Bit of Ivory

I mean, I always knew that music affects you, but this has been such a dramatic change, I’m really quite amazed.

So, on Nov. 1, KOSY started playing Christmas music, right? Well, my boss went to change the station, but rather than changing it straight to KODJ (the oldies station) as we’d discussed, she went to KSFI instead, which is a near-clone of KOSY. It wasn’t as dramatic a change as I’d hoped, but while they played a lot of the same songs, they also played several that KOSY never did, and they didn’t seem to repeat artists and songs as much as KOSY did. I was satisfied.

Until I came to work on Monday, only to discover– TA DA! KSFI has switched to Christmas, too! GAH. Although they weren’t as annoying as KOSY’s Christmas– they stuck mostly to old-school stuff like Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole and Andy Williams and the Carpenters. So I didn’t have to hear any rendition of “Last Christmas, I Gave You My Heart” before Alyson got in, realized that yes, they were playing the Ringalingalinga Ding Dong Ding version of “Sleigh Ride,” and we’d better change the station again. So she did, and this time she went straight to KODJ.

Oh my heck, you guys. What a difference! There’s still some overlap– KOSY was big on 70s soft rock, and KODJ plays it too (they call themselves a Super Hits station, which means they play 60s and 70s music rather than their original format of 50s and 60s), but in a much greater variety. So while I hear Neil Diamond several times a day, it’s a much wider range of his songs (“Forever in Blue Jeans”! “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”!). KODJ knows that ABBA and Frankie Valli and the Beach Boys had more than one hit– shocking! And they mix up the stuff I’ve heard a lot of lately with stuff I haven’t heard in ages– “Happy Together” by the Turtles and “Hooked on a Feeling” by B.J. Thomas and “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees and “The Mighty Quinn” by Manfred Mann and the original Supremes version of “Can’t Hurry Love” instead of the mediocre Phil Collins remake, and– it’s fantastic, people, it really is. It’s all I can do not to sing out loud when “Sherry” comes on, and I walked into work yesterday filled with glee when I realized that I wouldn’t have to hear “Before He Cheats” or “How to Save a Life” or “Chasing Cars” or any Celine Dion. At all! Not until January, at least! Although my boss has gotten such good comments on the station, that I have a sneaking suspicion she might leave it here, even after KOSY abandons the Christmas Overload format.

I’m sure I’ll get sick of it eventually, but right now I’m so giddy about the music, it makes the day go faster and leaves me SO much less cranky at the end of the day. So I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.