Category: Radio

Sun-Baked Airwaves

The 9th anniversary of my father’s death is coming up. It had been my intention to buy my parents’ house in Sun City West, Arizona.

One of my (four) sisters, a retired nurse, lives around the corner. She moved there with her husband to care for our ailing mother.

The expectation had been that Mom had a few years to go, but fate was working from a different timetable, and she lasted only a few more months. Dad had another twelve years left in him.

Buying the Arizona house would have required agreeing on a fair market value with my five siblings and paying them for their shares of the property. I didn’t buy the house, but money wasn’t the problem. In fact, it sold for $15,000 less than the figure I was proposing.

There was no single reason why I decided to drop the idea of becoming a “snow bird,” flying from Boston to Phoenix for the winter. The long flight time between Boston and Phoenix was a consideration. Another was the regional popularity of Donald Trump, who was in his first term.

The tie-breaker was melanoma being diagnosed in my scalp. The dermatologist who did the (very significant) cutting suggested that I wasn’t a good candidate for regular exposure to the Arizona sun.

A couple of years later, when Covid hit, I was greatly relieved not having to worry about a second home 2,000 miles away. However, I still ponder what might have been.

Sun City West is an ideal location for running (after the sun sets), with countless, perfectly flat, street routes to map out. Something I certainly would have been interested in doing is joining the retirement community’s radio station, KSCW.

streamdb6web.securenetsystems.net/cirrusencore/KSCW

Giving Lori Some ❤️

Every so often, BBC Radio 2’s Sounds of the Seventies, now hosted by Shaun Keaveny, surprises me with a song that was a big hit in the UK, but wasn’t in America. Here’s an example.

In 1977, the Alessi Brothers had a #8 hit in England with ‘Oh Lori’. I was working as an AM radio DJ that year, and ‘Oh Lori’ is a song that would have been a perfect fit for the station’s Adult Contemporary format. Nonetheless, it wasn’t on our playlist.

I’ll correct that oversight right now. If the Beach Boys did Jazz, it would sound like this.

Journey to the Center of 1968

Denro favors 1969 as the peak year for popular music, but I keep returning to 1968. That was the year of ‘Classical Gas’, ‘Love is Blue’ and the outstanding ‘This Guy’s in Love With You’. But ’68 also had the flip side of music, revealing the growing tension between Top-40 AM and nascent Underground Radio on FM.*

It began a year earlier with the Doors and the Jefferson Airplane. The Summer of Love in ’67 also had a hard edge. It came into very compelling full view in ’68.

The first time I became aware of “album cuts” was in 1967, with the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’. Other records followed in ’68. Two examples include the Chambers Brothers.

And, in what is perhaps the ultimate example of the changes brought about in the Sixties, an era of change that I maintain can never be repeated, there is this AM single/FM album gem.

I didn’t even include Cream, but you’ll find them in this playlist that shows why I can never let go of 1968.

* The phenomenon of album-centered underground FM radio resulted from a unique and coincidental timing of events — The undeniable shift in the music industry; an FCC mandate requiring unique FM programming; and Vietnam Vets returning home with Japanese stereo receivers, which upended the American hi-fi market and marked the end of true mono-mixed singles.

Found in Translation

Debbie Daughtry and Tom Hanks, of Boss Radio 66

A publication in the Netherlands asked Debbie about working with Tom on Boss Radio 66. You’ll need to use a browser that can translate Dutch into English.

https://www.heavenmagazine.nl/actueel/tom-hanks-heeft-de-tijd-van-zijn-leven-bij-boss-radio-66

Future plans for Boss Radio 66?
“Our contract with TuneIn expires at the end of this year, so we’ll see.”