Phil Collins, Elton John, and Gloria Estefan dominated Adult Contemporary radio back in the 1980s and '90s, yet have disappeared from modern radio. Seemingly, the only time you ever hear them is at the grocery store or your local CVS. This blog remembers the music, the stories and the quirky characters from my days working in Adult Contemporary radio.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Barbara Streisand & Neil Diamond - "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"
The morning show I produced back in 2003 had the opportunity to interview Neil Diamond. While we all knew of Neil Diamond, we really didn't know what to do with the interview. The host of the show had an idea: the female co-host would do the interview solo but, after the interview, the host would ask Neil a series of questions that Neil would "ignore". The gist of the bit would be that we received word before the interview that Neil Diamond didn't like the host and would refuse to answer any questions from him. We taped the interview as planned and played it back. What followed was an onslaught of Neil Diamond fans who emailed the station complaining about what we had done. They claimed (falsely) that the interview was completely fabricated because Neil talked about the Cubs instead of the Red Sox (it was true--Neil did talk about the Cubs). I can only imagine what these same fans did when Saturday Night Live did that Neil Diamond Behind The Music parody.