Sundays | 6 – 7 pm
What is Film Classics?
By Jack Goggin
Briefly, it’s a weekly hour-long radio program devoted to music written for motion pictures. I began doing it back in the late 70’s at the old WQRS when we had scheduled a syndicated movie music show hosted by the composer David Raksin (“Laura” among other scores) which management decided not to run when it turned out the program was not free. Jerry Dellinger, our Music Director at the time, remembered that I was a fan of cinematic music, and asked me if I had enough material in my collection to do a month’s worth of programs so our Program Guide would be more or less accurate. I said “I think so,” and wound up doing the show for about 18 years until 1997.
Later, when WRCJ came into being, Dave Wagner asked me to come on board and mentioned that if things worked out, we might be able to bring the show back here on 90.9 FM- and sure enough, that’s what happened in April of 2007. It is truly a dream come true to be able to do the program again- to be honest, I doubted that I would ever get another opportunity.
The music we play on the show consists mostly of orchestral scores from the early 30’s (the beginning of talking pictures and of background scoring) up to the present (as recently as last week’s new releases), and as I like to point out to people, Film Classics is the only program on WRCJ exclusively devoted to music from the 20th and 21st centuries literally, there’s new material coming out all the time, as well as new recordings of classic scores by the old masters of the genre like Steiner, Korngold, and Herrmann.
Sometimes the show will be devoted to a single score, like “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir”, or sometimes it will follow a theme, like “Submarine Movies.” Generally speaking, we don’t do pop soundtrack compilations or very many musicals.
The theme music for the show, heard at the beginning and end of each program, is the main title sequence from “Since You Went Away” by Max Steiner, which won Steiner his third Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1944.
Thanks for Listening!
Jack,
Thanks for another fine show. I have fond memories of picking this CD up from the record store I worked at when it was released. Like a lot of music buffs I can vividly remember when and where I first heard so many albums. WRCJ and WQRS are a part of many of those memories.
Thanks Byron, we will pass your note along to Jack. Sadly, it’s much harder to find a music store these days.
A belated thank you for playing Korngold’s wonderful score of “The Prince and the Pauper” this past Sunday. Having just heard his Violin Concerto at the DSO, I found it especially interesting to see how heavily Korngold borrowed from that film score for the violin work. I do so enjoy your show, and try to listen when I can.
With thanks,
Terese Edelstein
Grosse Pointe Park
Hi Terese, we’re glad you enjoy the show and Jack thanks you!