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Show ENTERTAINMENT MOVIES RADIO HOUSEHOLD HIXTS Out of the Slush Pump By Ottum et al What we went through this W"'.-k shouldn't happen. . . . ... It was a trial by dial; we rolled up our sleeves and did little but listen to the radio. And it wasn't easy, though we tried to keep it impartial. Strange to say, listening to the radio as mpst of us do catch as catch can one doesn't get particularly interested in or fired up about any one program. The answer probably lies in. the fact that there is always another station if things get too bad. And the result is you get the feeling that radio is refreshing and entertaining. But do what old Ottum and al did all this week and yonll ' get an entirely new slant on radio. . You'll recall that today we take off in the first of a series, of "explorations into contemporary contempo-rary local radio" wherin from week to week we hope to post the results of our painstaking studies of locally-aired discjockey disc-jockey shows. Now then for one solid week we' have been devoting our time and talents to listening to one man's radio show and only that Show. We studied him from every angle, including his own. We undertook to listen to him as several different types of radio listeners would: the casual listener, the addict, the teen-ager, the housewife, the tired businessman. And finally, we listened to him; for ourselves, so that we could rate the show according to plan. Subject was Jazzbo, the irrepressible Al Col-lines. Col-lines. The show: JAZZBO. GENERAL FINDINGS For the most part, the show moves along at a good tempo. There is variety to be found and occasional spurts' of fine jazz. For steady listening some radio habits of the disc jockey become most trying. Telephone calls receive re-ceive priority attention and are rarely worth air time. Commercials, Commer-cials, while more diverting than many (except for length), border bor-der on the boorish. BAD POINTS Buried somewhere in the subconscious sub-conscious of all of us is the inborn in-born hostility generated when someone calls us an uncomplimentary uncompli-mentary name. Hence, starting at 4:15 p.m.. if you want to hear any jazz at all, you have to sit (and squirm) through a several-minute introduction intro-duction of "Greetings, you peasants, peas-ants, sharecroppers and peons, this is Jazzbo." So it's Jazzbo, and he's got a big, fat, succulent, succu-lent, juicy satchel full of records. Do you get to hear those records those "golden days" at KALL the guy is going no place. The show is unusual, it provides pro-vides an opportunity to catch a little jazz each afternoon. Is it worth it? CRITICISM Jazzbo, old man, why don't you become your own severest critic? You've got an earphone on use it. 1. Why not write out youi commercials or have them written. Someone is telling you you're funny try listening to a playback, particularly where you attempt to rhyme words. 2. There's too much of an air of insincerity about the whole show. You could pick up a point or two along that line by listening listen-ing to Woody Hersh on KSL. 3. As a disc-jockey, Jazzbo, you're expected to be' an authority author-ity on jazz or just plain music. We believe you are. kay-vhy not prove it? We'd suggest setting set-ting aside just one portion of " your show in which you step out of character and play a few good jazz numbers, with comments on each and the artists, and play them without the usual chatter aimed at your South High audience. au-dience. Then your following undoubtedly un-doubtedly would increase because be-cause a feV more persons would get a little of the music they've tuned in to hear. 4. We know you love to sing . . . and that you like the sound of your voice, particularly the scatting on "Sunny Side of the Street." The fact that you've laid off lately is an indication you're catching on to what we're after. 5. Go to work, old man. (and we don't mean straight ahead and when you pick the show up to where it should be we'll become be-come Jazzbo press agents. Next week: Woody Hersh. column on the same pattern as above: everyone likes to see the other one get ribbed. It's as American as the swish of a wet cigar butt across your face at the ball park. Collins is basically on the right track when he slams the commercials com-mercials across in a light-hearted, I don't-care mood. His idea of background music, and his taste in same, is splendid! splen-did! It Iqnds a certain rest fullness full-ness to the program, tends to tone down the harshness we find in almost every commercial. The "I'm Jazzbo, everybody's friend," approach also is good, i.e. taking telephone calls on the show and inviting name band leaders in for a little horse play while they're in town with reservations elsewhere noted. Occasionally, Jazzbo lapses into a pseudo-serious vein he established when he first came into town the fact that he knows and understands jazz and is anxious to plug it as we are. Maybe the true Jazzbo has been sold down the river for out and out commercialism. His understanding of the Los Angeles An-geles jazz faction, for example, is better than anyone else in these hyar' parts. Because of his unique touch, Jazzbo in Salt Lake City has fostered a more competitive disc-show and possibly the listeners lis-teners will benefit through it. ANALYSIS Let's, face it! the Jazzbo snow as it stands now ain't much. But, as we've heard time and time again: "it's all we got." However, that definitely isn't enough. The show needs 'much much improvement. We'd like to say honestly that it has progressed pro-gressed but instead we'll have to say it' has lost a lot since without further ado? The answer an-swer is an emphatic no. Instead, you get another intermediate in-termediate period of apparently aimless conversation, crammed to the teeth with Collins' latest expression, "straight ahead, old man." As for the music you subsequently subse-quently hear it's largely touch and go. We'll pick that up in our analysis. The commercials definitely are too long and while handled with the currently-popular theory the-ory that kidding the sponsor wi; sell ' his product are grossly overdone. The idea of bringing names of recording artists into the fore is basically good however, referring to them in this buddy-buddy buddy-buddy fashion seems to be in bad taste. The 'bad points could be smoothed outv considerably with the elimination of a few too-ol'ten repeated words. We'd suggest as a starter that Jazzbo say "straight ahead, old man," only on Tuesdays, for example, and then only once. And perhaps add a "real great, real crazy, real gone," on each AVednesday. He still could retain his status as Salt Lake's leading character charac-ter on the air and at the same time make his show much easier easi-er on the ear. GOOD POINTS Launching this section of the |