A film with a great soundtrack of the late 70's rock era although it belies the lyrics from the title song where Steely Dan sings about setting the mood for getting it on with a girl with funk and reggae because there is no funk or reggae in the movie. The film has a simple premise in the radio station staff rebels over the commercialization of what is a commercialized business to begin with. This is not a public or college station but regular commercial station but they take on the corporate world in a strike against the stations plans to be top 40 rock rather than free-form album rock with non-stop music and enlist their listeners help in their fight against the man. Despite this most of the songs in the movie aren't deep album cut album rock but mostly top 40 rock single releases. It does feature a great soundtrack in music by Steely Dan, The Eagles, Boston, Steve Miller, Boz Scaggs, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, Joe Walsh, The Doobie Brothers, Queen, Billy Joel, Walter Egan, Foreigner, Reo Speedwagon, and concert footage of Jimmy Buffett and Linda Ronstadt. A good cast which includes Eileen Brenna, Martin Mull, Clevon Little, Michael Brandon, Alex Karas and James Keach. There are some moments of good satirical comedy but kind of weak as a story but that's OK because it's fun ride in a rambling sort of way. David Myers is the film's cinematographer who compiled quite a resume in the 70's in music films and documentaries photographing Woodstock, Mads Dogs & Englishmen, The Grateful Dead, Soul to soul, Wattstax, Elvis on Tour and Renaldo & Clara. John Alonzo directs in his first and only theatrical film. He did go on to direct a couple of made-for TV movies but he had been a cinematographer and returned to photographing films. He had been a cinematographer on such films as Vanishing Point, Harold & Maude, sounder, Lady Sings the Blues and Chinatown and continued filming up until his death with such films as Scarface, Star Trek: Generations, Steel Magnolias and Cool World. although not a great film, this movie is worth a look. It debuted on screens in the spring of 1978 and is a great snapshot and soundtrack of the late 70's rock radio. I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.
