Sonic Café, that’s the Television Man, Talking Heads from 1985’s Little Creatures release, so hey welcome, I’m Scott Clark and this is episode 423. This time the Sonic Café celebrates Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film Network as it nears its 50th anniversary. Network was way ahead of its time, in that it predicted what today’s sensationalized media landscape would look like, demonstrating the infotainment we see today, disguised as news. Listen for observations about the film, along with key movie moments from the late Ned Beatty, as CEO Arthur Jenson, presenting what many consider the most profound moment in movie history, and also Peter Finch as newscaster and TV profit Howard Beal’s famous rant, when he tells his viewers to fling open there windows and shout, I’m mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore. Great stuff. Our music mix plays a solid supporting roll, with each tune expanding on our love hate relationship with our televisions. Listen for Don Henley, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruce Springsteen, Daft Punk and more all straight ahead as the Sonic Café celebrates the film Network, at 50, from that little radio café way out here in the Pacific Northwest, here’s ZZ Top with TV Dinners, and we’re the Sonic Café.
Song 1: Television Man Artist: Talking Heads LP: Little Creatures Yr: 1985 Song 2: TV Dinners (2019 Remaster) Artist: ZZ Top LP: Eliminator Yr: 1983 Song 3: The Most Profound Moment in Movie History Artist: Ned Beatty LP: Network Yr: 1976 Song 4: Dirty Laundry Artist: Don Henley LP: Actual Miles Yr. 1985 Song 5: Kill Your Television Artist: Ned's Atomic Dustbin LP: God Fodder Yr: 2015 Song 6: Network - How To Write Satire Artist: Just Write LP: Network Yr: 2024 Song 7: Throw Away Your Television Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers LP: By the Way Year: 2015 Song 8: 57 Channels (And Nothin' On) Artist: Bruce Springsteen LP: Yr: 1992 Song 9: Howard Beal Rant Artist: Peter Finch LP: Network Yr: 1976 Song 10: Television Rules the Nation Artist: Daft Punk LP: Human After All Yr: 2005 Song 11: The Barry Williams Show Artist: Peter Gabriel LP: Up Yr: 2002 Song 12: television the drug of the nation Artist: The Disposable Heros of Hipocrasy LP: Yr: 1992 Song 13: Network Ending Artist: Network LP: Network Yr: 1976
About the Producer:
Scott Clark has always had a lot of music in his life. Growing up outside of Chicago, he was mesmerized early on by the radio of the sixties and seventies and began collecting records at a very early age. From 45’s and LP’s to cassettes and CD’s and now digital… he really never stopped. Today everything in his library is digitized because he got sick of lugging all that stuff around.
The concept for the Sonic Café is to deliver the high production values and feel of the radio he grew up listening to. But unlike the tight, repetitious playlists of those commercial stations, feature a massive range of artists, genres and tunes. The whole idea is to package it in an eclectic, engaging, no repeat format that brings both new and old together in a unique, entertaining, and most importantly fun and fast paced way. There’s really nothing on the radio today, or in the past, that compares with it.
About the Sonic Café:
The show is set in an imaginary cafe overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the Central Oregon Coast. The cafe serves up eclectic, intelligent music, comedy and pop culture. The program originates on the Oregon coast in the Pacific Northwest, so the imagery is not a huge stretch.
Each program is 58:00 minutes in length leaving room for station ID, promos and PSAs. Each episode is .mp3 encoded at a constant rate of 256kbps and ready for broadcast.
An episode is released each week. All episodes are evergreen; never focusing on time of year, weather, month, holidays, events etc. so each show is timeless. All music is presented in a no repeat format. Once a song airs in an episode it never airs again. Episodes may be downloaded and grouped together to quickly create program blocks of two, three, four or more hours in length.
The Sonic Cafe has a Facebook page (facebook.com/SonicCafeRadio) where complete show notes and playlists are presented for each episode. Listeners can also reach the show producers via email (SonicCafeRadio@gmail.com)