Sunday, December 20, 2020

FREE THE CHRISTMAS CAROLS!

 For the past fifteen years or so, the local radio station has played 24-7 Christmas carols from November 15th on and my kids love it.   I have a love hate relationship with the station, because they seem intent every year on fixing a rotation that includes about 25 songs and 10 reserve rookies that they pull up durring off hours.   It means you will hear all 35 in the rotation in about three hours if there are no repeats.  Since there are always repeats, you will hear all 35 songs at least three times a day.   Bottom line, it will get old fast. 

My kids bought me an Alexa for my birthday last year, and I thought this would solve the problem, but Alexa has her own opinions about music and as much as you might ask for "We need a little Christmas" from That Christmas Feeling, you'll get the Glee version.  If you ask for Christmas music in general, you'll get the 35 rotation set.   Now I know, there are many more Christmas songs, good, bad, sappy, syrupy and great, modern and old, jazzed and country, choral and orchestral than get played by either Alexa or the station, but they're somehow locked away by the algorithms.   

I have a solution. I've become deliberate with Alexa and the radio station, making specific requests for songs that need more airtime.  I'm hoping hearing a human voice asking for human voices will get somewhere.  So far, I've found out you can irritate a robot and that no one is at the station taking our calls.  I'm not discouraged, I'm determined.   Singing acapella works for the Penatonix because they can sing.  Singing my favorites to Alexa might be what causes the eventaul A.I. uprising against the fleshy ones, but I'm determined to remind the powers that be that make decisions about what will and won't be heard that there are worse things to shatter the silence than songs by other than the pre-tested 35 selected chestnuts of the season, so that maybe when I call again, they'll pick up the phone.  

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