I often deride the retired, but I speak from zero experience. I’ve worked my entire life. Never a day goes by that I don’t do it, think about it, worry about it, but even so, I consider the R word because of all of the above. Then I heard two things. A friend said, “I never knew that pickleball could take up so much of my brain,” I blanched. And then I heard/saw Gorillaz on SNL last week… more on that in a sec.

I’ve been in the radio biz for four decades, and it’s often not pleasant. It has enormous drawbacks, like not growing. You can’t find the button for it in new cars, Teslas often don’t have AM radio embedded in them, listeners younger than 30 stopped listening after their parents stopped taking them to school. I was force-fed classical music on KDFC in San Francisco twice a week in the backseat of the carpool to Hebrew school. It stuck. My pals still listen to the radio, but they’re boomers. Boomers are sticky, and we’re always right and never learn… well…

Gorillaz was the featured artist on SNL this weekend. I had heard of them, from the radio, but how in the world would someone my age hear of Gorillaz unless they were at the zoo? They wouldn’t. Their algorithm on Spotify would march them toward ZZ Top or The Eagles. And consider this: If an artist like Gorillaz (it makes me laugh as I write that name), wanted a wider audience, which they surely do, their savvy record company might benefit from a campaign to reach an slightly older audience… on the Radio! Promotions, a contest to spell Gorrilaz. Even the idea of free tickets to see their unique, multimedia presentation. It’s amazing. I love them. They feature an older woman who resembles Joni Mitchell singing while wearing a necklace that looks like a flying saucer. Play them on KEarth, or CBS FM. Grab some other boomers, put them the back of your car and take them to Hebrew school.

And once you see them, not boomers, Gorrilaz, you want to see more. And then you want to see more groups like them. So you plug them into your Spotify and you get a mash up of Gorrilaz, Dell the Funky Homosapien, The Avalanches. I have a new place, among the Gen Zs! And it gives you a radio channel that allows more exploring. But...

That’s what radio already does! You like them? Hear more on the station where you heard them in the first place. That’s right, my dander is up, and only someone my age can say that credibly.

I won’t retire and give up on radio anytime soon, nor on jazz, which I play every day on my horn, or my other pursuits, but to not work and help Gorrilaz find people like me? I’m on a mission.

#fuckpickleball