Friday, February 13, 2009

'Dissing' Steve Post:

Steve Post used to produce a morning classical music progam on WNYC. It was a fine program. His choice of music was good, and his news-reading was incomparable. He would read bad news in a mordant tone, expressing remarkable doubt at every assurance given to us by those in the mainstream. You only had to hear Steve read, just once, that a reported accident had released no significant radiation into the environment, never to believe such assurances again.

Well, WNYC revamped its programming format, and Steve Posts's program disappeared. I found that very sad, but time has gone on, and now Steve Post has a program that really feels like a Podcast. (Some of the shows are available as podcast downloads.) It's called the No Show. Steve mixes music of many types, mostly not classical, to punctuate his reminiscences and reveries on life. He's allowed to talk a lot more now, and some of his extended musings are worth listening to.

I recently received an email notifying me that there will be eight more episodes of the No show this year. I am repeating this email in its entirety, because it seems to contain the worst insult that Steve Post has ever received. Here it is:

There's good news and there's bad news.

The good news is that The NO SHOW with Steve Post is returning to the air for an eight-week run.

The bad news is that The NO SHOW with Steve Post is returning to the air for an eight-week run.

(It all depends on your point of view.)

The NO SHOW will air on Saturdays at 4 PM on the following dates:
February 7, 14, 21, 28
March 7, 21, 28
April 4
Note that The NO SHOW will not be heard on March 14 in order to bring you a special program of much greater interest, to be determined.


In case you missed it, here's the insult:
"Note that The NO SHOW will not be heard on March 14 in order to bring you a special program of much greater interest, to be determined."

Evidently, Steve's show will not be heard on March 14 because the station already knows that they will broadcast something more important; but they do not know what that is yet. This plan makes sense, if WNYC has already determined that everything else in this world is more important than the No Show. Steve, say it isn't so!

12 comments:

jgfellow said...

Or, perhaps, they've heard Steve's March 14th show already, and it's simply sub-par.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear Steve is back if only for a limited run. I used to listen to him back in the '70's (college years)on Saturday nights from midnight to 5am headphones on and blanket very often jammed into my face so as to not wake anyone else in the house. Would love to hear some live phone calls again. Where are you John?

reevo79 said...

Glad to hear Steve is back if only for a limited run. I used to listen to him back in the '70's (college years)on Saturday nights from midnight to 5am headphones on and blanket very often jammed into my face so as to not wake anyone else in the house. Would love to hear some live phone calls again.

Anonymous said...

Where's John? Where's Marshall Efron? Where's "Post loses Post Post"?

And where are all the 1/4 track reel-to-reel tapes I used to have from those days.

Bluemirror said...

And where is a source of "Time keeps tick-tocking-away" with which Steve Post used to close his all night show on WBAI?

From Songs Of Fred Engelberg.

Anonymous said...

But...Where is Steve Post now?

Anonymous said...

I doubt you'll read this because the original blog post was so long ago.

The message is undoubtedly ironic (or maybe sarcastic). If fact, it sounds like it was written by Steve Post himself.

That's one of his running gags -- about how awful his show is even as your laughing your but off enjoying it.

Post often claimed that the listener was wasting his or her time listening -- kind of like Click and Clack concluding each episode of Car Talk by saying "you've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk."

tobyr21@gmail.com said...

Anonymous,
Thanks for your post. You are probably right.
- PB

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know what the intro piece was for Steve Post's Morning Music show?

Anonymous said...

My blue heaven

Anonymous said...

... with an Effective Radiated Power
of 5.4 KW (horizontal) and 3.85 KW (vertical) ... depending on whether you're lying down or standing up.

Anonymous said...

opening for "morning music" (wnyc) was

chopin mazurka opus 24 no 2. or so says steve.


ps at this time, wbai concludes another day of broadcasting.