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by jon bosworth
jaxvillain@yahoo.com
"Route 66, for some, will not be as much about the music, as it is about the memories that come through your mind when you hear the song. In a romantic or nostalgic way, that's what I like about the show, it takes you back to another time. It's about more than just singing along."
When I arrived at the Burrito Gallery to meet David Luckin, the host of 89.9's Electro Lounge, I wasn't sure what to expect. Fearing I was late, I asked a couple of friends that were in line to get their tofu tacos if they knew what David looked like. They told me I should be looking for an old hippie. This made me laugh because my father, who was a disc jockey throughout the 50s and 60s, had just described the baby boomers as ex-hippies.
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To my relief, when David Luckin was brought to my table, he didn't look like an ex-hippie at all. Sure, he had a beard, but it was neatly trimmed, his hair wasn't very long, and he didn't have that whole "my generation got it right" attitude. In fact, judging from Electro Lounge, the only radio show on the Jacksonville airwaves that celebrates eclectic new, old, and world music, I thought of Luckin as being pretty ahead of the curve for a baby boomer. That was why I was surprised to hear that he was bringing Route 66, an oldies show, to 89.9's listening audience.
"I've always dropped sixties songs into Electro Lounge. On Route 66 we'll play great songs that some people grew up with, but don't fit Electro Lounge. This gives me a chance to play all of those great songs in one place, where they won't seem out of place."
Ever since Cox killed the Cool FM format on 96.9, the oldies haven't had a stable place on the Jacksonville dial. Cox felt that their target demographic wasn't being served anymore by the oldies format, so they updated to…well to almost the same format as their other stations, Rock 105 and 102.9 The Point. Luckin saw a need.
"This is the baby boomers' time. We should be able to hear the music we grew up with somewhere."
To this end, Route 66 will feature twin spins, old jingles, commercials from the 50s and 60s, old news spots, air checks and radio the way it used to be.
"Someone called me once and said ‘you do it the old fashioned way, you actually get to pick the music.' It allows us to go deep into albums, we don't have to play the stuff you always hear. Don't get me wrong, we'll play the Righteous Brothers and the stuff that you remember and love, but we can also play other stuff."
So you might hear Yesterday and Michelle, songs you always hear by the Beatles, but you're more likely to hear ‘Bad Boy,' a song from Beatles VI that has been all but forgotten over time. He is also very proud of the selection of Motown songs, they will sound different than the ones you've heard on the radio because Luckin is playing original cuts, not the remixes that made it to the radio, but originals with violin parts and longer intros. What won't you hear?
"I'm not going to play a lot of bubblegum. I'm sure people love it, but I want to play Motown and rock and roll, not The Archies."
You also won't hear anything recorded after 1972, so expect Roy Orbison, The Supremes and Crosby, Stills & Nash, but don't expect any disco.
Like many of the baby boomers, Luckin grew up listening to the radio, and as he got older he listened to underground stations in the 60s and 70s.
"People just played what they thought was good music with no worries about sponsors or who listened. That's how I think of Electro Lounge."
So Electro Lounge represents the here and now of music, but that is only half of the story.
"I love to play music from 2006 and 2007, because it's important to have music that reflects this time. It's also important to go back to the roots."
As a part of the younger audience that Electro Lounge is supposed to appeal to (and I do tune it in from time to time), I can personally attest to the fact that there is no radio music format in town that I enjoy listening to since the oldies went off the air. This mentality is reflected in many of my peers and it is also not a new trend.
"I've played oldies before, and on Electro Lounge I get more response from young people when I play old music. I had a 20-something that was really into a Righteous Brothers song she heard on Electro Lounge. Here I'm playing new music to reach her, and she's into the old music. When I was growing up I was going back in time and listening to Count Basie and Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller and the older music while everyone else was listening to Jimi Hendrix. It's gratifying to see that kids want to hear something a little different, not Brittany Spears or hip-hop, but something different."
The middle of the twentieth century was also a groundbreaking time for music.
"All pop music springs from about six people. Louis and Miles, Elvis and the Beatles, and Dylan and Marley. You can trace everything you listen to back to one of those influences. Dylan is the poet, Elvis is the rebel, and no one sang like Louis Armstrong before. Those six are the most important performers in pop music."
Another aspect of Route 66 is going to be the stories behind the songs. The songs played on this show aren't new anymore, so we have had forty years to excavate the stories behind them, and Luckin is loaded with them. From the story behind ‘My Boyfriend's Back' by The Angels to the real meaning behind the songs you thought you had all figured out, Route 66 will re-introduce a forgotten time to provide a new perspective on those good old days.
"The Beach Boys are a perfect group. I loved them when I was a kid, then I didn't care about them for a number of years, and now I listen and I'm amazed at what a great songwriter that Brian Wilson is. I'm coming back to people I lost interest in and realizing that in their time, it's really nice music."
Luckin also hopes to have local celebrities join him in the studio to help bring out the listeners memories. From local television celebrities to working musicians, he wants to bring people you know in to help him program the show. It will stir up the listener's memories of the time and provide you a new insight into the personality of the person, through the music they select and the stories that those selections draw out of them.
"Herman's Hermits was the first show I ever saw and The Who opened and smashed all of their instruments. ‘Mrs Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter' juxtaposed with The Who was incredible."
Another aspect of Route 66 will be a remix song featured every night. Luckin has built a catalog of people redoing or remixing songs from the era and the new versions reinvent the song to show the depth and longevity of the lives of these songs.
Route 66 will air every Monday night from 9 pm - 11 pm starting in June and running through September. Electro Lounge can already be heard every Tuesday – Friday from 9 pm – 11 pm and on Saturday from 10 pm – 12 am.
"You haven't heard these songs in 30 years and if I asked you to sing them, you couldn't. But if you heard it, it would all come flooding back. It's personal, not between me and the listener, but between the music and the listener."
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
