(Above: What was Frances McDormand's line from Almost Famous?) Fifty years ago today - April 3, 1968 - Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel released the LP Bookends. This was one of the first LPs that I recovered from my parents' stash upon finding that they had more than just 45s in a box. (I touched … Continue reading Bookends at fifty: Simon and Garfunkel, “America” (1968)
WLRA
So long, WLUP: Songs I learned from “The Loop”
Word spread rapidly this morning that Merlin Media, who had been trying to sell Chicago's WLUP, finally found a buyer: the Educational Media Foundation. EMF serves the contemporary Christian format over satellite to its affiliates. The format, called "K-Love," has been on the air on a signal out of suburban Elgin for some time, but … Continue reading So long, WLUP: Songs I learned from “The Loop”
Great lost hit: Paul Carrack, “Don’t Shed a Tear” (1987)
(Above: The One Good Reason LP) One of the things that gold-based formats consistently get wrong is an over-reliance on the same songs over and over. I know I've ranted about the "decades" channels on Sirius XM before, but they serve as a perfect example of "not going deep enough." Deeper lists equal low cumulative … Continue reading Great lost hit: Paul Carrack, “Don’t Shed a Tear” (1987)
One night in college radio: The Tuesday Night Classics, WLRA-FM, February 23, 1988
(Above: The author, right around the time that this show aired. His fashion sense is only marginally better.) February 23, 1988 was a Tuesday. I had just gotten back from a vacation with my family to New Orleans to take part in the Mardi Gras festivities - my first time ever visiting the Crescent City. … Continue reading One night in college radio: The Tuesday Night Classics, WLRA-FM, February 23, 1988
Rockin’ the suburbs: The Billboard Top Rock Tracks, February 12, 1983
Yesterday's post about the songs likely played at the school dances right around this time was a bit of a bummer. It's not because school dances themselves are sad - certainly not so many years later - but because the songs on the list were, frankly, a downer. They're also not the things I would … Continue reading Rockin’ the suburbs: The Billboard Top Rock Tracks, February 12, 1983
Radio and Records Top 89 of ’89: AOR (December 15, 1989)
(Above: Before the Internet, it's how we looked for work.) Once upon a time, even DJs read the paper, and that paper was Radio & Records. R&R, as we called it, was a paper that served as the journal for both the radio and the music industries. It was where you read about program directors … Continue reading Radio and Records Top 89 of ’89: AOR (December 15, 1989)
Positively Petty: A TP Top 40
The news early this morning confirming the death of rock legend Tom Petty is still a shock. Petty, just 66, had completed a major tour this summer and was active on his Twitter account as recently as Saturday. I alluded in yesterday's post to a long-lost mixtape of all Petty songs being a staple in … Continue reading Positively Petty: A TP Top 40
College radio classics: The Pursuit of Happiness, “I’m An Adult Now” (1988)
(Above: Cassette single version released in Canada. It's a Canadian Cassingle.) The fall of 1988 can best be described - in my life, anyway - as "the awkward transition." On the one hand I was a typical college kid, dealing with classes, girls, and getting into trouble after class by sneaking in to the campus … Continue reading College radio classics: The Pursuit of Happiness, “I’m An Adult Now” (1988)
College radio classics: Squeeze, “Hourglass” (1987)
(Above: Another 45 that college radio made me buy. It was a very expensive extra-curricular.) As a part of my month-long celebration of college radio (lining up with the fact that I started in it 30 years ago, which is surreal), I've been going through surviving recordings of shows from my freshman year in radio. … Continue reading College radio classics: Squeeze, “Hourglass” (1987)
One morning in college radio: WLRA-FM, September 19, 1988
(Above: Screen shot from Lewis University's "Network Video Hour," fall, 1988. No, I really dressed like that.) September 19, 1988 was a Monday morning. I had just settled into my regular schedule as "every day" morning host on Lewis University's WLRA-FM. There's a show from a week earlier that exists, but I chose this one … Continue reading One morning in college radio: WLRA-FM, September 19, 1988
45 Ruminations Per Megabyte 