How I Love My Country

A couple weeks ago I went home. Not exactly, but close enough. I went to Michigan. We were subjected to the incredible hospitality of my brother and his family and had a great visit. I spent many hours in their suburban backyard listening to the radio with the recorder engaged, scanning the broadcast bands for my radio series on this blog. As I ford through those tapes and digest all the reception, I thought I’d share something special I found on the AM dial there– WCXI. (Extended MP3 airchecks can be found at the end of this post.) 

During past visits, I hadn’t paid much attention to WCXI. Years ago, a contemporary country station with those call letters at about the same place on the dial was a mainstay in the Detroit market, and when I came across it I just assumed it was the same station. It isn’t. The old WCXI ceased to exist in the early 1990's, and their AM frequency (1130 kHz) is now the home of yet ANOTHER sports talk station. This WCXI, based out of Fenton, Michigan (just southwest of Flint) broadcasts at 1160 on the dial, and grabbed up the old call letters in 2000 to help brand their new “classic country” format in southeastern Michigan. And six years later, in an era where AM dial music stations across the country have been almost completely replaced by talk, news, sports and ethnic brokered programming, WCXI is bucking this trend and doing it the old fashioned way.

I don’t know exactly when classic country became a format, but I suspect it occurred in the early 1990's, coinciding with either the rise of Garth Brooks or the runaway success of Billy Ray Cyrus and his “Achy Breaky Heart.” Country music was changing (ugh), and traditional artists and old classics were increasingly left behind on newly popular “hot country” stations to make way for the new sound. While never a big player in the U.S. radio scene, the classic country format filled a niche out there for an (aging) audience who wanted to hear fiddles, pedal steel guitars, mandolins and rollicking Nashville rave-ups coming out of their radio. And who could blame them.

Well, a decade and a half has passed, and in the world of radio programming that’s a long time. A fringe format that appeals to middle-aged to older listeners doesn’t get a lot of oxygen these days, when advertisers have nearly abandoned trying to sell to anybody older than thirty assuming they are already “brand loyal” (and/or not as easily subject to marketing ploys). In fact, the most successful format for the older set, talk radio, is filled with ads for OLD people. Any talk radio listener quickly becomes familiar with a number of anti-aging supplements and local cancer and heart disease treatment facilities via advertising. Here in New York, I’ve always gotten a good laugh from the jingle for the “Hebrew Home For The Aged” with the lyrics– “This is the place you’ll remember...” I don’t think so.

Not so on WCXI. The advertising is almost embarrassingly intimate, and not cynically based on demographic studies and focus groups. Almost all the ads I heard on WCXI were live D.J.’s reading ad copy, not produced spots and nothing national. It’s advertising for adults, not just senior citizens, with ads for car repair outlets, shops, restaurants and assorted services. You can bet the ad time is CHEAP and the account executives have to work overtime to make a living. Instead of the usual national ad campaigns and overtly-ironic (i.e. Geiko Insurance, etc) jokey stuff, you get earnest appeals to patronize striving local businesses. For people who love this station, it’s easy to imagine they might be swayed by an ad on WCXI just as a way of supporting the music they bring into their lives everyday. It’s the way advertising was supposed to work.

And why or how in 2006 could a station playing grandad’s hillbilly favorites survive, and possibly thrive, north of the Mason-Dixon line? It probably has something to do with vehicles.

Much of the glory and tragedy of southeastern Michigan is based in the automotive industry. In the early to mid-20th century, the area thrived making cars and car parts for America and the world. Decades ago, when the U.S. was transforming from a rural economy to an industrial one, landing a job in the automotive industry was an unprecedented surefire ticket to a middle class life for unskilled workers. And not unlike today’s influx of immigrants across the Mexican border, many thousands of job hungry Americans from the south and southern midwest flooded into southeastern Michigan looking for profitable work they couldn’t find in their region of the country. I can trace my own origin to this migration as both my grandfathers came to Michigan from farming communities south of the state to build cars and trucks for the rest of their lives.

This migration brought a southern flavor to parts of lower Michigan. When I was younger, small towns like Ypsilanti and Walled Lake were jokingly referred to as Ypsi-tucky or Wall-tucky, in reference to the number of the twangy accents you might find there. I once met a teenage girl who was born and raised in Saline, Michigan who had a genuine Tennessee hills accent, despite spending her whole life an hour away from the Canadian border.

Of course, country and western music is now popular all over North America and around the world. But the older and more traditional stuff  is rarely heard on the radio these days (except for certain shows on non-commercial stations). While I don’t have the facts and figures to prove it, you can imagine that there are still some full-time classic country stations in places like Texas and across the south, and most are probably on AM. Then there’s WSM, the AM clear channel powerhouse in Nashville (which can be heard many nights across eastern North America). Still the home of the Grand Ole Opry every Saturday night, WSM almost shifted to a talk radio format, but loud protestations from fans of WSM’s country music heritage prevailed, the station did not become a run of the mill propaganda outlet.

Now, those of you who have followed some of my extended musings on this blog know that I listen to a lot of talk radio. (And if you’re as sickened and/or bored by all the right wing talk garbage flooding the dial as I am, you know how difficult this can be.) However, I still I have a soft spot in my heart (or my head) for AM music radio, specifically stations that program music originally made to be played on AM (or jukeboxes). Call me strange, or old fashioned (you wouldn’t be the first), but I sort of PREFER to hear old pop music on AM instead of FM, or in any digitally rendered scenario. I often find it jarring to hear an old song I grew up with in hi-fi stereo on an FM oldies station. It just sounds wrong. I enjoy the old hits in mono, as well as limited, compressed and modulated in an amplitude fashion. But I don’t experience them that way very often these days.

As I noted in an earlier post, there is not one full-time English language music station on the AM dial in New York City. And not only is music leaving the AM dial in general, but commercial radio formats across the board have dropped almost any songs recorded before the 1960's or 70's. So, it doesn’t take a psychic to realize that classic country stations like WCXI aren’t going to be around forever. And while I was recording faraway AM and shortwave reception by night, I was having a blast cranking up WCXI around the house and in the car during the day. Toward the end of my trip, I realized I really needed to capture some WCXI to take home.

So, here’s all the WCXI I managed to tape while I was in Michigan, all available below for your downloading and listening pleasure.

This is "Sweet Sue" filling in on Friday for the regular host, Brian, who apparently had some car trouble that day.

WCXI - 07-07-06 pt 1 (MP3 download)
WCXI - 07-07-06 pt 2 (MP3 download)
WCXI - 07-07-06 pt 3 (MP3 download)

I'm not sure if the DJ in the recordings below ever mentioned his name on these recordings. In fact, he sounds like he's been on the radio for all of a month. But that's okay, he tries hard enough and seems to get all the song titles and product names right. (The little bit of buzzing and whining interference you hear on these recordings thankfully dissipates quickly.).

WCXI - 07-08-06 pt 1 (MP3 download)
WCXI - 07-08-06 pt 2 (MP3 download)

As you can hear, WCXI is obviously a low budget operation. While the jocks are endearing, a lot of the air talent I heard on the station had a bit of a “minimum wage” quality– lots of goofs, repetition and cornball sentiment. But I gotta tell you, when I travel around the U.S. I kinda like to hear the sound of earnest amateur announcers on local radio. It can help flush some of the accumulated irony out of your media intake valves.

If you love old country music, or the sound of REALLY local smalltown radio, you may find a lot to love about WCXI. To get the full effect, take your MP3 player out in the car and hook it up to your stereo and take a drive down a lonely two lane road somewhere on a sunny day. It doesn’t have to be a flat tree-lined Michigan highway to have the same effect.

Comments

[Fatherflot]

Thanks prof. I always look forward to your posts. Nobody else I know of understands and loves radio as a medium as much as you do. You even inspired me to buy my first (admittedly very cheap) shortwave set, the Grundig FR200 Emergency Radio. Got it as a floor model from a Radio Shack in Mentor Ohio for $29. I love using my own power to scan the airwaves, especially at night and I was amazed by how much is going on on the SW bands. Who knew this stuff was in the ether all around us.

[Clark Williams]

Thanks for writing this. I am a native Tennesseean generally inclined towards the past. I wanted to let you know that in Chattanooga there are two classic country stations, one AM and one FM. The AM station is quite good but difficult to pick up. The FM station's definition of "Classic Country" leans heavily on the late '70s and throughout the '80s, most of which music is delightfully awful. As well, there is a respectable "Oldies" station on the AM dial whose selection rotates about five years wide of 1970. It is truly a pleasure to hear this music on the AM band.

Despite this, however, I would imagine hardly a soul listens to these stations with genuine appreciation. The greater portion of the South seems to look with contempt upon the best of its history and culture.

[CMac]

"This migration brought a southern flavor to parts of lower Michigan. When I was younger, small towns like Ypsilanti and Walled Lake were jokingly referred to as Ypsi-tucky or Wall-tucky, in reference to the number of the twangy accents you might find there."

It's embarassing that you can't pull out a reference to the old WSDS 1480. How old are you really? That was in the 90's.

What is it now? - complete shit. That southern flavor is closer and closer to the equator.

[Dale Hazelton]

Nice post. I love a bit of personal history mixed in with my radio history. The sounds of PAMS jingles, hardware store ads, top 40 hits and sub-professional on-air talent makes for wonderful listening. Alan Weiner (WBCQ) phoned in his weekly show a couple of years ago remotely while on a lengthy road trip. One thing he said that I will always remember (paraphrased): "If you want to really get a sense of where you are, turn on your AM car radio."

I remember in the 60's as a kid in Western New York listening to "The Swop Shop" on WBUZam in Fredonia, folks calling in that they have an old lawn mower for sale for $5, or they were looking for a decent used dinette. BUZ closed a couple of decades ago as the cost of powering even a small transmitter got too expensive with few advertising dollars coming in, and people migrating to FM. While the Swop Shop can now only be picked up light years away in outer space, the drama of high-school sports and local politics, plus music from Perry Como, Steve and Edie, and the Mills Brothers still play on sister-city Dunkirk's WDOE 1410. Of course, they also broadcast the local police blotter, so you know which of your neighbors just got busted for DUI or posession.

Today in the Hudson Valley I have WTBQ 1110am out of Warwick NY (http://wtbq.com/station.asp) with such interesting local fodder as "Farm Talk", "The Herb Man", "Horse Talk" and the "Natalie Gubala Polka Fun Show". Most of these on-air "personalities" are just local people, not members of the Toastmaster's Club or communications majors, and that's part of the fun.

In the late 60's, early 70's, as soon as album-oriented rock reared it's head on FM, that was all I wanted to listen to. The local stuff just sounded, well, local, and that's not how I wanted to end up. Now I like my entertainment to connect me a bit to where I am, and who's around me. AM radio does that just fine.

[Art(uro)]

Thanks for the MP3s. I'm reminded on driving around rural southwestern Louisiana listening to some of the best AM radio i've ever heard. Cajun, zydeco, country and swamp pop all served up with a local, DIY feel.

[John Hebert]

I grew up in southwestern Louisiana (KJEF 1290 AM) and now live near New Orleans. My favorite radio memories are of listening with a single beige earplug, under the bedcovers as a small boy, and exploring the dial trying to find stations I had never heard before.

There are still plenty of small AM stations all over Louisiana that have playlists from years ago, as well as lots of great (and sometimes not so great, but sincere!) local bands.

Here's a good example that can be listened to over the Internet: http://www.radiolouisiane.com.

BTW, can anyone tell me if the Professor is also the Professor who created the SPOOKED broadcasts on the KPFA OTE show (http://www.nvo.com/cd/spooked/)?

[ResidentClinton]

It's Saturday, and I've been listening to these WCXI samples all morning. It is the best way to start a nice weekend morning, and those DJs are terribly endearing and earnest. Growing up in Denver, Colorado, this is the radio (am) that my grandfather would listen to as we drove around in his pick-up. But of course these stations are gone now even in the heart of the West (keep it coming, Texas). I want to take a trip to Michigan now just so I can drive around on a Friday night and listen to this station. Thanks so much for posting these!

[Kevin martin]

Hello,

My aunt was in Tim Doolittle and his Pine Center Gang's band. She was a singer and used to sing to us kids when we were young. we could not find any of her old recordings after she passed. If anyone has any or knows where I could find anything from this band please let me know via email. also please note this is a older band from the 20s 30s and 40s when it was still called country western.

[BILL SOUTHORN]

I REALLY LIKE THE STATION ESPECIALLY BRIAN BARNAM, JOHN MORRIS, AND JOHN PATALKA. I WAS UNDER THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY WERE GOING TO INCREASE THE POWER, BUT HAVE NOT AT THIS TIME. WHAT IS THE HOLD UP ON THIS? I CAN PICK THE STATION UP IN MY CAR REAL GOOD AND SOMETIMES IN THE HOUSE ON THE RADIO. I ALSO LIKED THE OTHER RADIO STATION THAT BIRACH OWNS THAT WAS CLASSIC COUNTRY BUT IS NOW ALL MEXICAN SPEAKING, AND MUSIC I LISTENED TO THAT STATION AT WORK BECAUSE I COULD NOT GET WCXI IN YPSI. PLEASE DO SOMETHING TO BOOST THE CLASSIC COUNTRY, AND BLUE GRASS MUSIC.

[Ann M. Stuckey]

Music Row Talent Reords, Inc. will have a release on Nat Stuckey in late August or early September, 2010. It contains a couple of songs he wrote and sang in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's--all great country music. Do you remember SWEET THANG, DON'T YOU BELIEVE HER, WAITIN IN YOUR WELFARE LINE? These were all re-recorded by Nat prior to his death in 1988. I hope everyone will like them.

[Brian Barnum]

I'm the aforementioned Brian who had car trouble, so Sweet Sue
was sweet enough to fill that day. Most of my record collection
is still sitting in that studio, awaiting its reopening. I now
languish as a board operator at a public radio station, wishing
every day to be a classic country deejay once again.