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Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

HahnSolo Apr 26 2012 12:47 PM

Pete Fornatale, 1945-2012.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 26 2012 12:50 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012

ooof

Edgy MD Apr 26 2012 12:52 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012

Wow. Guy wasn't a DJ. He was a curator.

metirish Apr 26 2012 12:55 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012

RIP http://www.wfuv.org/

sharpie Apr 26 2012 01:22 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012

Very sad. Mets fan.

Frayed Knot Apr 26 2012 01:31 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012

Damn. Spent many a year listening to Pete. Had drifted away from FUV in the last few years so I didn't even realize he was ill. Big Mets fan. Friend of Marty Noble.

HahnSolo Apr 26 2012 01:34 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012

Apparently it was a brain hemhorrage a week ago, and he just died this afternoon.

Frayed Knot Apr 26 2012 02:03 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012

Pete's bio from his website: http://www.petefornatale.com/ Pete Fornatale was one of the architects of Progressive Rock FM in the '60s, and he has one of the most recognizable voices in rock radio. He has been a fixture on the New York dial for four decades, starting his career at WFUV in November 1963 at WFUV as a Fordham undergraduate hosting "Campus Caravan," and then moving on to WNEW-FM in 1969 and K-Rock in 1989. Pete currently hosts "Mixed Bag" on Saturdays from 4-8pm on WFUV 90.7 in New York. The long-running show started as a Sunday morning program in late December of 1982 on WNEW. On a humorous note, Pete remembers getting a fan letter the following week from a then unknown singer-songwriter named Suzanne Vega. She would eventually become a recurring guest on the show. Pete is the author of several books about media, pop culture and music, including "The Rock Music Source Book," "Radio in the Television Age," The Story of Rock 'n' Roll" and "All You Need Is Love." He was also the primary writer of "The Elvis Collection," a 600 trading card series on the life of Elvis Presley. Pete conceived, wrote and narrated the nationally syndicated radio feature "Rock Calendar." He also wrote seven episodes of the MTV series "Rock Influences," and served as a consultant, writer and voice-over announcer for "Deja View," a series of specials distributed internationally by All-American Television in 1984-1985. Pete co-hosted the 1991 HBO telecast of "Paul Simon Live in Central Park," and he has regularly served as an expert guest commentator on PBS specials featuring The Bee Gees, Bobby Darin, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Mamas and The Papas, The Moody Blues, Roy Orbison, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor and The Weavers. Pete has won numerous awards during his lengthy and diverse career: The New York Council of Churches Award for Broadcast Excellence (1976), the coveted Armstrong Award for Excellence in Musical Programming (1983), The New York Folk Festival Special Folks Award (1984), The World Folk Music Association Award for Making a Difference in Broadcasting (1992) and The New York AIR Award for Achievement in Radio in (1998). He is a proud Board member of World Hunger Year, the organization co-founded by Harry Chapin, and he has served as a co-anchor of the annual Hungerthon broadcasts for many years. He also serves on the Honorary Board of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

Vic Sage Apr 26 2012 02:33 PM Re: Guess who died in 2012

I remember him from WNEW in the 70s, "where rock lived". It was one of the greatest rock stations ever, with an eclectic format built around the tastes of the greatest collection of DJs in radio history. And Pete was there in the middle of it all. S'long Pete, and thanks for all the fish.

Edgy MD Apr 26 2012 02:46 PM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

It's easy to remember him as a crusty folkie, but Mixed Bag just covered that angle because it was a subgenre that the rock format largely dropped in the early eighties, and they certainly dropped finding any new voices. And he became as responsible as anybody for finding an audience for a generation or two that came too late --- Vega, Tracy Chapman, Dar Williams, the McGarrigles (though older), Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin-Carperter (he couldn't resist that name), Shawn Colvin, and Freedy (because folk rock isn't just about chicks).

Mets – Willets Point Apr 26 2012 02:57 PM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

Interesting, I would've been listening to K-ROCK heavily circa 1989 but I don't have any memory of him. Still, it's always a sad day when we lose a true DJ.

Frayed Knot Apr 26 2012 03:15 PM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

The 10AM - 2PM time slot was usually where he was found - so if your listening time was say morning drive and then again at night you could easily miss him that way. The one thing that was sort of distinctive about him was his total lack of the classic radio voice, something that would have been virtually required of someone in his job just a few years before he started. But when the big stations that were thought to be hogging the airwaves were forced to cut out their simulcasting they basically turned over the then lesser-used/lower-budget FM frequency to "those hippies" who were hanging around the station. The result was that those hippies who got on the air did so for their taste and knowledge of the music -- their music -- and not for having the classic radio-man pipes. Some of the older guys already in the business (Scott Muni, Roscoe) DID have those classic deep voices while Pete, Vin Scelsa, plus some of the early female DJs were at the right time and right place to get in on the ground floor without.

Edgy MD Apr 26 2012 05:03 PM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

Cousin Brucie still has those pipes. He's the Thurl Ravenscroft of radio. Fornatale got undersold by K-Rock. I get the notion in retrospect that landing Scelsa and then him wasn't about landing their programs and selling it for K-Rock, but about the coup itself, publicly cutting into WNEW's brand and giving those two guys' longtime listeners one more reason to change the dial to 92.3 and leave it there.

Frayed Knot Apr 26 2012 05:31 PM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

Brucie is also eight years older and got into radio at the tail end of the '50s when radio was a very different industry from what Pete and his contemporaries made it. No way he gets his first job with Pete's voice. Fornatale got undersold by K-Rock. I get the notion in retrospect that landing Scelsa and then him wasn't about landing their programs and selling it for K-Rock, but about the coup itself, publicly cutting into WNEW's brand and giving those two guys' longtime listeners one more reason to change the dial to 92.3 and leave it there. Probably. I know Pete was miserable as the free-form radio he knew degraded into a format almost as rigidly programmed as what he was originally rebelling against and that time covered the tail end of his NEW days and probably his whole tenure at KRock. I heard him describe the salad years at NEW -- where your off the radio time was spent at concerts and clubs promoting and/or searching for talent -- as a period where "there was virtually no difference between his professional and personal life". Scelsa didn't suffer as much since he was always willing to accept the lesser money & exposure in exchange for the late-night slots where he retained his freedom - although he once covered the midnight to 6AM shift at KRock only to find that the station considered the 5-to-6 slot as "early drive time" and forced him to have his list for that time pre-approved.

Edgy MD Apr 26 2012 06:06 PM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

Scelsa is almost the last of the breed. Two tenures at WLIR, a dabbling in seminary life, and a stint as a road manager for Townes Van Zandt. That's a résumé.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 26 2012 10:13 PM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

I think of Fornatale as the writer of "The Rock Music Source Book" which arranged all rock songs by their thematic content, co-authored by Fr. Bill Ayers. They and Harry Chapin campaigned for hunger relief long before it was fashionable. He also most recently wrote a history of Woodstock.

Edgy MD Apr 26 2012 10:22 PM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

I'd been trying to find out more about Ayers just this week in fact. He used to be a radio personality himself and Chapin credited him with bringing him over to the hunger cause.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Apr 27 2012 05:46 AM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

Ayers had the Sunday night "On This Rock" program where he rapped with stoned music fans who were trying to find god. Jesus was just alright with him.

Mets – Willets Point Apr 27 2012 08:45 AM Re: Mixed Bag (Split from Dead Thread)

Frayed Knot wrote: The 10AM - 2PM time slot was usually where he was found - so if your listening time was say morning drive and then again at night you could easily miss him that way. Then I almost certainly heard him since I was a high school student with insomnia who spent many a l ate night laying in bed listening to the radio.