Theme Time Radio Hour Season Two
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Season Two of Theme Time Radio Hour began on September 19, 2007 and ended April 2, 2008. Following are Season 2 highlights:
[edit] The Missing Shows of Season 2
In early September 2007, XM Radio announced the return of TTRH, beginning September 19. The press release read in part..."Future shows will center on such motifs as "Young & Old," "California," "Dreams," "Fruit," "Something," "Nothing," "Streets," "Parties" and "Mail..." The highlighted shows were not aired during Season 2.
[edit] Caller on Line 2
The theme of the first episode of Season 2 was "Hello." As in Season 1, Ellen Barkin opened the show, announcing the "Hello" episode with the lines: "It’s night time in the big city. Something isn’t quite right. Nobody will answer the phone."
The show followed the same general format as Season 1, and introduced a new segment that would continue intermittently through the season, the "Caller on Line 2" (occasionally on "Line 3" and "Line 6"). This was a comedy segment featuring a listener call, supposedly as Dylan broadcast the show live from "Studio B." In this first call, a "Rob Harrison" requested that Dylan play The Doors, "Hello, I Love You." Dylan politely demured.
[edit] Battle of the TTRH CDs
In early October 2007, ISIS magazine announced its release of "The Best of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour," an unauthorized 2-CD compilation featuring selections - out of copyright in the United Kingdom - from the TTRH Season 1 playlist. In apparent response, the U.K. label, Ace Records released its own TTRH 2-CD compilation, "Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host, Bob Dylan," in March, 2008, publicizing its set as "authorized," and compiled with the involvement of TTRH producer, Eddie Gorodetsky and Dylan manager, Jeff Rosen. The Ace set featured a broader mix of music from TTRH than the ISIS compilation, including selections from The White Stripes and The Clash. Neither set includes any commentary from Dylan or other material from Theme Time Radio Hour.
[edit] Commercial Affiliations
During the "Days of the Week" show broadcast in October 2007, Dylan received a supposed email from listener, "Jackie Vann." who writes in part, "...what is your take on Sheryl Crow using Buddy Holly's great Not Fade Away for a TV hair dye commercial? I felt the most awful, stinging disappointment when I first heard it. I felt betrayed by Crow, as I'm almost sure Buddy would have. He was such a stickler for controlling his own material. I can't imagine his liking this commercial adaptation." Dylan responded with a list of artists "proud of commercial affiliation," including Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmie Rodgers, and himself.
Later in October 2007, the Cadillac luxury car and SUV division of General Motors and XM Radio released a cross-promotional advertising campaign featuring Bob Dylan and Theme Time Radio Hour. Elements of the campaign included Dylan appearing in a television commercial for the 2008 Cadillac Escalade hybrid, and a TTRH episode dedicated to the theme, "Cadillac." Cadillac and XM Radio also published a web page featuring a promotional version of the first half of the TTRH "Cadillac" show. As could be expected, Dylan's participation was greeted with almost universal criticism from both the mainstream press and Web commentators.
[edit] The Theme Time Radio Hour Poster
In late October 2007, the pop-culture web site BoingBoing posted an article on a promotional poster TTRH producer Eddie Gorodetsky commissioned from artist/illustrator Jaime Hernandez. Each of the scenes illustrated in the poster refer to Ellen Barkin's "It's Night in the Big City," introductions from Season 1 of TTRH.
Apparently intended as a gift to online fans, the poster is only available through free download at bobdylan.com. Fan Simon Nielsen (aka "ukulele.elvis") would later create a multimedia walkthrough of the TTRH poster, using Ellen Barkin's introductions as the voiceover. The walkthrough was also featured on BoingBoing, and Nielsen received a congratulatory email from XM Chief Creative Officer, Lee Abrams, on his initiative.
[edit] Leftovers Again?
To the disappointment of many fans, the "Halloween" episode for Season 2 was a re-run from Season 1, rather than original programming. Season 2 would include two other Season 1 re-runs, both also holiday shows - the "Thanksgiving Leftovers" show and the "Christmas/New Years" episode. As Season 2 began midway through the month of September, it would not be until January 2008 before TTRH would air a complete month of original programming.
[edit] TTRH On and Off AOL Radio
In November 2007, AOL Radio removed XM Radio's "Deep Tracks" station from its free online playlist. An XM Radio representative responded to an email inquiry that AOL Radio rotated XM Radio channels, and that the "Deep Tracks" channel could be expected to eventually return. The channel did reappear on the AOL Radio playlist in January 2008, but later in the year XM Radio announced that it was ending its relationship with AOL Radio and that no XM Radio channels would be available through AOL Radio after April 30, 2008.
[edit] Notable Shows
In October 2007, TTRH aired the series' long-promised "Classic Rock" episode, with the music featuring rocks of the mineral sort. Later that year TTRH would do a second "Countdown" show, with all-new material, the series first theme to cross two seasons.
In February 2008, The "President's Day" episode was a surprise two-hour show. While the first hour dealt exclusively with the Presidential theme, the second hour more resembled the Season 1 "Leftovers" or "Spring Cleaning" shows, with a compilation of songs touching various earlier themes. Dylan noted during the show that TTRH was "having a President's Day sale." There were also two themes extended over two weeks: "Around the World" Parts 1 and 2, and "Birds" and "More Birds."
[edit] Starbucks and "Tim Ziegler"
During the "Lock & Key" show broadcast in January 2008, Dylan lectured a supposed telephone caller, "Tim Ziegler", arguing that Theme Time Radio Hour "isn't a classroom," after Ziegler complained that Dylan had gotten a record label wrong. Later in the year, the Starbucks coffee house chain released a Bob Dylan "Artist's Choice" CD, featuring music chosen by Dylan. The credits noted that the compilation was produced by "Tim Ziegler."
[edit] Abrupt End to Season 2?
In March 2008, Lee Abrams, XM Radio Chief Creative Officer and the person who brought Dylan to the station, announced that he was moving to a new job at the Tribune Company beginning April 1, 2008. Also that month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had approved the buyout of XM Radio by Sirius Satellite Radio, removing one major roadblock to the proposed merger (a decision by the FCC is still pending as of this writing).
While apparently unrelated to those announcements, Bob Dylan closed the "Cold" show on April 2, 2008 with the news that it was the last show of Season 2, noting that "...This is our final show of the season. We’re gonna go away for a little while, but not for too long. Just long enough to look for some more themes and records to go along with them. In the meantime, you try to stay warm. Be careful, 'cause I’ll be counting heads when we come back for Season 3. You better be there! See you soon." The New York Daily News would report the following week that the third season of TTRH would begin in September, 2008, although the accuracy of this claim is in question.
There has been some fan speculation in online forums that Season 2 came to an unplanned close possibly caused by Abrams departure, the Sirius merger, or some other, unknown reason. Supporters of this theory point to the facts that Season 1 had aired 50 original shows broadcast over a year; that unlike Season 1 there was no pre-announcement of the final show of Season 2; that announced Season 2 shows never aired; and that Dylan's announcement appeared to be a last-minute addition, as no closing credits were read.
Evidence against the theory include the facts that Season 2 of TTRH had exactly half - 25 - of the original shows broadcast in Season 1, and that the season ended almost six months to the day after beginning. Supporters of this theory offer the conclusion that The Theme Time Radio Hour team simply negotiated a new contract requiring less original material and fewer broadcasts than Season 1.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Episode 1: Hello
[edit] Episode 2: Young and Old
[edit] Episode 3: Days of the Week
[edit] Episode 4: California
[edit] Episode 5: Classic Rock
[edit] Episode 6: Cadillac
[edit] REPEAT: Halloween
October 31, 2007 A repeat of last year's Halloween episode.
[edit] Episode 7: Head to Toe
[edit] Episode 8: Smoking
[edit] REPEAT: Thanksgiving Leftovers
November 21, 2007 A repeat of last years Thanksgiving episode.
[edit] Episode 9: Dreams
[edit] Episode 10: Party
[edit] Episode 11: Second Countdown
[edit] REPEATS: Christmas and New Years
December 19, 2007 A repeat of last years Christmas and New years episode.
