Don't blame me. Blame Rite-Aid.
We've been doing “Upper Michigan's
Favorite Friday” for over a decade now. For those of you who don't
know what it is, every Friday we take a musical artist, spotlight
their songs, and then take votes to see which our listeners pick as
Upper Michigan's favorite by that particular artist. It's a lot of
fun, and it's been a staple of our Friday programming for, like,
forever.
When putting them together I sometimes
try to take topical events or certain anniversaries to decide which
artist to do when. And there are just some artists we haven't gotten
to yet, even after a decade of “Favorite Fridays”. So when I
read a news story last weekend about how Rite-Aid, the national drug
store chain, was playing the music of a certain artist to try &
drive panhandlers away from storefronts in certain cities, I knew it
was time.
I knew that this week we had to figure
out Upper Michigan's favorite Barry Manilow song ever.
I'm being serious. In order to get
panhandlers away from their stores, certain L.A. Rite-Aids have been
playing Barry Manilow music in their parking lots. And apparently
it's been working; the stores that play Barry Manilow music report
that there are fewer people begging in the area. It's not actually a
new idea; the U.S. military blasted Guns & Roses at the home of
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega back in 1989, in an attempt to
make him come out of hiding. It worked with Guns & Roses, and
now it's apparently working with Barry Manilow.
As to which is the worse form of
torture; well, I'll leave that up to you.
Now, I realize that there are a lot of
hardcore Barry Manilow fans out there, fans who might take exception
to us featuring him on “:Favorite Friday” for this reason. And I
get that. I understand it. But think of it this way. At least he's
still in the news, right? It's much better than us featuring him on
“Favorite Friday” because he died or something, correct? Think
of it this way—if his music is successful in driving away
panhandlers in L.A., maybe that means it'll spread to other cities
around the country. Maybe everyone who has some kind of societal
problem they need to take care of (or push off on someone else;
that's a discussion for another day) will start playing Barry
Manilow. Maybe he'll reach heights of popularity unseen even during
his peak in the mid 70s.
Stranger things HAVE happened (and
that's not even including the fact that people are using Barry
Manilow music to drive away panhandlers!)
So if you were curious, that's why
we're featuring him this week on “Upper Michigan's Favorite
Friday”. I hope you enjoy listening to his music throughout the
week, and I hope you'll get your vote in on Friday. And
remember—it's Rite-Aid's fault we're doing it.
8-)
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