Here you can hear one of my heroes, Willis Conovor, the broadcaster of VOA radio's jazz programme. He talks about how he got into jazz, his first records, his first radio shows, with that magical voice that for me is nothing but the voice of jazz. That voice was spreading the message of jazz to every part of the world, including Iran, as I heard it from people before me that how they learned about this music from Mr. Conover.
And to see the decadence of the culture that we used to admire, now VOA is playing to most ridiculous type of sonic distortion known as "today's music" for the countries that are fighting for freedom and democracy, again, countries like Iran. Do they think they're helping democracy by playing music about "asses shakin', and limos waitin'", the type that we can see and hear almost everywhere? Isn't it a robbery? An intellectual robbery!
I think they are betraying people of those countries, and betraying their own culture, but not giving the minimum room to what some not very clever people like me consider "the real voice of America." Where is the voice of Duke Ellington? Where is Sam Hopkins, Hank Williams, and Woody Guthrie? And the list can goes on forever.
Update [same day, 5:24 PM]
Check out the Connover archive from University of Northern Texas, including many scanned pages of his playlists, like this one from November, 1971:
I think they are betraying people of those countries, and betraying their own culture, but not giving the minimum room to what some not very clever people like me consider "the real voice of America." Where is the voice of Duke Ellington? Where is Sam Hopkins, Hank Williams, and Woody Guthrie? And the list can goes on forever.
Update [same day, 5:24 PM]
Check out the Connover archive from University of Northern Texas, including many scanned pages of his playlists, like this one from November, 1971:
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