Good News, Bad News

 In the indiepop classic "Closing Time," the group Semisonic sings, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." 

After 23 years on 1050 AM and 12 years on 98.7 FM,ESPN New York, operated under licence granted by The Worldwide Leader In Sports by Good Karma Brands, is moving up the New York radio dial to the clear channel frequency of 880 AM,previously occupied by legendary all-news station WCBS, effective Monday,August 26.

As the leader of the Temple Emanu-El Gather Sports Fan Group and a long time fan of ESPN since it adopted a 24/7 program schedule in 1980, I should be happy that ESPN New York is moving down the dial and gaining a larger presence on the radio band along the Eastern Seaboard, bringing local personalities like Michael Kay, Don LaGreca, Rick DiPietro,and Anita Marks  and Knicks, Rangers, and Mets games to a larger audience,and providing a strong argument for AM/FM car radios in 2024 or later model automobiles, and I am.

But, and that's a very big BUUUUUUUUT,it comes at the expense of 57 years of broadcast history as All-News 88 says goodbye. Not only will I miss WCBS because it was my link to the world during Nixon's resignation,the reign of Donald Trump,and the tragedy of 9/11, among others, (and because, on a more personal level, my friends Mary Alice Williams, Patty Steele, and Anita Bonita, graced it with their intelligence, humor, and news savvy) but also because of the sports expertise of Pat Summerall, Spencer Ross, Jared Max, and, one of the few holdouts from the old order, Howie Rose, to name but a few. I understand that even radio giants like Audacy, WCBS' parent company, are struggling as new sports news media arise and professional sports  teams try to stay current, but too many of the stations that made radio the important medium it has been have been falling by the wayside and too many talented people must either seek employment elsewhere or retire. WCBS was that trusted New York neighbor, who told us what modifications we had to make on our way to school or work, or whether to just skip a day and wait until things blew over.

To those writers,reporters,producers,and engineers who always made sure WCBS was "More Than Just The Headlines," may God bless you and protect you in your future endeavors. To Team ESPN, good luck filling WCBS' Wilt Chamberlain-sized shoes. Something tells me you MIGHT need it.

FOLLOW UP: Saw the 2011 remake of FOOTLOOSE. What I said about the original stands. It's STILL a classic. Nuff said.

Steve out.

FOOTLOOSE (1984) An Appreciation

 When my congregation, the gorgeous Emanu-El of New York City, announced they would close out their summer movie series with FOOTLOOSE, I was of two minds. I mean, this was FOOTLOOSE, an 80's movie classic with a top-notch cast, a ton of Billboard Hot 100 hits, and the inspiration for a musical that sold out night after night on Broadway before flying across the Big Pond and bringing   West End audiences to their feet, I mean, what's not to love?

I thought, plenty. The bad guy, played by John Lithgow who plays them the way Louis Armstrong played the trumpet (like a master), is your standard Bible-thumping fire and brimstone preacher, and his daughter, played by Lori Singer with the sturm und drang that was also perfected by Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, and the Brat Packers of the day,is a rebel who prefers the degenerate rock and roll of the time to Reverend Daddy's lessons from Scripture.

But then, I had an epiphany, while we're using religious analogies: This movie was a stinging, scathing, and well-produced indictment of the conservatism that had swept the USA since Ronald Reagan took office. The hold Lithgow's character. the Rev. Shaw Moore, had upon the local school and the library, was not only very real back then, but also reminiscent of the Louisiana government making posters of the Ten Commandments mandatory in every school, religious or public, and banned books (and,in a few areas, book burnings), are still a thing. (If I may digress, #VelshiBannedBookClub has a lot of, as the kids say, awesome recommendations of books that Louisiana and Florida deem too hot to handle.You can also get them on Ali Velshi's self-titled MSNBC weekend gabfest, or wherever you get your podcasts.) Kevin Bacon, of Six Degrees fame, delivers one of his all-time great performances as Ren McCormick, a Chicago kid who moves with his mom to this boring town, and his best performance in the entire movie, bar none, is when he makes a case for dancing and rock and roll by quoting Scripture, i.e., Ecclesiates. ("It's OUR time to dance.")

While FOOTLOOSE is one of the quintessential 80's movies, it also resonates with today's audiences, as evidenced by the kids who were brought along to the screening at Emanu-El last night who couldn't help but move while sitting. (As one of the big kids in attendance, I certainly agreed.)

You can get loose with FOOTLOOSE on Paramount +, Freeform (ironically, formerly CBN Family Channel. That's a tale for another time.)or Prime Video. Don't worry, Mom and Dad, it's rated PG,which doesn't make it one of those pornographic pieces of trash Rev. Moore wants banned. Great movies never go out of style, and, despite my initial qualms, I believe FOOTLOOSE qualifies as one of them.

Steve out!

ANGELic or Just Plain Ick? You Decide This Summer!

 As I write this, Angel Studios, the scrappy independent studio that rose from the ashes of VidAngel, a streaming service that showed major motion pictures without all the sex,violence and cuss words, much to the chagrin of the Big Boys,is livestreaming ILLUMINATE 2024, the annual meeting of the Angel Guild whose members greenlight motion pictures and television shows that tell "stories that amplify light," and buy tickets for people who can't otherwise afford movie tickets through an initiative called "Pay It Forward." Having enjoyed most of those stories, the first three seasons of the award-worthy THE CHOSEN, the biography of New York 's original wonder woman,Mother Francesca CABRINI,YOUNG DAVID,a prequel to Angel's Thanksgiving 25 musical about the boy king,and HIS ONLY SON,a retelling of the story of Isaac, I anticipate SIGHT, starring Gregg Kinnear and telling the incredible story of a Chinese opthalmologist who escaped the Maoist regime and continued his practice on this side of the world,but the other Angel Summer of 24 release? Not so much.

Unfortunately,not even a studio named Angel is perfect,and they turned out a huge clunker in THE SHIFT, turning the Book of Job into a multiversal mishmash and nearly ruining the careers of otherwise talented people like Liz Tabbish and Sean Astin. It WAS approved by the Angel Guild which lends credence to the phrase, "Nobody ever lost money underestimating the American public." That could also be applied to the Halo-wood studio's 4th of July release,SOUND OF HOPE,a defacto sequel to the controversial SOUND OF FREEDOM,which, despite its noble intent to tell the story of the American lone wolf who broke up a Colombian child sex trafficking ring,espoused the QAnon agenda and received high praise from He Who Must Not Be Named. From what I have seen in the trailer despite HOPE 's subject matter,a sex trafficking ring in Possum Trot,TX,it seems to me like a case of Same Stuff Different Day. While I recommend SIGHT,and I can't wait to use my Angel freebie tomorrow to see it,(Full review to come!) stay FAR,FAR AWAY from SOUND OF FREEDOM. You'll thank Heaven you did!

Steve out!