For some months I have been gradually listening to all my DM 10@10 tapes for
the express purpose of anotating my set lists with the clip information as
AL used to do when she posted her sets on the KFOG 10@10 web page. So the
differences in the use of clips is very fresh to me.
As others have noted, Dave's clips tended to be longer than Annalisa's.
What I have discovered is that there were almost always less of them. Four
or five clips is a lot for a DM set, and frequently it was only three, two,
or even one. And then there were the occasional "news-free" sets that
intentionally had no current events at all. An AL set was usually the
complete reverse, with a seven or eight clips, and sometimes a clip between
every song.
I generally have no complaint about Dave's longer clips, because they were
usually good material. I much prefer getting a longer excerpt of a Beatles'
Christmas record, for example. DM's news clips were often a well-crafted
compilation of reports and quotes that outlined the story arc of an event in
under sixty seconds. He would also over-dub long fade-outs or bridges with
larger amounts of material. As one example, consider my notes for the
Friday Night Champagne Remix of "Time Has Come Today" from 11-Jun-04:
4. Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today
(Friday Night Champagne Remix: over-dubbed with: LBJ will not seek the
nomination; Robert F. Kennedy campaign speech; Senator Kennedy shot and
killed; Edward Kennedy RFK eulogy; Democratic National Convention and the
Chicago demonstrations; Humphrey convention speech; Spiro Agnew nominating
Richard Nixon; Nixon chooses Maryland Governor Agnew as running mate;
Humphrey campaign speech; Nixon wins presidential election)
Whew!
Don't forget that DM also created clip theme shows. In between ten songs
from the target year would be a series of clips solely dedicated to one
notable news story from that time: the 1968 Democratic National Convention,
the Apollo 11 mission, the Watergate imbroglio, or the Patty Hearst saga.
I had a brief e-mail exchange with Annalisa a few months into her stint as
time-travel hostess. She admitted that she was concerned about putting
together shows that were as good as Dave's, not only because his were done
well, but he made it look easy! There's a lot of work behind the scenes to
create a good clip montage.
In a related observation, Dave made much greater use of various sounders
(if that's the correct term), such as: "Let's go, go, go, go, go! You're
listening to the go-go sound of all-America radio." And of course, the Don
Pardo bits. It's the kind of interstitial sonic fluff I associate with
Top-40 stations, and I assume that Dave accumulated it earlier in his
career.
I don't understand the complaint about clips that aren't really relevant.
If a news event, movie, television show, or product advertisement is from
that year, how is it not relevant? As far as news versus ads, Dave had them
as well, for example a collection of cigarette ads or the Amazing Coca Cola
Medley.
