On The Radio
Probably not many reading this have experienced enough birthdays to remember the evenings of elegant big band ballroom performances, hosted and broadcast live to the then very large radio audience of music fans, and glamorized by a mellow-voiced announcer. Al Alexio, vocalist and master of ceremonies for the Buzz Maddox Octet, wanted to revive that memory from the past for this concert at the Valley Jazz Club, simulating a 1939 big band radio broadcast from a fictional prestigious location, as he recreated a pre-war radio broadcast from “a Make Believe Ballroom.”
As the announcer, Alexio identified each tune about to be played, often with brief commentary or tune history, and later closed the program with a flowery statement as might the 1939 announcer have done: “You have been listening to the music of Buzz Maddox and his renowned orchestra, playing for your dancing and listening pleasure, from the legendary Magnolia Ballroom, high up in San Diego’s Washington Hotel, overlooking the beautiful Pacific Ocean. We hope you have enjoyed this broadcast of music and good times, and will join us again, soon! This is Al Alexio, bidding you, good night and good listening.” It was nostalgic and fun to hear the dated spiel, and gain perspective on those early days of big band live radio broadcasts, conveying the feeling of a special, perhaps even lavish, music event or
