[BC] From coast to coast (and sea to ....)

[Barry Mishkind]

At 08:37 AM 12/18/05, Rich Wood wrote
>Having lived for many years in the Southwest (sorry "The Great 
>Southwest" Dallas) and California I can tell you there's a dramatic 
>philosophical difference between coasts. Maybe it's because New 
>Yorkers are so used to constant high ambient noise that everything 
>must be loud and mashed just to punch through it. It might

         I have, over the years, driven coast to coast a time or three.
         When I did the first trip, AM was still king nearly everywhere.
         I remember noticing four key things:
                 1. Music, like the weather, travelled from west to east,
                      with new music a week or so behind California.
                 2. Virtually no CA stations used reverb. Virtually ALL
                      NY stations used reverb. In the middle of the
                      country, it was about 50/50.   Strange...
                 3. FM "out of phase" conditions were common. The
                      big 104.7 in LA was out of phase, and the IDs
                      were hilarious.  Also a station in Macon was
                      running Hitparade - out of phase.
                 4. Jocks in the west (even Drakers) were usually
                      smoother, with deeper voices on balance.
                     A lot of eastern jocks were more nasal and
                       heavily accented. The "pattern of speech"
                     and content was different. It seemed less
                     content was used by eastern stations.
                     I admit I could not understand why Dan
                     Ingram was popular.  Bruce Morrow, on
                     the other hand, "reached" me.