Hrmmph! Most here know that I do not age gracefully. In fact, I don't really age.

Today I met my daughter for coffee, and I was telling her about a situation comedy. She said, "WHAT???" "Situation comedy?" "Are you 90 or something??? It's 'sitcom!'" Okay...I know it's sitcom, but does that terminology strike you as being that old? Other examples?

I spoke a while ago about the "Hit Parade" - the name for the records that are the most popular. My audience was nonplussed until I explaine what I meant. "Oh, you mean "The Charts", they said.

By the way, what's the singular of audience that I could have used in the above sentence had there just been one person listening to me?

Listener? Auditor? Hearer?

If you do not say, "he/she's like...," you are over fifty.

Definitions for "audience" use plurals such as
"spectators," "listeners," or "readership," implying that more than one person is required for consideration as an "audience." Yet we've all heard the phrase "an audience of one." We've heard one person (as well as several people) described as "a captive audience." And though the usage is, admittedly, somewhat different, one person may be granted "an audience with the king." Using the word "audience" in describing one person doesn't bother me at all, but as for whether or not it's proper, I'm not sure. Your question is an entertaining one to ponder, Richard.

quote:

I spoke a while ago about the "Hit Parade" - the name for the records that are the most popular. My audience was nonplussed until I explaine what I meant. "Oh, you mean "The Charts", they said.

This old guy was all like, that song was on the Hit Parade and I was like, the what? and he was all, you know, the most popular songs and I was like dude, you mean the charts?

YOUR HIT PARADE

Before disc jockeys and Top-40 charts became commonplace, there was Your Hit Parade, a radio institution that billed itself as “an accurate, authentic tabulation of America's taste in popular music.”

Every Saturday night, Your Hit Parade presented the top tunes of the week, saving the top three songs for the end of the show. As a nod to longtime sponsor Lucky Strike Cigarettes, Your Hit Parade occasionally featured an old favorite as a “Lucky Strike Extra.”

Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne, the show’s advertising agency, remained secretive about the methods used to determine the top songs. It was acknowledged that Your Hit Parade’s statisticians examined sheet music sales and jukebox tabulations before reaching their conclusions.

Your Hit Parade debuted on April 20, 1935 and moved between NBC and CBS until January 16, 1953. A television version of Your Hit Parade was simulcast over NBC Radio from 1950 to 1959.

More than 50 singers appeared on the radio version of Your Hit Parade, including Frank Sinatra (1943-45; 1947-49), Joan Edwards (1941-46), Dick Haymes, “Wee” Bonnie Baker, Johnny Mercer, Dinah Shore, Buddy Clark, Bea Wain, Andy Russell, Gisele MacKenzie and Metropolitan Opera star Lawrence Tibbett.

Your Hit Parade was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995.