Simon Pontin

Pontin.

What can I say?
This morning (Monday, May 17, 2009) was the first morning without Simon Pontin (“PAHN-tin”); the longtime morning-man at the classical radio station in Rochester we listen to, WXXI.
He finally retired after 33 years.
We’ve been listening to Pontin ever since he came to WXXI in 1976, which is about the time I stopped listening to rock-‘n’-roll radio.
I guess I’ve always been attracted to classical music, a flame fanned by my childhood piano-teacher, the infamous Mrs. Dager (“DAY-grrr”), the choir-director at Erlton Community Baptist Church.
Mrs. Dager got my sister and I into a children’s concert by the Philadelphia Symphony.
The Orchestra played Dvorák’s New World Symphony, and Sibelius’ Finlandia. I couldn’t get them out of my head; and it was time of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry — and I was only 12 or so.
About 1970 I was listening to radio station WCMF-FM in Rochester, the so-called “underground station;” although by then rock-‘n’-roll was no longer the boogie-woogie it had been.
It had become a means of rebellion, as signified by “Cream” and Jimi Hendrix.
Which was okay. I used to listen in my darkroom (no light from a transister radio); although the station was also playing Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Carol King.
I remember listening to “Riders on the Storm” by the Doors in the dark, as a downpour beat on my blacked-out bathroom window. (WCMF’s studios weren’t far away.)
But my tastes were changing.
The last rock-‘n’-roll albums I bought were Def Leppard and Patti Smith, although by then I was also buying Mozart symphonies and Bach.
TV station WXXI (Channel 21) started a public-radio service, and at first had an announcer from WCMF as their morning-man, one Tom Teuber (“TUBE-rrrr”).
Shortly before that, WBFB-FM, the private classical music station in Rochester, affiliated with the giant number-one rock-‘n’-roll radio station, WBBF-AM, changed format to all-news.
Pontin was one of the two classical radio-personalities there. Both were British expatriates, and have the accent.
It was as if the accent were required for classical music announcing.
Pontin tried to sell Mercedes for a while (almost a year), but failed.
Not a viper.
WXXI’s public-radio format was also failing, so they decided to try the classical music format WBFB had used, and hired the two British expatriates, including Pontin.
They figured there was a market for classical music in Rochester, and there was; although it’s public-radio.
As such there are occasional fund-drives (“Beg-a-thons”) to support the station. There is no advertising — so they say, assuming one discounts the support from Velmex of East Bloomfield, Shepard Ford, etc.
We support the station ourselves; probably more so than the average member.
The best thing about Pontin was his wry and gentle humor — much like us.
“I had a horrible nightmare last night,” he once said; “that all our Academy of St. Martin in the Fields recordings were gone, and that as such we had nothing left to play.” It was a reflection on the fact so many classical pieces are now by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra.
It also is the sort of comment I would make.
One morning long ago at the mighty Mezz I commented to a photographer, who was also a classical music geek: “they played a tedium (‘tuh-DAY-um’) on WXXI yesterday. Not a tomorrowum or a yesterdayum; a tedium.”
That’s also the sort of comment Pontin would make.
Years ago he did a remote morning broadcast out of the back of a city garbage-truck. That was because every Thursday he announced as “garbage-day in the Wedge.” —The “Wedge” is an area southeast of center-city Rochester he lived in at that time.
So now Pontin is gone; replaced by Brenda Trembley (“trom-BLAY”), a Houghton grad, and known to us as “Bubbles.”
This was because of her somewhat strident effervescent personality.
“She’s not as bad as she was,” I observed.
“But she’s not Pontin,” my wife said. “Mornings won’t be the same.” —It’s the old waazoo; the triumph of wry humor.
“Some have it; and most don’t,” I said. “And most people go ballistic faced with wry humor. They can’t handle it.”
Pontin’s last day was last Saturday (May 16, 2009). He played “Cows with Guns;” one of his staples.
“He can’t last forever,” I said. “He’s older than us, although just a little.”

“Erlton” (‘EARL-tin’) is the small suburb of Philadelphia in south Jersey where I lived until I was 13. Erlton was founded in the ‘30s, named after its developer, whose name was Earl. Erlton was north of Haddonfield, an old Revolutionary town.

About 1969 I began trying to freelance car-race photographs, and set up a black-and-white darkroom in the bathroom of our apartment in Rochester. I sold a few nationwide.

RE: “Pontin tried to sell Mercedes.....” — He tried to be a car salesman.

The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over three years ago. Best job I ever had.

“Houghton” is Houghton College in western New York, from where I graduated with a BA in 1966. I’ve never regretted it, although I graduated as a Ne’er-do-Well, without their blessing. Houghton is an evangelical liberal-arts college.

My wife of 41+ years is “Linda.”