[Dixielandjazz] This is a CALL TO ARMS!

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

I got this tirade from a friend today and could not resit the urge to 
plagerize it and adapt it to our group.   He will see it as he gets the posts form 
this list.  I have taken great care to borrow his best lines and omit the things 
that pertained soley to his projects out of respect for a rant well written.  
I get 50% writing credits for correcting his spelling, however.

Thanks John & Will.

Tom Wiggins


All of you on this list that are tired of the Clear Channel Corporate take 
over of our radio airwaves pay attention carefully, I can only say this once for 
security reasons.

I have secretly formed a clandestine terrorist cell of senior citizens and 
jazz music lovers who are pretty much one and the same as you will find out if 
you read any further.

Long before September 11, the evil corporate giant Clear Channel has held and 
still holds a
malevolent monopoly on the entire USA and European radio and live concert 
venue network, controlling what music we have a choice of to enjoy during our 
private leisure time in front of the radio, on airplanes, in elevators, shopping 
malls and most concert venues.

They have systematically suddenly yanked all of our few favorite programs of 
Jazz music off the air to make room for ANOTHER Smooth Jazz station!  Clear 
channel stations, which is almost all of them, now control what we listen to.

According to their so-called "research" there's NO room in a 4000 channel 
wasteland for ONE station that offers ultra-rare 'n' cool vintage music programs 
no one else does?

This stinks of Big Bad Brother once again trying to dominate and destroy our 
choices via slow, selective elimination. The whole point of a multichannel 
broadcasting network is, or should be, DIVERSITY.

Like many of you, I'm already tired of surfing through every stop on the dial 
for a station that plays music I want to listen to, I never listen to their 
smooth jazz station more than twenty minutes without having to either go to the 
bathroom and throw up or whatever, so  - why should they have the right to 
arbitrarily take away one of the five stations that  I DO listen to, which 
justifies the hefty tab, I pay at the shopping merchants that they sell advertising 
to, and replace it with yet another Smooth Jazz station that I'll just 
ignore.

Perhaps they just want us to die and go away.  No, that's not correct, they 
think we have already died and gone away.

 I am certain that like me, most of us have never missed a broadcast of OKOM  
that we knew of as a matter of our own religion. 

Along with Clear Channel, our local San Francisco  Cable Television server 
COMCAST which is mandatory to have in my neighborhood to receive ANY Television 
channels, has canceled  my friends John & Will's favorite TV channel, GoodLife 
TV,  a local favorite channel (despite a lot  of daytime religious 
programming) was every Tuesday night they offered  the  unique, killer 50s/60s private 
eye lineup of HAWAIIAN EYE, SURFSIDE 6  and 77  SUNSET STRIP, which I never 
missed as a matter of my own religion.  I've heard the incredible crime jazz 
soundtracks on LP for sometime, but this was the first opportunity I had to 
actually experience these classic, 
 influential, super-stylish shows. 

None of these shows has ever been released to video and they haven't been 
locally syndicated for years and years. TV Land  stopped showing really great 
rare stuff like this long ago, as they are slowly morphing into just another 
version of their sister station, Nick @  Nite (I mean, c'mon, they do still show 
classics like "The Adams Family" and  "Mr.
Ed," but do they really have to waste airtime with stuff like "Cheers"  and 
"Family Ties" which are already ubiquitous on local and cable stations?)

 GoodLife also showed increasingly rare old quality shows like THE FBI, 
F-TROOP, COMBAT, MAVERICK, SUPERMAN, HOMEFRONT, and the color version of THE 
HONEYMOONERS from the '60s. You can't get that stuff anywhere else on the tube 
nowadays, whereas every other station seems to be devoted to sports (or reality TV 
or conservative news channels) already. And I mean, no offense, but at a cer
tain point, aren't sports meant to be PLAYED, not just WATCHED? Get out there 
and toss a ball around for a change! Just sitting back rooting from the 
sidelines is like those folks who support War but would never actually FIGHT in one! 

It happened to me, it will happen to you.  It may already have.  I can't be a 
lone voice in the wilderness, though. As consumers with eclectic tastes, we 
gotta speak up in unison NOW.

Even if you're not a fan of '50s Private Eye shows, (which is 
incomprehensible to me, but that's your right), I'm asking that you, a true fan of OKOM and 
all that is decent music & TV and co-guardian's of everything Cool, at least 
fight for Diversity on YOUR Cable TV  & Radio Network  programming by joining me 
in my petition to  bring back my sacred Tuesday TV night!, and enjoyable 
music on the radio.


How can you do this?

 Simply fire off a tersely worded email to the radio station company stooge 
and 
 demand OKOM programming again be returned IMMEDIATELY to the stations 
regular format and or your cable channel programming television network:


Also let them know that the our group of terrorist will not tolerate 
corporate-imposed conformity, especially when it comes to the Media, and then 
circulate this
 email to sympathetic-minded friends.

 I've proudly done my part as a motivater - now it's your turn 
to help me Fight the Good Fight for a cause I believe in, which is the same 
as
yours: namely, rebelling against the corporate cloning of our shared popular 
culture!

Here's a dirty little trick of Time: sooner or later, we ALL get crapcanned 
to the dustbin of History. Let's show some respect for those who came before 
us, as we'll ALL be joining their forgotten ranks soon enough. It's not only 
their cultural legacies we're fighting for - ultimately, it's ours, too.

Another way you can buck the Corporate Conspiracy Against Cool 

Tell them in your email and letters that we will send in cells in every city 
they own stations in broadcasting no OKOM and we will sabotage their stations 
with Geritol and Viagra dumpings into their water coolers, have Ex-lax and 
Metamucil brownies delivered to their DJs  and staff on every shift,  and steal 
all the building supply of toilet paper daily, making the only thing smooth 
about their station the walkway on the way to the toilets. 

 We will also organize OKOM live performances in front of all the Smooth Jazz 
Stages they sponsor at the shopping malls that are paid for by their 
advertisers.  Pubic Disobedience at it's best, have your girl singers sing topless or 
naked, anything to distract their uneducated audience towards real music and 
wholesome TV programming.

Cable TV and Clear Channel just doesn't give a damn about the old classics 
anymore, disregarding our collective cultural history and pandering to the MTV 
mainstream. It's up to
us to preserve the Hipster's Heritage.

Now get to work and do your part, preaching to the choir on this list is not 
enough tell somebody who doesn't care.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins
The Senior OKOM and OKOM ( movies) Terrorist organization.