“Beatles fans — or better yet, fanatics — will hold your feet to the fire if you get it wrong.
I learned this the hard way nearly 40 years ago while programming WRIF here in Detroit. One of the major radio syndicators offered up a special program called ‘The Beatles At The Beeb.’ An archivist dug up old and rare recordings of the Fab Four on many UK television appearances before they broke out in 1964. It was packaged into a radio show for U.S. stations, and I immediately grabbed it, and built a Beatles weekend around it.”
Source: Jacobs Media Strategies
AT A GLANCE
The always interesting Fred Jacobs, of radio consultancy Jacobs Media Strategies, gets a chance to indulge himself along with conjuring some pointers from Peter Jackson’s new Beatles documentary, “The Beatles: Get Back,” in “What the Beatles’ “Get Back” Teaches Us About Creativity, Collaboration, and Chemistry.”
Contra the much older (and almost contemporary) and “darker” documentary covering the same time and events, “Let It Be,” Jackson’s effort is significantly longer (7+ hours!), allowing for an in-depth dig into the scene. This provides the grist for Jacobs’ mill.
He focuses, loosely, much of his takeaway on personnel — how to treat co-workers, working conditions for said workers, dynamics within the crew and even leadership of the cohort. Not surprisingly he distills a simple lesson, treat people decently and you’d be surprised how well they perform. He adds that pressures on high-profile talent — such as a highly-rated morning show duo — can extract a destructive toll that needs to be mitigated for the health of all and the station.
Okay, not exactly a visit to the Oracle of Delphi, but much more fun.
Along the way Jacobs works in his youthful Beatles obsession — born as peak Beatlemania exploded on U.S. shores — and some Beatles song lyric Easter Eggs.
Read the whole thing, “What the Beatles’ “Get Back” Teaches Us About Creativity, Collaboration, and Chemistry” on the JacoBlog.
EVEN MORE
For more, Jennifer Wolfe provided a useful glean of the Jackson opus for Amplify in “It WAS a Long and Winding Road: Producing Peter Jackson’s Epic Documentary “The Beatles: Get Back.”
Radio station WRRL(FM) conducted a roundtable discussion comparing the two films (“Get Back” and “Let It Be”), and for a little further trek down the path, Darryn King writes on the same subject for Forbes.
J. Paul Johnson really digs into the material in “From Let It Be to The Beatles: Get Back” for 25 Years Later.
