#wrvr

Alan Goodman, photobooth 1970's

Alan saved the day. 

”Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul” Part 2 (Part 1 here)

TThrough some dumb luck and a belief in our artist, Oblivion almost had a hit with “Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul.” To my ears, and on Van Jay’s mainstream jazz show on WRVR-FM in New York, Joe got it just right, a performance that hit it better than Betty Carter’s original or any others, with an exuberance and joie de vivre that let anyone listening that jazz was... it!

But, I had completely screwed up.

Sure, Van was playing the track like crazy, and the rest of the RVR jocks followed. We were getting calls from retailers throughout the New York  metropolitan area, they wanted to record! Yay!

Nooooo!!!!! The record I’d delivered to the radio station was a test pressing! The only copy we had. And, to add insult to injury, Oblivion was pretty much broke. I was just out of college without a job, Tom Pomposello ran a small record store that gave him enough money to shelter his young family, and Dick Pennington –our initial financial savior– didn't have any more resources for us.. We had the test pressing, but we hadn’t OK’d the pressing order at the plant because we couldn’t pay for it!

My buddy Alan Goodman  stepped in and saved the day. He provided us with some cash from an inheritance. What a friend. He was pretty much living hand to mouth himself, but after he bought himself a 16mm movie camera –Alan was in film school– he gave me the rest. It enabled us to make the pressing order.

(I never paid Alan back directly. But, I tried to make up for it, working at MTV together, changing the way people used TV in the cable era. We eventually become partners in the world’s first media branding company, and becoming brothers-in-law and lifetime friends!) 

We eventually got the records, sent them to retail, but... it was too late. We’d missed the window. 

So... what is up with these guys?

Obviously they do radio plays, but any planned content was cut from the game.

We still get companion comments about the station, in which most of them seem to greatly dislike it and the hosts. We can rescue Rex to reunite the trio, but also take Anne away to a settlement to be a tailor, seperating them again. Those are the only interactions we get.

Once we enter the broadcast range of the station, we could have listened to a few different radio plays on a loop, like the Silver Shroud station. Some might be classic plays we would be familiar with (Rex clearly has access to some prewar materials), which might go the traditional route or some ending differently than we know they should, as they’ve only found partial remains of some plays and had to take some creative liberties. 

Some of the plays might be their own creations, like stories with ongoing drama and characters. I mean, who wouldn’t want a Commonwealth radio soap opera? And you could hear random settlers talking about it. “Can you believe Randall slept with Marsha’s evil twin??” “I know! But I’m wondering if it really is an evil twin, or if there’s going to be a twist and she’ll be a synth!” “Oh my god, that would be amazing!” And there could be more soap opera tropes that nod to the player, where settlers say what a stretch it was that they froze that one character for all those years to bring back later for the plot. Like that would ever happen! Totally unbelievable. 

And between plays, instead of commercials they would have random interviews and discussions with Rex, Anne, and George talking about their “craft”. That would make for some interesting, and possible funny or even emotional, moments. They’re all overly dramatic, taking themselves way too seriously, filled with passion, getting into arguments over performances and techniques. They might even have fanmail that they read and answer questions about the show and the characters, getting way too defensive when someone’s being critical about this or that, getting emotional when someone describes how the stories are so relatable and how much the show means to them.

And after we save Rex, we could have been invited to perform a part on the show. How cool would that quest have been? And we’d have the option to either, A) read the lines and perform exactly as they plan, resulting in a wonderful, dramatic performance and great approval from fans, B) ruin the show on purpose, causing the actors to get angry and break character, resulting in disapproval from fans, C) improvisation from the sarcastic option, resulting in slightly mixed reviews but overall approval from fans, and a fun performance with the actors mostly enjoying relying on pure talent and being kept on their toes, D) the “clumsy actor” option, where you do your best but are clearly not meant for the performing arts. Fans are somewhat let down by this lackluster show. 

edit: Instead of the sarcastic option (C), improvising could be a charisma check where it either goes wonderfully and fans and actors love it, or it goes terribly and the actors are annoyed and that’s where the mixed reviews come from. Yeah, I think I like that better, actually.

Oh! And then Travis would discuss your performance on DCR, and what he says would vary based on your choices and how the show went. And settlers would mention it too, or the DC guards could. “Hey, I heard you on that radio story! That was so great, I hope they invite you back! Gotta’ know what happens next” or “Hey, that was you on WRVR, right? Heh, stick to your day job, buddy” or even “Way to ruin a good radio story. Asshole..”