even the churches are becoming more politically correct, omitting Christ. Those kids knew nothing of the restrictions I grew up with so I took no offense, especially considering the current character of Christian music.

Winning the “lost” teens of my day involved using our gospel music set to a modern beat. As I have noted in a previous post; I briefly moonlighted as DJ on Christian skate nights. The pairing of Southern Gospel and skates has always been surreal to me. I never thought the genre was compatible. So in 1984 I jumped at the opportunity to spin rock derived Contemporary Christian music (CCM) for the attending youth groups each week at the Savannah Skate Inn on Saturdays . The tunes were fast paced and skate-able. Not so in today's more bland homogeneous CCM. Christian skate night simply would not work for the present generation.

It was hard enough selling the idea of rolling to gospel music in my day when CCM was better. The unchurched laughed; we were preaching to the choir of those who attended (maybe a few invited their “unsaved” friends.) The ultra conservative simply weren't allowed or came without the knowledge of their pastor. It was a wholesome activity, I figured, so why did it fail? It might just boil down to a fickle public that summer. Who knows or cares?

Stay Tuned

© 2009 The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

I Want to Know

    A new 2 CD 1 DVD release from rock icons Foreigner has kept me entertained for the past few days at home, in the Civic, and my minivan. Their first all new album in a decade and a half, “Can’t Slow Down” is superb. I especially like the title cut and “Too Late” a very catchy radio ready tune I’ve been singing for days. These guys have successfully preserved that Foreigner signature sound while evolving into the present with new lead singer, Kelly Hansen. He has admirably taken over for long time front man Lou Gramm, who at one time I thought irreplaceable.

    What intrigued me into buying the new set was a curious CD of remixes of the hits we all know well. Was this just a new remastering job from previous “master” tapes? Was any new vocals or loops added? I knew that the songs already sounded great but was unprepared for what I would discover. Producer Marti Frederiksen and his recording engineer Anthony Focx have uncovered the original multi-track tapes and exactly matched the original mixes. These new mixes a far clearer than their predecessors with deeper bass and better sounding representation of Lou Gramm’s awesome vocal performances. It was as if I was hearing them for the first time (pun intended). In fact, Feels Like the First Time opens up the disk with the electric guitars cranked to 11. Wow!  I quickly pulled out an original CD. The older mixes sounded muffled by comparison, as if someone had placed a blanket over the loudspeakers. The new mixes truly sound like they were recorded yesterday. The only limit now are the constraints of the 16 bit, 44.1 kHz sampled CD format itself. I hope more hits are forthcoming as remixes. It truly gives new life to the Classic Rock genre.

    I first notice Foreigner in the early 1980’s when I borrow the foreigner 4 album from a friend. The opening bass line of Jukebox Hero hooks me and the rest is history. Forward to 1986, I Want to Know What Love Is is a huge hit on radio and Mtv. I am especially intrigued by the heavy gospel influence and wish to share the song on my radio show on Gospel 90 AM. I am not allowed to play the “secular” version, but the station is given the gospel version of the song by the New Jersey Mass Choir who backs Foreigner on the original.

  I can name numerous mainstream hits adapted for the gospel market. Accusations of hypocrisy notwithstanding I have never seen anything wrong with presenting a “secular” artists’ songs in a “religious” setting providing that the lyrics are compatible. The movie An Officer and a Gentleman produced Up Where We Belong sung by Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker made better by The PTL Singers & Orchestra (a BeBe and CeCe Winans duet) and a marvelous cover version on Christian radio arguably the biggest hit on my first radio home. The gospel version was only slightly modified by singing Lord lift us up where we belong instead of love lift us up. How is that any different than Love Lifted Me? God is love, right?

  Before I close; ever consider Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven for gospel radio airplay? That song holds up well despite being secular. Unmodified it would make a great candidate for what I call a reverse crossover. Yesterday I heard Kirk Franklin do an old Kenny Loggins number, This is It, made a great gospel song. Bravo.

  Anyway I am pondering similar ideas for my new Internet radio station that will feature a good mix of secular and sacred both old and new. It will be a whacky format for sure. It will be positive music in the purest form. The best of both worlds without rules of outdated traditions aimed at the seekers of this world not unlike myself.

Stay tuned