Radio is impossible these days. Every station has become Christmas Central, with the occasional inclusion of an Adam Sandler song to keep the Jews from rebelling. What the world needs now is a whole week of Chanukah radio, with all of our Chanukah songs in heavy rotation.

According to the JTA, we’re “lucky” enough to be getting a Chanukah radio station of our very own on XM Satellite Radio: “Focus will be on the holiday’s music and traditions,” and featuring the musical (and non-musical) stylings of “Jewish celebrities and politicians, including Barenaked Ladies, Matisyahu, Al Franken, Kinky Friedman, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Neil Sedaka and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.”

What? No LeeVees?

About the author

Esther Kustanowitz

For more posts by Esther, see EstherK.com, MyUrbanKvetch.com and JDatersAnonymous.com.

9 Comments

  • It’s not entirely Adam Sandler tunes and schmaltz. If you read the schedule on the XM Radio Chanukah website (it’s in .PDF format), you’ll see that they’re also having two Israeli music shows during the Chanukah week: one show dedicated to Israeli folk music, and another (3 to 4 PM EST, IIRC, from 12/17 to 12/22) on contemporary Israeli music. The schedule also lists “Shabbat Unplugged”, with a live appearance at the XM studios from David Broza, among others.

    Just think: maybe you’ll get Subliminal and Arik Einstein on XM, with any luck. Not back to back, hopefully!

  • Don’t like Christmas music? I blame the Jews (see, e.g., Irving Berlin).

  • Tom – you make an inarguable point *:

    “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” by J. Fred Coots (Jewish) and Haven Gillespie;

    “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Rockin’ ‘Round The Christmas Tree” and others by Johnny Marks (Jewish)

    “Silver Bells” by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston (both Jewish)

    “The Christmas Song” by Mel Torme and Robert Wells (both Jewish)

    On the other hand, as many know, the famed Kol Nidre piece for cello that I so look forward to every year was written by Max Bruch, a German Protestant.

    *courtesy of my local paper

  • Hey, when the Jews assimilate, man, they assimilate.

    Nobody can write the ultimate ode to candy better than than the kid with his nose pressed longingly up against against the window because the owner won’t let him in.

  • Listening to Radio Chanukah, I had to conclude that the programming was done by searching for songs with the relevant words in their titles, without vetting them. Have you listened to the cast album of Falsettoland, a 1990 musical with a gay and lesbian theme. Somehow I don’t believe they’d have played the Jason’s Bar Mitzvah song if they’d listened to it first!