Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Picture Perfect

Picture Perfect vs. Sci-Fi Airing Conflict

And all at once, I find I am competing against myself…

Since my shows were dropped from WWFM The Classical Network, after a combined run of 23 years, the only way to enjoy their broadcast is in syndication. As things stand, the most reliable source for “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” is now KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon.

Unfortunately, that means that “Picture Perfect” now streams directly opposite “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner!” Holy Agamemnon!

But I’m working on it. Now that the sound files are in my possession, and I’ve got the equipment so that I can finally think about recording some fresh episodes, I’ll be pushing for the shows’ distribution to other markets, so that hopefully soon they will be available to listen to at a variety times.

For tonight, you’ve got a difficult decision to make, between a recorded hour of music from films set during the Restoration, on “Picture Perfect,” and a livestream discussion of Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange,” on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.”

Interestingly, there is some overlap, as both employ references to the music of Henry Purcell (“The Fairy Queen,” on the one hand, and “Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary,” on the other).

That said, this week on “Picture Perfect,” beauty patches are back! It’s an hour of lace and licentiousness, with music from movies set during the reign of Charles II.

“Restoration” (1995) features quite the cast, with a pre-“Iron Man” Robert Downey, Jr. as a young doctor torn between duty and debauchery. He succumbs to the latter at the court of Charles, played by Sam Neill, before finding redemption as he battles the Great Plague and braves the Fire of London. The film also stars David Thewlis, Polly Walker, Meg Ryan, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Grant. The main title of James Newtown Howard’s score takes its impetus from Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen.” And indeed, there are baroque inflections throughout.

George Sanders plays Charles in “The King’s Thief” (1955). Edmund Purdom is a highwayman who pilfers an incriminating book from David Niven. An aristocratic schemer, Niven will stop at nothing to get it back. The swashbuckling score is by Miklós Rózsa.

I don’t recall Charles making an appearance in “The Draughtsman’s Contract” (1982), Peter Greenaway’s saucy, though strangely aloof, Restoration opus. However, there is plenty of licentiousness and an abundance of outlandish wigs. And, it being a Greenaway film, it is certainly strange in more ways than one. Michael Nyman’s score puts a minimalist spin on baroque sources. (Purcell is listed in the film’s credits as “musical consultant.”) For the theme, Nyman whips “The Fairy Queen” into a kind of musical egg cream, complete with 1950s-style rock and roll saxophones.

Finally, “Forever Amber” (1947) is based on a then-scandalous novel by Kathleen Winsor, about an ambitious young woman’s rise through the bedchambers of the Royal Court. The film was directed by Otto Preminger. Linda Darnell is Amber. Once again, George Sanders plays Charles, eight years before reprising the role for “The King’s Thief.” Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, and Jessica Tandy are also in the cast. Philadelphia-born composer David Raksin, he of “Laura” fame, plays fast and loose with music of the era.

Bwoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! It’s so naughty! Everyone, giggle into your handkerchiefs and wear ribbons on your shoes. We’ll be powdering our faces and going heavy on the rouge, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX.

“Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” can now be streamed at the following times at the link below. Keep in mind that KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour time difference (conversions are included in parentheses) – actually rather convenient for those of us located in the vicinity of their erstwhile home at WWFM.

PICTURE PERFECT – Fridays on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD – Saturdays on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

The ”Clockwork Orange” livestream can be seen here, on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, tonight at 7:30 EDT:

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

June 2, 2023
Radio Days My Mom & Me

Mom was so proud to have me on the radio. She didn’t live to hear “Picture Perfect” or my weekday afternoon shifts, or to follow my newspaper articles, but she used to listen on weekend mornings and never missed “The Lost Chord.” Until last year, I didn’t have any photos of the two of us. Then I found a few at the old house. This one is one my favorites, as clearly we are birds of a feather.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

May 14, 2023
WWFM Quits & My Shows Find New Home on KWAX

The official line is that, as of the end of April, my weekly shows, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” have “sunsetted” on WWFM. I’ve got documentation to the effect and announcements were made over the air. So going forward, whatever the station decides to do in terms of maintaining the illusion of my continued employment there, up to and including rebroadcasts of any of my recorded material, don’t you believe it. Barring extraordinary measures on the part of management – beginning with a little basic human kindness and ending with actually paying me again, for a change – after 28 years, WWFM and I are quits.

That said, the shows are syndicated, and I am in the process of taking over distribution from home, with the production of all-new programs. Which is great, because my hands have been tied since the pandemic broke across New Jersey in March 2020 and all part-time employees were barred from entering the WWFM studios. For over three years.

For now, I enthusiastically endorse listening to the shows on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon. They’ve got a friendly and knowledgeable crew out there, overseen by the benevolent Peter Van de Graaff, whose Beethoven Satellite Network was also dropped from WWFM some time ago, in favor of the blathering hosts and bleeding chunks of music (up to ten fragments an hour) from Classical 24, an inferior service out of Minnesota, now ladled out by WWFM for 20 hours or more of its broadcast day.

KWAX is classical radio the way it used to be, with complete symphonies and concertos, chamber and instrumental music, and choral and vocal works, presented in a respectful, intelligent, and entertaining context. What’s more, Peter is on the air much of the time, as weekday morning host (in addition, his Beethoven Satellite Network runs overnight), and since the station is on the West Coast, everything is three hours behind Trenton-Princeton, so he doesn’t go off until 3:00 in the afternoon EDT! I’m in paradise. I think you will be too.

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

To emphasize my sense of liberation, this week on “Picture Perfect,” I’ll be shaking the dust off my boots with an hour of music about prison breaks.

Indomitable Steve McQueen does hard time on Devil’s Island in “Papillon” (Jerry Goldsmith); Paul Newman sticks it to The Man in “Cool Hand Luke” (Lalo Schifrin); Tim Robbins makes good use of a Rita Hayworth poster in “The Shawshank Redemption” (Thomas Newman); and an all-star cast, led by a barbed-wire hopping McQueen, flee their Nazi captors in “The Great Escape” (Elmer Bernstein).

Let’s face it, nobody looks good in orange. Grab a shank and a file, and get yourself free. We’re bustin’ out of the joint, THIS FRIDAY AT 5:00 P.M. PACIFIC TIME (which translates to 8:00 PM EDT, a good time for listening on the East Coast) on KWAX.

Here’s the schedule at a glance. Clip it and keep it in your wallet!

PICTURE PERFECT – Fridays on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD – Saturdays on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

Stream them here:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTO: Gazing deeply into my backside, as I tunnel out of a bad situation

May 12, 2023
“Lost Chord” & “Picture Perfect” Find New Home on KWAX

A friendly reminder that, even though WWFM has dropped both “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord,” the shows can still be heard in syndication.

For example, last week’s edition of “The Lost Chord,” which concluded my WWFM run – on very short notice, I might add – will be broadcast today on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon. KWAX carries both “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord.”

Until now, in syndication, the individual programs have aired one week after being broadcast on WWFM, so they’ve always been out-of-sync with my Facebook promos. Well, now we no longer have to concern ourselves about that, do we?

If you missed last week’s broadcast of “The Lost Chord” – “Roses of Persia,” an hour of Persian polyphonic music – you can catch it today on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME. In the East, that translates to 7:00 EDT. A good time during which to catch the show. Actually better than its former time slot.

Tune in to KWAX and be sure to take a look around at the rest of its programming. There’s a lot of syndicated fare on weekends, but also, especially during the week, a lot of Peter Van de Graaff. You remember Peter? Why, he used to do the early afternoons and overnights on WWFM!

I think you’ll find that, in general, KWAX’s broadcasts are intelligent, professional, and personable. They don’t chop up the music like so many links of sausages, unlike some services we know. Symphonies and concertos, chamber and instrumental music are all presented complete. Furthermore, the announcers aren’t compelled to pollute the air waves with a lot of mindless blather.

You’ll note that many of your favorite WWFM shows are also carried by KWAX. Follow the link and explore. I think you’ll be glad you did.

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

You can refresh your memory as to the content of today’s episode of “The Lost Chord” by reviewing this post I wrote last week for its WWFM broadcast. Again, please note that the time and station of origin have changed. “The Lost Chord” may now be enjoyed on KWAX, Saturdays at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT).

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1086510718934657&set=a.883855802533484

FYI – “Picture Perfect” can also be heard on KWAX, Fridays at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT).

IMAGE: Seemorgh the phoenix rises on KWAX!

May 6, 2023
Radio Show Ending After 36 Years

Holy smokes! I just did the math, and I’ve been broadcasting music on the radio for 36-some years!

To all of you who have been private messaging me and posting your comments here on Facebook, thank you for your support. It means a lot that you will miss “Picture Perfect” and/or “The Lost Chord” (both of which aired their last on WWFM this past weekend). Some of you are curious to know more. I have tried to include all the relevant information below, without pointing fingers and with emotional restraint.

I will say the decision to end the programs was not mine. I was emailed by WWFM’s program director the afternoon of Wednesday, April 19, and notified that the shows would be “sunsetting,” with “Picture Perfect” concluding its weekly run on April 29 (ten days later) and “The Lost Chord” ending on April 30.

The reason I was given is that those who make these decisions would like to refresh the program schedule. You can’t really argue with that. However, it would have been nice had I been given the option to help freshen it up by creating some new shows!

Needless to say, I put a lot into these broadcasts, and I have done so for quite a long while (“Picture Perfect” for 13 years; “The Lost Chord” for 20).

A combination of COVID-19 safety restrictions and budgetary considerations have kept me out of the WWFM studios for the past three years. During that time, a skeleton crew of managers have had to lean heavily on syndicated programming, automation, and remote control to maintain a 24-hour schedule. Which is why suddenly a lot of unfamiliar voices started to pop up and why you’re not getting a lot of weather forecasts, time checks, or community representation.

Unfortunately, you’re also not hearing very many complete pieces of music, as the trend with the principal service being relied upon is toward sound bites and pretty melodies without a lot of depth or space for reflection.

The reasons for this are complex, and I am not placing blame. The station is affiliated with a college, the first priority of which must necessarily be admissions. There’s no reason to start paying more people to improve the radio broadcasts of a station that, to an undiscerning ear, seems to be functioning just fine without them. It’s not the college’s primary mission and therefore non-essential. I can live with that.

However, my not being able to use the production studios during all that time means that I have not been able to produce new content.

As the months and years passed, I continued to select archived episodes of “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” for rebroadcast, touching them up at home to remove any time-sensitive material or to tailor them to important anniversaries. I do not have a home studio (which I will be remedying very soon), so any extensive new recording would have to be done at the station.

If there was a concern about the reruns becoming stale, I was never told, and I would have been happy to produce new episodes with authorized access to the station equipment.

I should add, at the time of the Picture Perfect “sunset” notification, I was given the option to start producing new shows on a once-a-month basis – for “Picture Perfect” only. Whether or not that means I would now be able to resume recording at the WWFM studios was not made clear. What was made clear was that I would receive no monetary compensation for my work and that the program would air in rotation with three other WWFM specialty programs on Friday evenings at 6:00.

This I declined to do, for several reasons. To put all that work into producing a polished program that would only air on a first-Friday schedule would be foolhardy. Listeners would never remember to tune in, it’s no way to build an audience, and for hardcore film music fans, it would be death by starvation. Having to wait a month to hear your favorite music doesn’t exactly convey a sense that the station cares very much about it.

To make it worthwhile, the show would have to be produced weekly or not at all. “Picture Perfect” is not a “pops” show. You will never hear kitschy arrangements of movie themes, lazily strung together, as if these are in some way representative of the actual scores. It’s a serious film music show that honors the integrity of the music and the composers.

As for pay, I’m a professional, but I have not received monetary compensation for “Picture Perfect” or “The Lost Chord” for years. Granted, for most of their run, I was paid for the production of recorded shows, but at a point, when we were looking for ways to tighten up the budget, it was agreed by everyone that those of us who produced specialty shows would attempt to get underwriters to support them. Which means we would only be paid for them if there was an underwriter.

Unfortunately, the way it was handled, it turned out to be a cumbersome system that didn’t really give me the authority to work out a deal. Instead, I was a basically a go-between, and I’ve had at least one prospective coalition collapse because of it.

At this point, I am basically resigned to the shows being taken off the air. However, if there are any “angels” reading this who are interested in underwriting (meaning a serious commitment, not just a week or two), it’s possible the station could be persuaded to reinstate them, with me providing fresh content. Should that be the case, please contact the station. I am not in a position from which I can simply walk into a room and discuss it with anyone. If you would like to split the cost with other contributors, tell the station so, by phone or email, and maybe they’ll be able to put together a deal for you.

This is not an attempt to incite a bunch of angry villagers to storm the castle with their torches, but if there’s anything else you’d care to express on the matter, you can contact the station manager/program director, Alice Weiss, at alice@wwfm.org. There’s also a phone number on the WWFM website. PLEASE NOTE: If you write to the info@wwfm.org address, in all likelihood it will only get lost.

Of course, your opinions will carry more weight if you happen to be a financial supporter of the station. But volume also speaks. If a lot of you like the show(s), and you let them know, they may be inclined to keep one of them. But frankly, if it isn’t the case, I’m ready to pack up my wagon and roll on to the next opportunity.

Again, I am happy that my work has meant enough to you that you’ve read this far. And I am grateful to WWFM for providing a platform from which I’ve been able to share music for the past 28 years (if you count my live air shifts). Some times were sweeter than others, but I never felt anything but contentment while I was spinning the records – the sweet spot where it was just me and the audience.

It was an unspoken compact that kept me there for decades, despite a lot of physical, psychological, and emotion wear-and-tear. No benefits, limited time off, hindered social life, strain on relationships, work on weekends and holidays, and for many years getting up at 3 or 4 in the morning and driving in all weather.

But what have I done for them lately?

At the moment, I’ve got a couple of other irons in the fire, including a very kind offer that arrived in my private messages the other day. But I had hoped to continue to have my local shows distributed from my local classical music station. Do what you will in terms of emailing, but I think it’s realistic to expect that they’ll pretty much do what they have always done, which is whatever it is they want to do.

For the time being, past shows are still archived as webcasts at the station website – although it looks as if the audio files for the last month or so have yet to be posted; but they’re there through March, with the more recent installments perhaps still on the way. The only other thing I ask is that you please excuse the horrendous profile pic!

https://www.wwfm.org/people/ross-amico

May 2, 2023

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