Radio Roundup

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

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SCORING ASSIGNMENT NEWS FLASH: The composer for Wing Commander, the new feature film based on the popular computer game, is Richard Gibbs. It's pretty far from Doctor Dolittle and in fact represents the first big action score - not to mention sci-fi score - for the composer. Should be interesting!

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We do this every couple of months, so here's the latest one, of film music radio shows around the country and world:

To start, in Paris -- France that is -- listen to a soundtrack show, Musique a lčecran, by Fabrice Mathieu, J.F. Ladeve and Bruno Talouarn on Vallee FM radio 96.6, Mondays from 9-10PM. The program will debut on September 7.

From: Robert Berens <Berensb@svg.com>

I just heard an announcement on KUSC that they are having a 1 hour program on Raksin some Sunday in August (I didn't catch this) at 3:00 PM (some sort of 87th birthday celebration or something...).

Does anyone have any info on this?

From: Steve Bulla <EricBall@aol.com>

What happened to a marvelous series of one hour shows called 'The Cinema Soundtrack' which used to air weekly on some of the local NPR stations in my area (Baltimore/Washington DC)? Have you heard of this? I believe it was syndicated nationally.

I forget the host's name, but he was VERY knowledgeable on the subject and prepared theme shows (ie: sci fi scores, western scores) or composer shows. Always well done. I taped a few onto cassettes.

Any info available on this? Years ago I contacted the host, who lives (lived?) in Baltimore. He mailed me a list of shows on tape that he sold by mail order. I'm guessing you would have heard about it. Not sure what became of that list...

From: "Scott Schirmer" <swayland7@hotmail.com>

I've read at the FSM website about various people's soundtrack radio shows, so I thought I'd write to tell you about mine.

Last October, I began hosting "Sounds of Cinema" on a community radio station in Bloomington, Indiana (WFHB 91.3 and 98.1 FM). I had no idea what kind of scores would be best received. I started out with an Elmer Bernstein show, then an Ennio Morricone one. The next was a show dedicated to all the great scores that came out in 1982. Slowly, the community started learning about the show, which has a cushy time slot on Sunday afternoons. They like everything!

I can't tell you how many people listen to the show, but I do have a few call-ins each broadcast, and when I give away free movie passes on the show, there are at lest 6 or 7 people who try to be the first caller.

I always ask the callers what they think of the show, and they like diversity more than anything. So now I start each broadcast with a 20-minute mix of God-knows-what. Sometimes we play "name that tune" for movie passes (convenient since I'm a movie theatre manager, too).

The shows listeners have liked the most are: A Tribute to Alan Silvestri, John Williams and Indiana Jones, and two seperate broadcasts which featured James Horner's Krull and Toto's Dune.

I keep a running broadcast log of the show at www.geocities.com/~swayland.wfhb.html, if anyone is interested.

It's great to see that soundtrack shows have started springing up all over the country, and not just in the big cities. Score one for the score!

Folks, if you do a soundtrack radio show, or listen to one, please tell us all about it:

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com

Also, if you hear about something happening almost right away - be it a radio show or cool TV broadcast, or concert or event, tell everyone on the message board. Thanks!