My undergraduate station played more Thomas Dolby than it probably gave itself credit for. It probably didn’t even know it played that much.
There were the obligatory Science and Hyperactive flashbacks during the rock shifts - but Science didn't age very well and sounded very out of place; few people seemed to remember anything about Hyperactive. There was the occasional modern track, such as the very cool Close but No Cigar, which appeared on one of the old weekly preview discs, but what infrequent airtime it had was diminished when the station received a new computer system and thus never put a lot of songs back into rotation.
Still, no Thomas Dolby song comes to mind at college more than Airhead. Airhead was a featured track on one of those College Music Journal (CMJ) compilation discs, discs that were mostly regulated to the Pit program (see Kill the Crow). I laugh when I hear the song now because while it was never played in its entirety, the song was featured at least four or five times every weekday and I doubt anyone ever knew what song it was.
How?
I made mention that in addition to students preparing news and sports broadcasts, one student was usually charged with the creation and maintenance of the various production components – which for this anecdote meant the news and sports intros. There were two separate, brief introductions consisting of a voice-over-music that allowed a distinct segue from one type of programming into news and sports (see Sleeping Beauty). For reasons never made clear I chose to use Airhead for the sports bed music, mainly because it had a "sound" that broke away from the trend that sports music must sound like something off ESPN. Airhead had a funky keyboard introduction that I thought would be different and become somewhat memorable. I, once again, was right.
The sports introduction was probably no more than 15 seconds, and I had convinced one of the instructors to do the vocals, which were rattled off somewhat quickly before Dolby kicked in the keyboard groove of the song.
The idea was that the music would be faded out as the student read his or her sport stories. And there lies the problem that made this memorable: it was a music bed (see Something Wicked This Way Comes) and with that came the established concept that one would mix the voice over the music. Nevertheless one student (Dustin) always waited until the music faded out into dead air before he said a word. Student management, listening in the station office, took notice of his trend, if only because they had heard countless sportscasts each day and it didn’t take much to notice Dustin was the only one not to talk over the music. We had gotten to the middle of the semester by this point and he had timed himself to only begin talking once the music was about to disappear completely. I don't know why he did this - I don't think it was done to be spiteful. I just don’t think he wanted to. (Did he really need a reason?)
In any case, the hints sent Dustin’s way from the Sports Director and others were not enough to make Dustin "get it" - until the day I changed the introduction. I had gotten some laughs from a few people when I wondered aloud what he would do if the music was lengthened. Would he sit and wait while a three-minute song played? It was all in jest at first, but then I decided to act. Airhead had at least 40 seconds of music before Dolby's vocals kicked in. It would take little effort or time to quickly edit together a new introduction with a longer music bed. Plus, with a little creative editing the instrumental could easily be looped into a piece of music as long as I wanted.
The modified intro was ready for Dustin's next sportscast and a few of us waited in the office to listen as Dustin calmly waited for the music to fade out - but it never did. Awkward, sort of uncomfortable sounds were heard as Dustin waited, but he finally gave in and – probably – began to talk about some national sports story. That then leads to another issue about mixing, this time about the sports staff reporting both local sports stories and national scores. Some people made an effort to make the local high school football games interesting, and others came close – but no cigar.
But Dustin got the hint. Talk about radio silence.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Close but No Cigar
(Thomas Dolby/Lost Toy People)
Thomas Dolby
From the album Astronauts & Heretics
1992
You came close
Close but no cigar
You didn't miss by far
You know you came this close
Close but no cigar
Some people sing love songs
Everybody's got one
This isn't my love song
It's more like my love gone wrong song...
She came to breakfast
And stayed a week
But the lie detectors
Broke down each time she tried to speak
Broke down when she said :
"You came close
Close but no cigar
You didn't miss by far
You know you came this close
Close but no cigar
No matter where you are
You know you came this close
Close but no cigar"
I remember - I remember - I remember
The promise in your eyes
As black as the night I drove you to the airport
And I remember - I remember - I remember
The wide Brazillian sky that swallowed you
Then I hit thirty
Guess I can't complain
But I must have been lonely
The night I bumped into Lorraine
She came for coffee
And stayed all night
But the lie detectors
Broke down every time I tried to smile
Broke down like the store of my life
And each dream I missed by half a mile
Broke down when I told her:
"You came close
close but no cigar
You didn't miss by far
You know you came this close
close but no cigar
No matter where you are
You know you came so close
Close but no cigar
You didn't miss by far
You know you came this close
Close but no cigar
We're better off by far
But you know we came this close
Close but no cigar
