Actor Howard Hesseman passed away on Saturday, Jan. 29, perhaps most well-known – at least to radio nerds – as the burned-out former hippy morning radio DJ Dr. Johnny Fever on sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati” for four seasons beginning in 1978. Hesseman was actually once a real radio DJ, for a short stint in 1967 on San Francisco freeform station KMPX.
I can only imagine how many viewers his Johnny Fever character inspired to become DJs, including this guy, who watched the first-run weekly as an elementary school kid, then in reruns whenever I could. The contrast between the on-air persona and the much more beleaguered real-life person was entertaining and believable (for a sitcom), but also offered up an example for how being on the radio lets you reinvent yourself – possibly many multiple times, as Johnny rattles off the air names and markets he’d been through in the series’ pilot episode.
Of course, Hesseman’s career was longer and more multitudinous than the four years on WKRP. But Dr. Johnny Fever, and WKRP, have become a part of the national radio mythos. The cast reunited in 2014 for an entertaining and enlightening event at the Paley Center in Los Angeles, which you can stream online.
Following years of declarations that the compact disc is dying or dead, we’re all-of-a-sudden seeing an about face in the zeitgeist, summarized most recently by Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield, who declares “the CD Revival Is Finally Here.” This cultural reckoning comes on the heels of data showing CD sales actually increased in 2021, driven by popular releases from Adele, BTS and Taylor Swift. These chart-topping artists also released vinyl versions, which, tend to be more expensive and often harder to get than digital discs. At Amazon Adele’s “30” is $35 on LP and just under ten bucks on shiny silver.
Of course, I’ve been an unabashed CD partisan for years, three years ago logging “10 Reasons Why CDs Are Still Awesome (Especially for Radio).” For me it’s not about CD vs. vinyl – I’m listening to a record right now – or even CD vs. streaming – I listen to streaming more than CDs. It’s always been about utility; CDs provide great sound in a durable medium for a great price. Sure the same $9.99 that buys you the new Adele CD also gives you a month of unlimited, ad-free access to millions of albums on several streaming services. But once you quit paying that bill you lose your music. Put the same money on a CD and you have it forever.
That said, I’ve streamed countless dozens of albums just once, or maybe not even the whole way through. Streaming is a great way to try new music without the commitment of a purchase. That sure is an improvement over the pre-streaming days where often you just had a to take a chance, especially on less popular artists and albums that you didn’t hear on the radio. Now I can preview with a stream and seal the deal with a CD (or record). The two media can be very complementary, not mutually exclusive.
I still buy CDs, though I certainly amassed the largest majority of my collection in the 90s and early 2000s. I’ve thinned the herd over the years, but still own several hundred. I recently moved and have more space in our new house, allowing us to get a cabinet to properly store the discs more accessibly than in our previous place. I’ve enjoyed browsing through and rediscovering albums I haven’t thought of or heard for years. A not-inconsiderable percentage I discover aren’t available to stream at all.
In the last few years I’ve bought a fair number of used CDs at what I consider to be bargain prices. Now I’m wondering if this renewed interest will trigger price increases, as young people want to check out what they’ve been missing, and older folks refresh their collections. I wonder if we’ll see any hint of the rebuying phenomenon I’ve observed with the vinyl resurgence: folks who had vinyl in their youth, which they ditched for CDs, which they ditched for iTunes downloads, which they ditched for streaming, then rebuying those albums on vinyl. Will they now be springing for their third or fourth copy of “Sgt. Pepper’s,” “Hotel California” or “Led Zeppelin IV,” on CD?
Perfect sound forever, again!
