I had forgotten all about this picture. I’m not even sure who took it, to be honest. This is me and my lifelong friend, Jeff, in the studio at WMXD in Detroit. The photo had to be taken around 1990.
This studio was tiny. Behind me was a wall that had the station’s CD’s. about 4 feet from where Jeff is sitting was the door to the studio. There wasn’t room for more than three people in there at a time. It got a bit close when the next air personality was getting ready for their show.
I love this picture because, while you can’t see everything, there is so much in this room. Behind me to the left is the reel to reel machine we used to record phone calls. Every once in a while, I would get called in to play voice cuts from jocks who couldn’t be there. They would prerecord the intros on the reel to reel and I would play it back on the air when they were normally supposed to be there live.
To the right of my head in this picture, on the top shelf is a cart machine. It had spots for three carts (one is in the machine in the photo). These carts were tapes that had our commercials on them. They also had the sweepers of our big voice guy saying “This is new music! On 92-3 The Mix!” To the left of the cart machine, you can see about 6 carts stacked up. That was probably the next commercial set.
Below that on the bottom shelf was the CD players. You can see one is playing and Jeff’s head is blocking the other one. In front of me was the control board. Oh, how I miss those slider pots. Each one of those colored sliders went to something – CD #1, CD #2, Cart #1, Turntable #1, Reel to Reel, etc…
Up above the board is a little shelf that held liner cards or station liners that needed to be read throughout the show. It would also hold your “copy” for news or weather. Anytime I wrote out something I wanted to say, it would sit there on that shelf.
To Jeff’s right you can barely make out that turntable. There were two side by side in the studio. When the Electrifying Mojo did his show, he played almost everything off of vinyl. There would be records all over the studio. He’d also have the heat cranked up in there. It was always an oven when I’d have to follow him on the weekend.
This picture brings back some great memories. Jeff used to come up and hang out a lot. We’d stay up all night and he was always trying to crack me up on the air. He did it more times than I could count! Lord knows if it was the other way around, I would have been trying to crack him up, too.
Today is a day to celebrate the Disc Jockey. I was lucky enough to be both a radio DJ and a Mobile DJ. I have mobile DJ stories, but they aren’t as interesting as my radio DJ stories. This is an adaption of an earlier blog. If you are a newer follower, these will be new to you. If you’ve been around since the inception of this blog, enjoy these again.
In my over 30 year radio career, I have (like all of my radio friends) a gazillion stories. There are some that I just can’t share here. But, here are some that I’ll share off the top of my head. I am sure there are plenty more, but for now – enjoy these:
WKSG –
My career started here. I was a lowly intern ripping news and sorting it. I then started to intern with Paul Christy, the morning guy. He eventually was responsible for me doing overnights full time.
Keith Who?
I only used my real name once in my entire career – and almost didn’t. Every hour at the top of the hour we had to play our Legal ID. The FCC requires the station to identify itself and where the signal originates from. Our Legal ID had was what we called a “donut” in the middle of it. The voice guy gave the station slogan, followed by the Station ID. After that there was a 2-3 music bed where the DJ would say what time it was and their name. I’d heard it a hundred times. “It’s 10 O’clock and I’m Jim McKenzie”, “It’s 3 O’clock and I’m John Bailey”, “It’s 7 O’clock and I’m Johnny Molson” – every jock did it. My first night ever on the air, I hadn’t decided what name I was going to use yet. The ID played and I had no choice – “It’s midnight and I’m … (brain fart – and real name)”. I really had no intentions of using my real name, I just hadn’t decided on my on air name yet. A gal I went to high school with was listening that night. I remember her calling and asking if I was Keith (real name). It freaked me out. She told me that she heard my that first night and thought that I had said my real name. I used Keith Allen every day after that and have never been anyone else.
Thinking Inside the Box
Speaking of those live ID’s, Johnny Molson was on before me each night. It seemed that he and his crew always were trying to mess with me when the ID played. They would make weird noises, bang on cart racks, or knock over my music stack. They would do all kinds of things to try to get me to mess up when I turned on the microphone. . Sometimes they’d get me to crack up and sometimes I was able to keep it together.
One night, the time was ticking away to the ID and they were all out of the studio. The ID started and I heard the studio door behind me open fast. They had found a huge box and as I started to talk, they threw it over my head. My hands, thankfully, were still by the mixer board so I could see what button I had to push next. I didn’t know what to do, so I just continued to talk with the box was over my head. Listeners heard nothing but a muffled voice and the music bed. Johnny was cracking up the whole time. He told me, “I can’t believe you just kept going”!
Saturday Snooze
At one point during my time at Kiss-FM, I was doing Friday night and Saturday mornings. This consisted of me being on air from 12a-6a doing my own show. Then running Paul Christy’s show on tape from 6a-10a.
I don’t recall why I hadn’t slept much the day prior, but I was tired. I finished my show at 6. I got about an hour into Paul’s show, and I was feeling exhausted. I had started a song, put my elbows up on the board, my fists to my cheeks, and nodded off. About 20-25 minutes later, my head fell from my hands and I was startled awake. I had no idea where I was. The phones were all lit up, and nothing was on the air!
In a panic, I grabbed the first song on the music stack and jammed it into the machine. Fittingly, the song was “You’ve Got Your Troubles” by the Fortunes. Once the music started, the phones stopped ringing. I, however, knew that Paul was always listening! I dreaded the call that I knew was coming. I was sure to get fired for messing up his show! 10 minutes later the “PC hotline rang”.
I answered it and as usual, Paul was chomping on something (he was always eating when he called). “How’s it going?”, he asked. There was no way he didn’t hear the silence! He had to have heard it, I knew he did. Why wasn’t he saying anything? I finally blurted out that I had fallen asleep for a couple minutes and awaited the verbal beating. Nope. Not Paul. He laughed and said, “You Asshole! I remember this one time I fell asleep while I was at Super CFL in Chicago….” and told me his sleepy story. That was the kind of guy Paul was … a damn cool dude!
Hot Java
One more Paul story for you. He drank coffee all throughout his shift. He liked it black and hot! One time he had Vince, a morning show member, get him some coffee. It sat next to him for awhile while he was doing other things. He finally grabbed it and took a sip. He was disgusted.
He yelled, “What the hell is the matter with you guys?! You call this hot coffee?! I could piss warmer than this!! Get me some fresh stuff and make sure it is hot!” So Vince went to the coffee pot, filled the cup and then put it in the microwave for about 2 …or 10 minutes. I don’t remember, but it was in there for a good while. He took the steaming cup to Paul. Well, rather than setting it down as he normally did, put it to his lips and took a sip. Needless to say, it burned the hell out of his tongue and lips! Paul yelped, “Jesus! What is wrong with you?!” Holding his tongue in pain, he continued, “I use this thing for a living!!” I think every one of us broke a rib laughing so hard. I can still see him holding his tongue with one hand and fanning it with the other!
WMXD
I followed Paul here to do some part time work after being let go from Kiss-FM. The format started as a mix of Urban/R&B music and Pop. Eventually it went all R&B and Urban. It was here that I met The Electrifying Mojo.
Keef
I had known of Mojo for years. He was a Detroit legend. He had this mysterious persona on t he air. I don’t know that there were any photos of him anywhere. So when I saw him for the first time, I was taken aback. He was much shorter than I had imagined.
I have to say, Mojo was one cool dude. He played most of his stuff off vinyl records. The thing I remember most about Mojo was that the studio was always like a sauna! It was always SO hot when I came in. I don’t know how he was able to work with it that hot.
The studio was always a mess, too! Not garbage messy, but music messy. There were always vinyl records all over the studio. He’d have them stacked on the reel to reel tape machine or on the counter tops. Sometimes, there were stacks of them on the floor of the studio. With the records everywhere, it was hard for me to get in and gather the first hour of music for my show. You could barely move in the studio.
He always called me “Keef” or “Baby Keef” when he got ready to wrap up his show. He had a signature line that he always said at the end of his show:
“Hold on tight. Don’t let go. Whenever you feel like you are reaching the end of your rope – tie a knot. Don’t slide off. Keep hanging. Keep remembering that there ain’t nobody bad like you.”
I had heard him say this on the radio many times, but to watch him say it live in the studio … I was in awe.
WHND
Honey Radio! I grew up listening to this station and I was honored to have the chance to work with radio legends! Richard D, Jon Ray, Boogie Brian, Ron Tavernit, Bill Stewart, Greg Russell, and so many others were such an influence. Honey was the first oldies station in the country – and I got to be there as they turned out the light…..
Worst Five Minutes of Detroit Radio – EVER
You can read all about my buddy Rob in a previous blog. I am not sure if I tell this story in that blog or not, so I apologize if I did. It was the last week Honey was on the air – the week of Thanksgiving 1994. Our listeners knew that this was Honey’s last week and we had been given free reign to have fun.
We had a listener who used to call up and his name was Mitchell. I had gotten to the point where I could do his voice pretty well. I had been doing a character based on the real listener and I called him “Mitch”. True story – Mitch would call and talk to us and really never have anything to say. He’s jump from topic to topic. If you let him, he’d never stop talking. So I decided to prerecord some calls as Mitch where I just rambled about nothing and then hung up. Afterward, we’d say something like “He’s a nice guy, but ….” kind of a thing. It was ridiculous.
So now it’s the last week we are on the air. It had become clear that some people were upset the station was going off the air. They were calling us in the studio and calling the managers to voice their anger. I said to Rob, “I bet Mitchell is really angry about the station.” He said, “They better lock the doors, man. That guy is likely to come in here with a gun or something. That was the idea. So we planned a bit.
I was going to do the character live on the air. I was going to come in and say how upset I was the station was going off the air. I would yell and scream and (using the theater of the mind) pull out a gun and start shooting it (keep in mind this was 1994 and public shootings were not as prominent). At this point in the bit, our bouncer character (loosely based on Charles Bronson) was going to come in and grab the gun. He would then beat up “Mitch” and throw him out the studio window. To accomplish the bit we needed sound effects (to make it sound real on the air).
To help you understand what happens next, here is a picture of a studio. It is not the WHND studio, but the Cart machines in the picture are like the ones there.
If you look at the left side of the picture, you will see the machines above the headphones. There are three machines on the left, a stack of carts in the middle and three machines on the right. At Honey, the machines went like this:
1 4
2 5
3 6
Ok, now to the mess.
We had these 6 cart machines and every song, commercial, or sound effect was on its own cart. So in cart player #1 was the song we just played. Cart #2 had the door closing sound effect for when Mitch comes in. Cart #3 holds the gunshot sound. Cart #4 is the “fight scene” – the sound of two guys beating each other up. Cart #5 is where the sound of glass breaking (the studio window) for when Mitch gets tossed out . Finally, Cart #6 had our first commercial.
The plan was that after Mitch was thrown out the window, we would go to a commercial break. I would have already put the commercial we were going to play first in Cart player 1. Once the glass breaks and we wrap up the bit, go to commercial and proceeded with the show. That however, is NOT how it happened on the air.
As soon as I began to do the character live on the air, I saw Rob crack a smile. That is all it took. Seeing him smile made me start to laugh hard. As his Elvis character, Rob tries to save the bit. So I once again try to do the “Mitch” character – which only made me laugh harder. By this point we are both laughing so hard that we have tears in our eyes. Rob, as Elvis, says “That takes care of that bit, man!”
Because we are totally losing it on the air, my first thought is PLAY THE COMMERCIAL! I go to start the commercial, but the commercial never made it to the machine! So the button I pushed was the gunshot sound effect, which only made us laugh harder….you hear us dropping carts and shoving the commercial in the machine and finally we went to commercials. I have often called this the worst 5 minutes of Detroit radio. To me it is also the funniest 5 minutes of our show.
Update: I found the Audio and made a YouTube Video:
My apologies ahead of time …
Becoming The President
The late Richard D was one of the funniest men I ever worked with. He gave me lots of direction and I have talked about him in previous blogs, as well. I was producing his show the Top 12 at 12. This was an hour of his show which featured the Top 12 songs in Detroit on that day. They found those 12 songs from local charts from radio stations and newspapers. Each day featured a different year.
It was a fun show to produce. It included new stories, TV and movie clips, old commercials, info about how much things were from that year, etc… Richard had to play that day’s 12 songs from the chart. Every now and then there was extra time because of short songs. We would then give him songs that were on the charts from that week to play as “extras.” Usually it was a song that was just being released or had been a hit earlier in that year.
On one show, the countdown was from 1966. I had put a Dean Martin song in there as an extra and he played it. After the song, he made some comment about it not being the greatest song or something and moved on. So I went into the studio, as I often did, to give him crap. I said something along the lines of “Why are you messing with Italians! Dean was Italian and so I am I! Look here you “old bastid (a term of endearment), If I were you, I’d watch what you say about Dean Martin … and Frank Sinatra for that matter!” The whole time he laughed. I left the room as he continued to laugh hysterically.
I thought that would be the end of it, but Richard loved an opportunity to make me the butt of a joke. After the next song he said on the air, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I must offer an apology. A little while ago I played (whatever the song was) by Dean Martin and made some negative remarks about it. Immediately after that, Keith Allen came in here with about 12 goons who roughed me up a bit and told me that my comments were distasteful. So I must now publicly apologize. I really had no idea that Keith Allen was the President of the Dean Martin Fan Club!”
From that day on, I always tried to find a way to sneak a Dean Martin song into my show. After each of those songs I would say I was President of the Dean Martin Fan Club.
Related side story
When Honey went off the air, I received a package from a listener named Sandy. She and I remain friends with to this day. The package was a complete surprise and it was awesome. Sandy had sent me a membership to the REAL Dean Martin Fan Club! To make things even better, there was a note in the package. It read: “I thought you might actually want to be a member of the Fan Club you claim to be President of….”
The Sign Off
For years I listened to Boogie Brian rhyme as he talked up song intros until he nailed the post (where the vocalist starts to sing). He would do this with no effort at all. His energy was constant and the smile in his voice was ever present – until November 25, 1994. That was the day Honey stopped broadcasting locally before eventually signing off. My partner Rob and I were listening to his sign off from the other room. The day had already been full of listeners wishing us well and many tears were shed. The biggest tears came as Boogie signed off that day. A powerful memory that I will never forget.
WWWW
My Worst Prediction
In 1994, I had just come back from working on the west side of the state. It was there that I did country radio for the first time. After I was hired at W4 Country, there was a change in management. The new PD, Tim Roberts, would take the chair and offer some advice that I still use today. Every year, Tim was responsible for booking acts to the Downtown Hoedown. It was a huge three day festival with many stages and many acts. At the time took place in Hart Plaza in Detroit.
We worked at the Hoedown in shifts as I recall and mine was over. I was waiting in the blue W4 Country Suburban to go back to the station with Tim Timmerman. The Dixie Chicks were an up and coming act who had a very traditional sound. Their music was really not like anything on the radio at the time. While I loved it, I didn’t think it would do as well as it did. Tim looked out the window of the Suburban and said “Dude, it’s the Dixie Chicks! We should go get a picture!” I was exhausted and I told him that he could go if he wanted to. I then said something about them being way too traditional and that “they probably won’t go anywhere”. Boy, was I wrong! There’s an opportunity I missed and regret to this day!
Thanks for reading, it’s always fun to share radio stories. There are plenty of my DJ Heroes mentioned above, too. That’s fitting for National DJ Day!
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
A brand new decade has dawned and I will turn 20 in 1990. It was a time of change for me, as well. I had been working at WKSG for a little over 2 years. I truly believed that I’d have that job for years, but had yet to learn how unstable radio jobs were. When I was fired, I called my old boss (now at another station in Detroit) and cried like a baby. He brought me in part time at WMXD.
As I looked through the music from 1990 and 1991, there were many songs that I played while at WMXD. When I started there, the music was a mix of Adult Contemporary and Urban songs. Eventually, they would go all Urban Contemporary and I was let go again.
One of the songs I played, I wrote about recently, but it still makes my list here. If you want to know more about Elton John’s Club at the End of the Street, you can read the earlier post here:
Next on the list is a song that was released on my 20th birthday, May 15, 1990. “Vision Of Love” was Mariah Carey’s first single. The song debuted at #73 in America, but two months later, in August, spent four weeks at the #1 spot. I remember playing this one on WMXD, as well. It was a song that really showcased her outrageous vocal range! The first time I heard her belt out that high note, I couldn’t believe it!
The original demo of the song was described as a 1950’s shuffle, but that didn’t matter. The song was good enough. Songfacts says, The original version was included on Mariah’s demo tape for Columbia. It was one of the songs that caught the ear of Tommy Mottola, her future husband and, more importantly, the head of the label’s parent company, CBS Records. At the time, Mariah was working as a backup singer for Brenda K. Starr, who invited her to a label party in Manhattan where the demo tape made its way into Mottola’s hands. After listening to the tape in his limo on the way home, he went back to the party to track down the singer. Mariah had already left and no one knew who she was. Days later, she found a message on her answering machine inviting her to sign with the label. Mottola then sent her to Los Angeles to re-record “Vision Of Love.”
Let me be honest right here. After her second album, there were not too many songs by Mariah that I cared for. I don’t know this for sure, but I feel the “business” changed her. There were a couple of songs later that were good. I felt, however, her strongest stuff was on those first two albums.
Vision of Love
The Godfather trilogy will always be my number one, but my second favorite trilogy would be Back to the Future. In 1990, Back to the Future Part III was released in theaters. I couldn’t wait to see how it all wrapped up.
ZZ Top released their Recycler album in 1990. The lead single from the album was a song from Back to the Future Part III called Doubleback. The group made a cameo appearance in the movie playing an acoustic version. That version is on the soundtrack of the movie.
Doubleback
But wait, there’s more! Consider this a Double Shot of ZZ Top. From the same album, My Head’s In Mississippi sounded like classic ZZ Top to me. I just loved the shuffle and the vocals. Billy Gibbons said:
“My buddy Walter Baldwin spoke in the most poetic way. Every sentence was a visual awakening. His dad was the editor of the Houston Post. We grew up in a neighborhood where the last thing you would say is, ‘These teenagers know what blues is.’ But our appreciation dragged us in. Years later, we were sitting in a tavern in Memphis called Sleep Out Louie’s — you could see the Mississippi River. Walter said, ‘We didn’t grow up pickin’ cotton. We weren’t field hands in Mississippi. But my head’s there.’ Our platform, in ZZ Top, was we’d be the Salvador Dalí of the Delta. It was a surrealist take. This song was not a big radio hit. But we still play it live, even if it’s just the opening bit.”
In 2008, Gibbons stated, “‘My Head’s in Mississippi,’ which was one of the first completed tracks on the album, is a great example of how we mixed the new with the old. Initially, it was a straight-ahead boogie-woogie. Then Frank stepped in and threw in those highly gated electronic drum fills, which modernized the track.”
My Head’s in Mississippi
I have never owned a pair of parachute pants. They do look comfortable, however, and it looks like you have a lot of freedom in them.
As much as I didn’t really want to include this one, I did play it a lot while DJing. It always got folks out dancing, then again, so did Super Freak by Rick James. Believe it or not, James did NOT give Hammer permission to use the song.
Songfacts explains: Rick James tried to keep rappers from sampling his music, turning down any requests. According to James, his lawyers authorized the “Super Freak” sample without his permission. He heard about it when a friend told him about “U Can’t Touch This” and the song came on the radio they were listening to in the car. James said he was irate, but somewhat appeased when he found out how much money it was making for him. Still, he claimed he wouldn’t have done the deal if he was asked.
James had another beef as well: he wanted to be listed as a songwriter on “U Can’t Touch This.” He sued MC Hammer for credit. The case was settled out of court, with James getting listed as a co-writer on the track along with Hammer and Alonzo Miller. Miller was a disc jockey who wrote some lyrics on “Super Freak.”
He recorded the song at Capitol Records, where Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Dean Martin recorded, The label ran an innovative marketing campaign to promote this song. They mailed out free cassette singles of the track to 100,000 kids. The cassettes came with a letter from Hammer asking them to call MTV and request the video. The ploy worked, and the video became the most-played of 1990 on the network.
U Can’t Touch This
I don’t remember when my ex-girlfriend had sent this song to me. It was probably after we broke up the first time. I say that because I believe that this song is what led us to getting back together eventually. I remember being pretty messed up after the break up. I did end up dating someone else.
I don’t recall how my ex and I began chatting again, but it led to her giving me this song. I really loved and cared about my ex. I broke it off with the gal I had been dating to get back together with my ex. It was really unfair to her, but I was 20, almost 21, and didn’t really know any better.
While we enjoyed some very good times the second time around, it didn’t last. She broke up with me again, which led to me always wondering what I did to cause he to leave. Anyway, I tell you all that to play Cuts Both Ways.
Cuts Both Ways
In 1967, Otis Redding wrote and recorded his version of Hard to Handle. He wrote it with Allen Jones and Al Bell and the track was produced by the legendary Steve Cropper. It was released in 1968 (after his death) as the B-side to his song “Amen.”
The song was first covered in 1968 by Patti Drew. The Black Crowes covered the song on their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker. Two versions of the song exist. First, the original album version and the hit single remixed with an overdubbed brass section. The latter is available on the 30th Anniversary edition of Shake Your Money Maker.
Songfacts says: This was The Black Crowes’ third single, following “Twice As Hard” and “Jealous Again.” It made #45 in the US in December 1990, as the group was rapidly gaining momentum. After “She Talks To Angels” hit #30 in May 1991 – over a year after the album was released – “Hard To Handle” was reissued, this time going to #26 and becoming the highest-charting single for the band on the Hot 100.
This has always been a song that I love to crank up. It’s funky and fun!
Hard To Handle
My next song is another one that I played while at WMXD. I was familiar with James Ingram before I worked there and always liked his voice. I Don’t Have The Heart was his only solo number one song. The song won him a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1991.
The song was written by the duo of Allan Rich and Jud Friedman. It was the first song they wrote together. Speaking about Rich’s lyrics, Friedman told Songwriting Magazine, “Allan says he’s not a poetic lyricist, and he’s not a flowery lyricist. He is very conversational, but in a good way, and that has its own poetry. It’s the poetry of reality and the poetry of life and interactions. And the thing about I Don’t Have The Heart, among many brilliant things about Allan’s idea for the song, is it’s an example of taking a phrase that’s very well known, ‘I don’t have the heart,’ and flipping it. ‘I don’t have the heart to hurt you but I don’t have the heart to love you.’ He used it in two different ways, and that was poetic. We’ve all been there, sometimes wearing one of the shoes and sometimes wearing the other.”
That was the thing that caught me, too. The flip. I love when a lyric does that.
I Don’t Have the Heart
Whitney Houston hadn’t been on the radio since 1988. While she had her fair share of uptempo songs, but I feel like radio played more of her ballads. So the first time I played I’m Your Baby Tonight, I was wowed by it.
According to Songfacts:
By the time Houston released her third album, I’m Your Baby Tonight, she was coming off of a three-year hiatus. Prior to this, she had a record-breaking string of seven consecutive #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. The problem was, her record label felt she was losing touch with her black audience. Houston balked at the claim, telling USA Today, “I don’t sing music thinking this is black, or this is white… I sing songs that everybody’s going to like.”
But producers L.A. Reid and Babyface agreed with the assertion. Reid told Billboard: “We wanted to come up with something that was different than anything Whitney had sung. So we approached it from that angle. We wanted to give her a new direction, and pick up where we felt she was lacking. We felt like she needed more of a black base.”
It definitely was a fresh sound for her, but I don’t know hear it as “more black” or “more white.” To me, it is just a great song!
The Julien Temple-directed music video shows Houston in the guise of different pop culture figures. They include silver screen siren Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn, and all three of The Supremes.
I’m Your Baby Tonight
Allow me just one more song from my WMXD days. Let me set this up for you. When I was at WKSG, these two sweet old ladies always called to request songs. They were sisters named Virginia and Dorothy. They always seemed to call toward the end of my overnight shift.
Virginia suffered with respiratory issues, so it took her a bit to say what she wanted. She would get a couple words out and have to take a breath. She had emphysema and really struggled to breathe.
Dorothy, on the other hand, was always on the go. She was always talking about where she was over the weekend. She was always at a party or something, even though she didn’t drive. She took a bus or Your Ride where she needed to go.
When I told them that I was leaving the station, Dorothy gave me her address to keep in touch. When I moved to Ludington, she and Virginia wrote me often. Eventually, communication was over the phone. When I moved back home, we actually ran into each other at a Weight Watchers. meeting.
I was closer to Dorothy, and she would invite me to stop by for coffee. She always had some sort of baked good ready. She was born the same day as Frank Sinatra. She was such a sweet friend. I am sure that I lost touch with her after I married my ex, and was sad to hear that she (and her sister) had passed away.
She once told me that she didn’t like all of the music we played at WMXD. One song she loved was The First Time by Surface. This song went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Whenever I hear it, I think about my friend and am grateful to have known her.
The First Time
Robert Palmer’s Don’t Explain album was very different. It contains 18 tracks and a variety of styles. There is R&B, Rock, Jazz, and more. It also includes some cover songs. I love the track “Top 40” because it swings a bit with a great sax line. It, however, wasn’t released as a single.
The song that is closest to what he had success with in the 80’s is You’re Amazing. I love the guitar line in the song. Billboard said, “Palmer’s reliably strong soul stylings added to headbanger guitar riffs and sweet background harmonies proves to be a quirky, but potent, combination.”
I don’t know that I would call the guitars “headbangers,” but I suppose they are a bit harder than Palmer usually presents. Now, the background harmonies – yeah, I dig those!
You’re Amazing
1990 Bonus Song
I just can’t pass up one song. It is a song that my best friend, Jeff, and I still laugh about. I can’t be sure who heard this first, but I know we laughed about it for years. The idea of taking the voice from a 1970’s instructional dance record and incorporating it into this is brilliant. The Bingo Boys did just that!
It is this vocal part from that record that makes us laugh so much. I cannot even being to picture a couple in their living room trying to learn a dance to that guy! It is so absurd that after a few of his lines, Princessa jumps in to shut him up. “Act like the end of a record and fade out …” is the lyric. I think that’s an awesome line.
The Bingo Boys were a trio from Austria. The song was actually released in the US first. It was released in the UK in 1991. It went to number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart and reached number 25 on the Hot 100.
The song borrows heavily from a number of earlier recordings, including “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” by Chic, “Dance (Disco Heat) by Sylvester, “Kiss” by the Art of Noise and Tom Jones, the popular James Brown “Yeah! Woo!” sample loop, the bassline motif from Mantronix’s single “Got to Have Your Love”, and a synth motif from The Whispers’ “And The Beat Goes On”. See if you can catch them all ….
How To Dance
That’s a wrap on 1990. Next week, we’ll check out 1991. That was the year I turned 21 and moved out for the first time. What kind of surprises will pop up?
Did I miss any big 1990 songs from your list?? Drop them in the comments!
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
1984 was a big year for me. It was a year of change as I started high school that year. It was also the year that the Detroit Tigers won the World Series! What an amazing year!
Musically, it was the year of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Weird Al’s Eat It, and Prince had a few hits, too. As I looked over the list from ’84, there are a lot of “staple” 80’s hits from this year. Alas, not too many of those made my list. I apologize to fans of A-ha.
My first pick is one of a few songs that I could feature on my Music Movie Monday feature because it comes from a great soundtrack. Beverly Hills Cop was huge here in Michigan because Eddie Murphy plays a Detroit cop. But there is another Detroit connection as well…
According to songfacts.com: “The Heat Is On” was written for the film by Harold Faltermeyer (who also wrote Axel F for the film) and Keith Forsey, and they needed a popular artist to sing it. The Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack album was on MCA Records, which Glenn Frey recently signed with. MCA asked several of their male rock singers to audition for the lead vocal for the song. At first Frey thought this wasn’t something “rock stars” did, but he decided to go along, just for fun, never thinking they’d pick him. Harold Faltermeyer was impressed by Frey’s vocal (the instrumental tracks were already recorded) and shocked Frey by using his version. It was Frey’s biggest solo hit, reaching #2 in the US.
The other Detroit connection? Glenn Frey was born and raised in Detroit where he played in bands with names like The Mushrooms and Subterraneans before heading to Los Angeles and joining the Eagles.
The Heat Is On
I have already mentioned Thriller by Michael Jackson. Spoiler Alert: It isn’t on my list. However, you gotta admit that the video was pretty darn good, right? I mean it was all over MTV and people still copy the dance for it at weddings and such. But would you believe that it did NOT win the first-ever Video of the Year award at MTV’s Video Music Awards? So what video did?
That honor went to You Might Think by The Cars! Today a video like this would be pretty easy to make, however, the video was very advanced for the time and was one of the first to use computerized effects. Singer/guitarist Ric Ocasek’s image appeared in various animated scenes – he would show up as a fly, climbing the Empire State Building, just about anywhere to get the attention of the girl. (The object of his affection was played by model Susan Gallagher.) When the video was first aired, it was done so without the fly – because technically, the video’s effects were not done.
The song was released in February 1984, as the first single from their Heartbeat City album. “You Might Think” peaked at number seven in the United States. This is one of those videos that I always got a laugh out of. It seemed so silly to me. It was directed by Jeff Stein (who was famous for other videos). He thought The Cars were a boring live band so he used digital trickery to get around that. I think it worked.
You Might Think
The next song is the “love theme” from the movie Footloose. You may remember in one of my past posts about Footloose that Dean Pitchford not only wrote the screenplay for the movie, but he wrote all the lyrics to all the songs (some with co-writers). He wrote Almost Paradise with Eric Carmen.
The Footloose producers wanted it to be a duet. They knew that they wanted Heart’s Ann Wilson for their female voice. They contacted Wilson, and asked her for a list of preferred duet partners. Her list included Paul Rodgers and Lou Gramm, but it was Mike Reno (the lead singer for Loverboy) – not on the list – who was chosen.
They recorded the song together at a session in Chicago with Keith Olsen, who had worked on Heart’s Passionworks album and also the 1975 Fleetwood Macalbum, producing. At the time, Ann was nursing a broken wrist, but stayed off her painkillers so she wouldn’t be compromised during the session. They put their vocals down over the track that had already been recorded, then went their separate ways. She thought it was a great song, but was still surprised it was released as a single. She was even more surprised when it became a staple of proms and weddings.
That is the reason the song is on my list. I was a junior in high school and was dating a senior. She asked me to go to her prom, which was titled “Almost Paradise.” I think it was their class song, I don’t know for sure. I remember this would have been in 1987, so the song was a few years old by then. With every ticket, the student received a wine glass with the Almost Paradise logo on it. LOL – it didn’t take long for the school to stop giving away wine glasses!
Almost Paradise
Huey Lewis was a big part of my high school days! My buddy Steve and I loved cruising around and listening to Huey’s albums. This was one I loved the minute I heard it. As a lover of oldies and the Rock and Roll greats, I heard it as a “hat tip” to them and their influence on music.
In a 2013 Billboard interview, Huey said they song found its roots in Cleveland. “‘The Heart of Rock & Roll’ was written driving out of Cleveland. We’d heard that Cleveland was this great rock and roll town, and we’re from San Francisco – how can Cleveland be anything? We went to play the Agora Ballroom and had this amazing gig. On the bus out of town I was looking at the skyline of Cleveland and I said, ‘You know what boys? The heart of rock and roll really is in Cleveland. Hey, that’s a pretty good song title. Later I thought it through and went, ‘The heart of rock and roll is still beating’.The idea is that, although the music business is in New York and LA, good rock and roll is where you find it.”
Sports was one of my favorite albums back then. I had it on vinyl to play at home and on cassette to play in the car. The Heart of Rock and Roll the third of five singles from Sports, the third Huey Lewis & the News album. All of the singles were hits, and the album went on to sell over 7 million copies in America, putting the band of firm financial footing for the first time, which was very important to them – these guys were all in their 30s and had been working in music since the early ’70s.
The Heart of Rock and Roll
My dad was really involved in the local Vietnam Veteran’s chapter when I was in high school. As we got older, me and some of the guys would go up to their events. They often had cook outs, holiday dances, and fund raisers. I met so many great people at these events and came to love hanging out with them. My dad would spin records for the group.
Along with many oldies he would play songs like “Some Gave All,” “Goodnight, Saigon,” and “The Ballad of the Green Berets.” But it was always at the end of the night that my dad would play God Bless the USA. The first time I witnessed this, I choked up. Everyone in the building gathered on the dance floor and held hands. They would sing this song at the top of their lungs and raise their hands in the air. It was truly moving.
This song holds a special place in my heart for those friends.
God Bless The U.S.A.
The videos of many songs will forever be what I think of when I hear them. We’re Not Gonna Take It is a great example. I remember thinking it was cool that “the guy who played Niedermeyer in Animal House” was the dad in this video!
According to Dee Snider, he started writing this song in 1980, two years before Twisted Sister released their first album, Under the Blade. He had the hook, but couldn’t come up with a verse melody. After Def Leppard released their Pyromania album in 1983, Snider came up with a plan. “In studying some of Mutt Lange’s work with Def Leppard, I saw that a number of their songs were using variations on the chorus as a verse. That gave me the information I needed to come up with the rest of ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It.'”
Songfacts.com perfectly describes the song this way: “This is the mighty anthem for anyone lashing out at an authority figure and ready to put up a fight. The song is short on specifics, so it can apply to just about any situation where “we” are battling “the powers that be.” This all-purpose approach was intentional and gave the song a timeless quality.“
We’re Not Gonna Take It
When I first moved to Mid-Michigan, I discovered that there was a local hockey team. The Flint Generals played in a sports arena that held like 3000 people. There wasn’t a bad seat in the place. I loved being able to see these guys slam up against the glass. It was great!!
When the Generals disbanded, the public hoped for hockey to continue. They would up bringing in a hockey team that was made up of college aged kids and the team was called The Michigan Warriors.
The hockey was a bit less violent, but it was still hockey. I always loved a night out at the games. When they would introduce the members of the team (and at the end of each game) they always played Scandal’s The Warrior.
The Warrior
The next song is one that I always liked because the hook is catchy and it had a cool sax part. Sadly, it is also the subject of one of the biggest flubs I ever did on the air.
Released in August of 1984, “Smooth Operator” was the breakout hit in America for Sade, who were based in England. Their debut album, Diamond Life, was first issued in 1984 in the UK, where “Smooth Operator” was the third charting single. In the US, the album was released in 1985, with “Hang On To Your Love” as the first single. It went nowhere, but the next single, “Smooth Operator,” rose to #5 and earned the group a reputation as an exotic soulful act with a captivating frontwoman.
One night I was working at WMXD and I came out of the song and realized that I had never known who sang it. I looked at the music log and read, “Sade.” So that’s what I called her – “Sade” (Say-d). The phones lit up and people were either making fun of me or asking why I was playing songs when I couldn’t even pronounce the name of the artist! I was embarrassed. I had no idea until I pulled the CD out of the player and saw the writing ….
What a dope!!
Smooth Operator
Sea of Love was a song that I heard often on the oldies station. Phil Phillips had recorded it in 1959 and it was a top 5 hit. The song was covered by Robert Plant’s Honeydrippers in 1984. They truly were a rock and roll supergroup – Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Paul Schaffer, Nile Rogers and other greats appeared in the group.
They only released one EP, The Honeydrippers: Volume One. Sea of Love took their remake all the way up to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. I love the orchestration of this version so much. The EP is worth a listen – Rockin’ At Midnight would go to #25. The success of the songs led Plant to say that a full album would be released, but it never came to be.
Sea of Love
My final pick is one that is really embarrassing. So why is it here? Because the minute I saw it as a released single, the chorus became an ear worm and stuck in my head. If I have to walk around singing it over and over, you may as well, too!
My 14 year old self loved novelty records. I had Spike Jones, Weird Al, and many more in my collection. When I first heard this “rap” song, I laughed like hell. When I ran to the store to get the single, I remember thinking how cool it was that I got the 12 inch vinyl record. It had the single, an extended mix, and on the B-side an instrumental.
As I listened to this before adding it officially to my list, I thought, “What in the world did I like about this song?! It really is kinda dumb.” At the same time, all these years later, there are still people I know who will break into a chorus of “Duh Ha, Duh Ha! Duh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha..”
Yep, that gives it away. I was a fan of the Rappin’ Duke by Shawn Brown. Do I really need to go into any history on this one? Probably not. Forgive me for the earworm….
Rappin’ Duke
Next week I’ll take a look at 1985 and how some of those songs connect to my life. Movie music will be in there for sure, a tribute to some legends, the first slow song I remember dancing to, and maybe a song I have featured once before on this blog. See you next week!
When it was brought to my attention that the “musical” posts here have not been what they used to be, I decided to make it a point to do one today. This one takes us back to 1990. The year before Elton John released his Sleeping With The Past album. The first single was Healing Hands followed by Sacrifice, both of which were top 20 hits.
The third single was one that I remember playing at WMXD in Detroit before it went all urban. The song was a great uptempo song called “Club at the End of the Street.” I have always loved this song as I felt that it had a “60’s” sound/feel to it. After doing a bit of searching, I found out why.
The song, of course , was written by Bernie Taupin and Elton John. According to songfacts.com:
This is a fun song about a fictional hangout where they play the soul music Elton and his writing partner Bernie Taupin have always loved. Elton mentions Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye in the lyrics. Explaining the inspiration in a 1989 interview with Music Connection, Taupin said: “What I would do is I’d take a song like a Drifters song and I’d try to write a Drifters-type lyric. There’s a song on the album called ‘Club At The End Of The Street,’ which is probably the straightest emulation of one of those songs. When you hear it, it has the feel of a song like ‘Under the Boardwalk.’ It’s a real Drifters-style song. So what I would do is I’d make notes for Elton at the bottom of the lyric sheet, like ‘Think Drifters, think this or think that.'”
Elton said that he loved the song. He told Rolling Stone in 2013: “We wanted to write a song like the Drifters would record, one of those Goffin-King, Brill Building songs. It’s the closest we ever got to one.”
The song only charted at #28, but it always makes me want to sing along. The B-Side of the song was Elton’s cover of John Lennon’s Give Peace a Chance. The video is a fun one where you see an animated Elton playing at EJ’s Club and the patrons are dancing away.
Check it out!
Club at the End of the Street
When the shades are drawn And the light of the moon is banned And the stars up above Walk the heavens hand in hand There’s a shady place At the end of the working day Where young lovers go And this hot little trio plays
That’s where we meet That’s where we meet Me and you rendezvous In the club at the end of the street Oooh where we meet Oooh where we meet Me and you rendezvous In the club at the end of the street
From the alleyways Where the catwalks gently sway You hear the sound of Otis And the voice of Marvin Gaye In this smoky room There’s a jukebox plays all night And we can dance real close Beneath the pulse of a neon light
That’s where we meet That’s where we meet Me and you rendezvous In the club at the end of the street Oooh where we meet Oooh where we meet Me and you rendezvous In the club at the end of the street
There’s a downtown smell of cooking From the flame on an open grill There’s a sax and a big bass pumping Lord have mercy You can’t sit still You can’t sit still
That’s where we meet That’s where we meet Me and you rendezvous In the club at the end of the street Oooh where we meet Oooh where we meet Me and you rendezvous In the club at the end of the street
You can’t sit still Where we meet In the club at the end of the street You can’t sit still Where we meet In the club at the end of the street You can’t sit still Where we meet At the club at the end of the street Where we meet Where we meet At the club at the end of the street You can’t sit still
When I started this blog, I often questioned whether or not I would have things to write about. A friend of mine suggested subscribing to a “daily writing prompt” site. These prompts can be helpful as “thought starters,” but I haven’t really ever received one that immediately made me want to sit and write – until today. Today’s prompt simply said, “Write about a time when you couldn’t stop laughing.”
There are two stories that instantly come to mine and they both involve my best friend of over 40 years. Jeff and I have known each other since 2nd grade. For years, we’ve been able to make each other laugh with stories, jokes, gibberish and sound effects. As you know, there are times when laughter is appropriate and there are times when it is not. Both of these incidents fall into the latter.
Story #1
You know that uncontrollable laughter that you get when you know that you absolutely should not be laughing? The laugh that no matter how hard you try not to laugh, and try to stifle that laughter, you just cannot seem to stop it from happening? Remember the Mary Tyler Moore when Mary can’t stop laughing at the funeral of a clown? No? Here is the clip:
My first incident falls into that category. Jeff and I had an English class together. As I remember it (and Jeff can correct me if I am wrong), we had a substitute teacher and we were working on vocabulary words. This meant looking up words and writing the definitions down on a work sheet. Well, you know how it is when there is a substitute teacher … we were screwing around.
In this class we sat next to each other. I don’t recall who started it, but we began looking up words, circling them, and passing the dictionary to each other with a bookmark marking the page to be looked at. You can imagine the words we were looking up. If you can’t, they were words like “penis”, “anus”, “testicles”, “feces”, “turd”, etc…
The more the dictionary went back and forth, the more we both began to laugh. The final two passes that got us in trouble was when one of us looked up the word “fart”. This in itself was funny. The following word that was looked up was an adjective to describe the fart – “raunchy”. The words were scribbled in a sentence: “A man let a raunchy fart under downtown Las Vegas.” (“under downtown Las Vegas” was something that Telly Savalas said in Cannonball Run II, which we found funny for some reason). By this time, we were snickering and doing every thing we could to hold back laughter and just couldn’t. I remember being called out by the teacher and not really being able to explain myself because I was still laughing. Jeff was laughing too. The sub stood at the front of the classroom shaking her head and said to me, “I’m still trying to figure out what planet your friend is from” and without missing a beat, Jeff yelled out, “Uranus!”
We both may have been sent to the office for that, but I can’t recall.
Story #2
One of the cool things about TV series on DVD is that most of them include a Blooper or gag reel. Many of the flubs are performers or actors forgetting lines and many are because other actors are laughing or can’t stop laughing while recording the scene. Those gag reels will show take after take of an actor cracking up before the funny line of the script is even said. There were no “retakes” with my second story, as it happened live on the radio in Detroit in 1991.
I was working a weekend overnight shift one Saturday night at WMXD. I remember before I left for work, I was searching for something to take for lunch. My dad had recently been to some army/navy surplus store and bought a bunch of MRE’s. MRE stands for “meals ready to eat”. They are made so that no matter where a soldier is, they can rip it open and eat it. Some of them are actually quite good. He gave me one to take and I left for work.
Jeff came up to hang out in the studio that night and when I got ready to eat, I pulled out the MRE. It was barbeque pulled pork. First of all, when I opened it, it reeked! The smell was awful – almost like vinegar and cat food! I squeezed it out onto a plate and it looked disgusting! I can’t even begin to describe it to you. It was stringy and orange-ish red (the so-called “barbeque sauce”). I am sure that while the microphone was off we were laughing and describing just how gross it looked. Then I had to go on the air.
I remember opening the microphone and backselling the song I had just played. I was getting ready to go into commercials and had to read a liner card. Liner cards usually contained information about contests, concerts, or promotions that the station was involved with. I remember getting a line or two into the card and out of the corner of my eye I noticed Jeff moving around. As I continued to read the card, he waved a fork loaded with that gross pulled pork in front of my face. This made me crack up as soon as I saw it. I really hope that the information on that liner card wasn’t important, because the more I kept reading, the more I laughed. If I had been smart, I would have just quit and fired off the commercial, but I was determined to finish that liner card. It was reminiscent of when Elvis started laughing while singing “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” I can’t even imagine what the listeners thought as I laughed and read through that!! (I am chuckling as I am typing this, just remembering the incident!) Thank God it happened on the overnight shift, I probably would have gotten called into the bosses office!
If you are unfamiliar with Laughing Elvis – here is the clip (with the story):
Final Thoughts
The laughter continues with each phone call and visit from Jeff. We send each other silly pictures daily and leave voice mail messages that are incomprehendable for each other. We can still make each other laugh with a sound effect, movie line, or some made up song lyrics. Though we are approaching the half century mark … we still are like teenagers looking up “fart” in the dictionary … and I am ok with that!
I would love to hear your stories about laughing when you shouldn’t be ….
Yesterday was National Radio Day. Many of my radio friends shared pictures and stories from their careers throughout the day. Looking back, I really wish I had taken more pictures! I am not sure why I didn’t. I absolutely loved seeing many of the old pictures of old studios and old friends on Facebook! If any of my friends have pictures of studios we worked in, prod rooms, etc…. please let me know, I would LOVE to see them!!!
In my almost 30 year radio career, I have (like all of my radio friends) a gazillion stories. Here are some that I’ll share off the top of my head. I am sure there are plenty more, but for now – enjoy these:
WKSG
My career started here. I was a lowly intern ripping news and sorting it. I then started to intern with Paul Christy, the morning guy. He eventually was responsible for me doing overnights full time.
I only used my real name once in my entire career – and almost didn’t. Every hour at the top of the hour we had our Legal ID. There was what we called a “donut” in the middle of the music where the DJ would say what time it was and their name. I’d heard it a hundred times. “It’s 10 O’clock and I’m Jim McKenzie”, “It’s 3 O’clock and I’m John Bailey”, “It’s 7 O’clock and I’m Johnny Molson” – every jock did it. My first night on the air, I hadn’t decided what name I was going to use yet. The ID played and I had no choice – “It’s midnight and I’m … (brain fart – and real name)”. I remember a gal I went to high school with was listening that night because she remembers hearing me use my real name. I used Keith Allen every day after that and have never been anyone else.
Speaking of those live ID’s, Johnny Molson was on before me each night. It seemed that he and his crew always were trying to mess with me when the ID played. They’d make weird noises, bang on cart racks, knock over my music stack, and all kinds of other things to try to get me to mess up. Sometimes they’d get me to crack up and sometimes I was able to keep it together. One night, the time was ticking away to the ID and they were all out of the studio. The ID started and I heard the studio door behind me open fast. They had found a huge box and as I started to talk, they threw it over my head. My hands were still by the mixer board so I could see what button I had to push next, so I just continued to talk as the box was over my head. Listeners heard nothing but a muffled voice and the music bed. Johnny was cracking up, he told me, “I can’t believe you just kept going”!
At one point during my time at Kiss-FM, I was doing Friday night/Saturday mornings which consisted of me being on air from 12a-6a doing my own show, and then running Paul Christy on tape from 6a-10a. I don’t recall why I hadn’t slept much the day prior, but I was tired. I did my show, and about an hour into Paul’s show, I started a song, put my elbows up on the board, my fists to my cheeks, and nodded off. About 20-25 minutes later, my head fell from my hands and I was startled awake. I had no idea where I was. The phones were all lit up, and nothing was on the air! I grabbed the first cart (what songs were on) in the music stack and jammed it into the machine. Fittingly, the song was “You’ve Got Your Troubles” by the Fortunes. Once the music started, the phones stopped ringing. I, however, knew that Paul was always listening! I dreaded the call that I knew was coming. I was sure to get fired for messing up his show! 10 minutes later the “PC hotline rang”. I answered it and as usual, Paul was chomping on something (he was always eating when he called). “How’s it going?”, he asked. He had to have heard it, I knew he did. Why wasn’t he saying anything? I finally blurted out that I had fallen asleep for a couple minutes and awaited the verbal beating. Nope. Not Paul. He laughed and said, “You Asshole! I remember this one time I fell asleep while I was at Super CFL in Chicago….” and told me the story. That was the kind of guy Paul was … a damn cool dude!
One more Paul Story. He drank coffee all through his shift. He liked it black and hot! One time he had Vince get him some coffee. It sat next to him for awhile while he was doing other things. He finally grabbed it and took a sip. He yelled, “What the hell is the matter with you guys?! You call this hot coffee?! I could piss warmer than this!! Get me some fresh stuff and make sure it is hot!” So Vince went to the coffee pot, filled the cup and then put it in the microwave for about 2 or 10 minutes…LOL. I don’t remember, but it was in there for a good while. He took the cup to Paul, who rather than set it down as he normally did, put it to his lips and burned the hell out of his tongue and lips! Paul yelped, “Jesus! What is wrong with you?!” Holding his tongue in pain, he continued, “I use this thing for a living!!” I think every one of us broke a rib laughing so hard.
WMXD
I followed Paul here to do some part time work after being let go from Kiss-FM. The format started as a mix of Urban/R&B music and Pop. Eventually it went all R&B and Urban. It was here that I met The Electrifying Mojo.
Mojo was a cool dude. He played most of his stuff off vinyl records. The thing I remember most about Mojo was that the studio was always like a sauna! It was always SO hot when I came in. There were always records all over the studio, so I rarely was able to pull the first hour of music for my show. I have to admit it was so cool to watch him say his closing line every night I worked: “Hold on tight. Don’t let go. Whenever you feel like you are reaching the end of your rope – tie a knot. Don’t slide off. Keep hanging. Keep remembering that there ain’t nobody bad like you.”
WHND
Honey Radio! I grew up listening to this station and I was honored to have the chance to work with radio legends! Richard D, Jon Ray, Boogie Brian, Ron Tavernit, Bill Stewart, Greg Russell, and so many others were such an influence. Honey was on the day I was at the drive in to see Smokey and the Bandit in 1977 – the day Elvis died. Honey was the first oldies station in the country – and I got to be there as they turned out the light…..
You can read all about my buddy Rob in a previous blog. I am not sure if I tell this story in that blog or not, so I apologize if I did. It was the last week Honey was on the air – the week of Thanksgiving 1994. Listeners knew that this was Honey’s last week and we had been given free reign to have fun. We had a listener who used to call up and his name was Mitchell. I had gotten to the point where I could do his voice pretty well. I had been doing a character based on the real listener and I called him “Mitch”. True story – Mitch would call and talk to us and really never have anything to say, so I prerecorded calls as Mitch where I just rambled about nothing and then hung up. Afterward, we’d say something like “He’s a nice guy, but ….” kind of a thing. So now it’s the last week we are on the air and it was clear that some people were upset the station was going off the air. So we planned a bit. I was going to do the character live on the air. I was going to come in and say how upset I was the station was going off the air, yell and scream and (using the theater of the mind) pull out a gun and start shooting (keep in mind this was 1994 and public shootings were not as prominent) it. At this point in the bit, our bouncer character (loosely based on Charles Bronson) was going to come in and beat up “Mitch” and throw him out the studio window. In order to accomplish the bit we needed sound effects (to make it sound real on the air). We had 6 cart machines and everything was on its own cart. So in cart player #1 was the song we just played. Cart #2 Door closing sound effect for when Mitch comes in Cart #3 – gunshot sound. Cart #4 – The sound of two guys beating each other up. Cart #5 – The sound of glass breaking (studio window) . Cart #6 – always had the weather music in it. After Mitch was thrown out the window, I would have already put the commercial we were going to go into in Cart player 1 and proceeded with the show. That is NOT how it happened on the air. As soon as I began to do the character live on the air, I saw Rob crack a smile, which made me start to laugh hard. As the Elvis character, Rob tries to save the bit, so I once again try to do the “Mitch” character – which only made me laugh harder. By this point we are both laughing so hard that we have tears in our eyes. Rob, as Elvis, says “That takes care of that bit, man!” and I go to start the commercial – but the commercial never made it to the machine, so the button I pushed was the gunshot sound effect, which only made us laugh harder….you hear us dropping carts and shoving the commercial in the machine and finally we went to commercials. I have often called this the worst 5 minutes of Detroit radio, but to me it is also one of the funniest. Yes, I do have audio, and it still cracks me up.
(This is not the WHND studio, but it will give you a visual for the last story – Cart players are on the left in this picture)
Richard D was one of the funniest men I ever worked with. He gave me lots of direction and I have talked about him in previous blogs, as well. I was producing his show the Top 12 at 12, which was an hour of his show which featured the Top 12 songs in Detroit from local charts from different years. It was a fun show to produce. It included new stories, TV and movie clips, old commercials, info about how much things were from that year, etc… Richard had to play the 12 songs and sometimes there was extra time and we’d give him songs that were on the charts form that week to play as “extras” if he needed them. He was doing a countdown from 1966 and I had put a Dean Martin song in there as an extra and he played it. He made some comment about it not being the greatest song or something and moved on. I went into the studio, as I often did, to give him crap. I said something along the lines of “Why are you messing with Italians! Dean was Italian and so I am I! Look here you Old Bastid (a term of endearment), If I were you, I’d watch what you say about Dean Martin … and Frank Sinatra for that matter!” and left the room as he laughed hysterically. After the next song he said on the air, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I must offer an apology. A little while ago I played (whatever the song was) by Dean Martin and made some negative remarks about it. Well immediately after that, Keith Allen came in here with about 12 goons who roughed me up a bit and told me that my comments were distasteful. So I must now publically apologize. I really had no idea that Keith Allen was the President of the Dean Martin Fan Club!” From that day on, I always tried to find a way to sneak a Dean Martin song into my show, so I could say I was President of the Dean Martin Fan Club. When Honey went off the air, I received a package from a listener named Sandy (who I remain friends with to this day), who sent me a membership to the REAL Dean Martin Fan Club with a note that read: “I thought you might actually want to be a member of the Fan Club you claim to be President of….”
For years I listened to Boogie Brian rhyme his talks up song intros until he nailed the post (where the vocalist starts to sing) with no effort at all. His energy was constant and the smile in his voice was ever present – until November 25, 1994. That was the day Honey stopped broadcasting locally before eventually signing off. My partner Rob and I were listening to his sign off from the other room. The day had already been full of listeners wishing us well and many tears were shed. The biggest tears came as Boogie signed off that day. A powerful memory that I will never forget.
WWWW
I had just come back from working on the west side of the state, where I did country radio for the first time. It wasn’t long before a new PD, Tim Roberts, would take the chair and offer some advice that I still use today. Every year Tim was responsible for booking acts to the Downtown Hoedown (which at the time took place in Hart Plaza).
We worked at the Hoedown in shifts as I recall and mine was over. I was waiting in the blue W4 Country Suburban to go back to the station with Tim Timmerman. The Dixie Chicks were an up and coming act who had a very traditional sound. This was really not like anything on the radio at the time, and while I loved it, I didn’t think it would do as well as it did. Tim looked out the window and said “Dude, it’s the Dixie Chicks! We should go get a picture!” I told him he could because I was tired and “they probably won’t go anywhere”. Boy, was I wrong! There’s an opportunity I missed and regret to this day!
So many stories….so little time….
The more I write, the more stories I recall. Tell you what….More to come in the next blog…..
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 