In a move that should embarrass just about everyone, the Weather Channel has decided to enter the music world, releasing The Weather Channel Presents: The Best of Smooth Jazz. Via Yahoo News:
The songs are among the channel's most requested selections and play during the forecast fixture "Local on the 8s" that airs six times an hour. It's the cue that draws you to the TV set when you want to find out if you should take along that jacket when you leave home.
While the disc features jazz artists such as Chick Corea, Jeff Lorber, Dave Koz and Najee, not all the music played on "Local on the 8s" is jazz. Sometimes it's light rock or holiday tunes. But most all of it's instrumental.
There are also some exclusives by Mark Krumowski, Ryan Farish, and Jeanne Ricks. What, no Weather Report? Regardless, it's out now on Midas Records, though we thought everything Midas touched was supposed to be gold. We kid. According to that news report, the laid back, Kenny G-style collection's currently No. 2 on Billboard's jazz chart. So what has people so excited?
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Ah, we get it ... very relaxing. What about some vocal stylings?
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Nope, the commenters are pissed: "Vocal music is not for TWC. Sellouts." So who do we complain to, Squirrel3D? The "Music Man," of course:
...the Weather Channel has an employee they call the "Music Man" ? Steve Hurst ? whose job is to find the right tunes. During the day, his selections tend to be light and upbeat. In the evening they're slower and more sultry. Late at night they're even more mellow.
"It was fun to add songs that viewers wouldn't usually expect to hear," said Hurst, who chose the cuts for the jazz CD based on viewer response. "Phish fans were coming out of the woodwork the first time we played one of their songs."
He started making copies of each month's playlist available to people who wrote in wanting to know the name of a song or artist they'd heard. Musicians also began sending him tapes, many of which he'd use. He receives about 80 unsolicited music previews a month.
Bet at least 79 of those are from the Weather Girls. We had no idea this subculture even existed. Actually, maybe we'd watch the Weather Channel more often, if we hadn't already found ourselves the perfect meteorologist.
