My Story
I remember growing up and first discovering FM radio in Los Angeles California in the late 60’s. I remember the music was not limited to 2 minute little ditties of which we would get 3 in a row if we were lucky as in AM radio formats. With the dawning of FM radio, we were exposed to 7 and 8 minute jams and even longer. Some radio stations played the entire side of a lp. I remember listening to 25 to 30 minute sets playing all kinds of music. The exposure was new, exciting and I thought breathtaking!
However that exciting and breathtaking feeling did not last for long. It either became too expensive for Radio Stations to play that kind of playlist or Radio Station Management became too greedy — I am not sure which one was the case. Advertisers introduced the concept of segmentation to station owners. The conversation went something like this — “Hey if you play only this type of music (pick it, pop, jazz, classic rock, soul etc.) you will appeal to the X to Y age bracket. We can give you commercials to play that will satisfy that age bracket. You will make a fortune!”
And so it began — segmented radio — all mellow, all jazz, all pop, all alternative — you name it and it was all something. The Disc Jockeys that were forced to play these formats became very disillusioned and left the stations and were replaced by robot type DJ’s that enjoyed playing these types of formats. Of course commercials began to dominate these formats.
Some people (the very few) benefited from these types of radio formats, but the majority of us became less exposed to different kinds of music, became stale when it came to this subject and perhaps even a little ignorant because we kept hearing the same stuff. We either became bored or got stuck in a certain genre and became even more boring. I love the guy who tells me that there never was music like there was in the late 60’s and early 70’s and music has been dead since then.
With the birth of internet radio, some stations have tried to break that genre stigma by suggesting that you enter a certain band and the station would then play that band plus other bands like it. Pandora and Spotify come to mind. This concept is a marked improvement over prior segmented radio formats, but the segmentation is still there. You didn’t get a chance to expand beyond music of a certain band that you liked. It also is too much work to keep changing stations. We even have you tube — once again, too hard to build a playlist.
At the Fusion Pocket, we try to break this boredom and excess effort by focusing on music segues. We play music by all musicians over the last 70 years. Yes, 70 years. For example, we play music by Charlie Parker Live from a New York night club in 1946 followed by the latest release by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We play music from Bands all over the world. We play the Marvelettes followed by Joe Bonamassa. We do our best to stay on top of new music from all types whether it be music from the Delta Generators or the latest from Joan Osborne.
So we invite you to join us in the Fusion Pocket and listen to the various kinds of music such as Blues, Jazz, Country, Rock, Reggae, Soul, Folk and World Beat. We hope that you find us interesting and educational.