I found it on the AM dial. A Hollywood cowboy mimicking the distinctive Alpine sound of the Moser Brothers, a wildly popular touring group of Swiss yodelers from the first half of the 20th century. I only know who they are because I looked them up after stumbling upon a trove of 78s at an estate sale. But I was tickled to make the connection to this 40s cowboy who could have watched them pass through, or heard them on the radio, just a few years before.
That show was brought to us by a “cattle report” website and featured a mix of Hillbilly and Country obscurities meandering as late as the 1950s. The host radiated a sincerely self-aware love of the music without a trace of hipster irony.
That is the wonder of AM radio. Someone releases beloved sounds into the ether with faith that they will serendipitously find a receptive ear. You are a tossed a little something and may choose to listen to it or let it pass by.
Online attempts to recreate the experience get it backward. Either you seek out a podcast finely tuned to your established interests or you give your blessing to a series of songs tailoring themselves ever closer to your liking. Giving thumbs up and down like Caesar you skip past whatever fails to strike your fancy in its opening bar.
Good radio asks you to muscle through a song to reach the next one, perhaps discovering on the way what the artist was
