I hope the accordion will forgive me now. Growing up in a Polish neighborhood in the Midwest, I grew to love the sound of the instrument and it found endless ways to impose itself onto the soundtrack of my youth. Rock ‘n Roll steered me clear of the accordion for a number of years. At one point, I even convinced myself that listening to an accordion was the musical equivalent of waterboarding.

Somehow, though, the accordion found its way back into my heart and there it remains. This podcast is a kind of love letter to an instrument that somehow still speaks to me.

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Jeff Hoyt
Vashon Island, WA
08.08.08

The music list is long for this podcast. A lot of these tunes can be found in iTunes. Go get ‘em!:

“J’y Suis Jamais Alle’” by Yann Tiersen
“Viens Avec Moi” by DeVotchka
“Squeeze Box” by The Who
“Beer Barrel Polka” by Myron Floren
“Head Honcho” by DeVotcha
“Le Moulin” by Yann Tiersen
“Strizzalo” by DeVotchka
“Cliquot” by Beirut
“La Danse De Mardi Gras” by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
“Raped and Freezin’” by Alice Cooper
“Dancin’ the Devil Away” by Myron Floren
“Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin
“L ‘homme Aux Bras Ballants” by Yann Tiersen
“Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)” by Beirut
“Charlotte Mittnacht (The Fabulous Destiny Of…” by DeVotchka
“Sons and Daughters” by the Decemberists

Every year, at Emerson College in Boston, they give an award to the broadcast journalism student who best exemplifies the highest standards of television journalism. It’s called the Bob Hoyt award, and it’s named after my father, whose last job on this earth was to teach his students everything he knew. Dad was a pioneer in television news, and as his son, I got an earful. I heard not only how TV news should be done, but also how it should not be done.

As you might imagine, I’ve spent a good chunk of my adult life railing and ranting about what television journalism has become, especially on the local level. And it isn’t pretty.

Or rather, it is pretty. In fact, that’s part of the problem.

This podcast started out as a kind of tribute to my dad’s approach to the business of TV news. From there, it morphed into a kind of search for the turning point, the moment in television history when local news operations started sacrificing quality journalism for image, ratings gimmicks, and annoying chit chat.

Jeff Hoyt
Vashon Island, WA
10.8.05

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Here are the songs from this podcast. Go find ‘em in iTunes!

“Dirty Laundry” by Don Henley
“Happy Talk” by Ella Fitzgerald
“Headline News” by Weird Al Yankovic

(plus music from the soundtrack of “The Hudsucker Proxy” by Carter Burwell)