O/T The Music Thread

We were listening to the same stuff, Clipper.  I was one of those guys who bought Murray The K's "Gassers For Submarine Race Watchers" compilation albums.  It was heartbreaking when 1010 WINS went to an all-news format in 1965, the first 50,000 watt station in the US to do so.  Philly followed the next year with 1060 KYW.  The great Alan Freed was a jock at WINS, and Mel Allen hosted a musical program on there in the late 1940s.

I couldn't get WOR-FM in my neck of the woods, but whenever I wandered into North Jersey or NYC I could listen to Murray and Scottso.  Murray got into the progressive end of rock after he left WINS and I recall him pushing a very unusual baroque-rock song called "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius who were in reality Glen Campbell, Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys and other LA sessions musicians.  You would never have known that was Campbell singing lead.  I jumped on that one and brought a copy back to Philly to be The First Kid On My Block (remember that designation?) to know about it.

WABC, despite its lousy playlist format, just sounded like the Big City with that echoing background and those time chimes.  Endless ads for Castro Convertibles and Palisades Park ("it's fun, so come on over.")  Between those ads and the Freddy Cannon song about it (written by Chuck Barris as I am sure you know) it became a must-see destination for me.  It was like gazing upon the Great Pyramids when I finally made it (five roller coasters!  The world's largest salt-water pool!) but it had a quick demise.

Philly had great radio.  WIBG 990 was the best, very eclectic.  Don't know if you remember jocks like Hy Lit and Joe Niagara.  They ruled the Philly rock scene until WFIL became a rock station in 1966, but I always favored Wibbage (as it was called.)  There were also two outstanding black music stations, WDAS (Georgie Woods, the guy with the goods) and WHAT (Lloyd Fat Man and The Geator with The Heater, Jerry Blavat) where I was able to get my minimum daily requirements of soul and R&B that the mainstream stations didn't play.  I felt like all the bases were covered, whether I wanted Jan and Dean or James Brown.  And they were good buddies, by the way.  Loved each other's music.  Musicians are way more open-minded about different types of music than the public in general.  There's a story about Charlie Parker going into a bar and listening to Hank Williams and remarking "now that is soul music."

Don't know if you hit the Jersey shore in your youth -- from where you lived it was probably Atlantic City up to Asbury Park, for me it was Atlantic City to Cape May -- but maybe you remember WMID 1450 in Atlantic City.  It was kind of a junior version of WABC, limited playlist just right for kids sitting on their beach blankets with the tinny transistors barely audible above the sound of the surf.  In Wildwood we had WCMC, only 1,000 watts but boy did it blast over about a 30 square-block area that included the hotel my grandparents had there, two blocks from the boardwalk.

At night you could get the big rock blowtorches like WKBW in Buffalo and WLS in Chicago and CKLW in Windsor, Ontario.  At times WBZ in Boston and WCFL in Chicago went to a rock format.  AM radio was so great in those days.  Much less electronic interference to contend with, plus every station had its own local formatting.  Not syndicated stuff like today, when you go down the AM dial at night and the only thing you can hear on station after station is "Coast To Coast." 

OMG Joey Reynolds.  I listened to him religiously when he was on WKBW in Buffalo in the early 60s.  I still have my membership card for the Royal Order Of The Night People that he ran back then.  Also the Rat Finks which used the artwork of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.  I even have his records he did with fellow KB jock Danny Neaverth -- "Rats In My Room" and "Underwater Surfers."  For awhile he dated a Philly singer named Diane Renay who had a hit "Navy Blue."  She even did a song about him called "Waitin' For Joey."  The Four Seasons used to sing his show intro to the tune of "Big Girls Don't Cry."

Joey Pinto is his real name as I'm sure you know.  What a creative guy!  I met him one time through a mutual friend in the radio business.  He was hilarious.  I envy you working for him.  He used to be really heavy, but worked hard to take off that weight.  In the early 80s he was working in Philly for awhile, and I remember him having a talk show on WOR, but he was too constrained in that format.




Yes, 98.1 WOGL used to be a great oldies station, especially Sunday nights with Harvey Holliday who played all the great R&B and doo wop songs you rarely heard elsewhere.  When he was going to play something really rare he would "go into Mama's closet" to dig out the record.  Great memories Clipper.  You are the man!!

Did you know that Bob Lind, he of the sensitive singer-songwriter "Elusive Butterfly" later became editor of the trash tabloid "Weekly World News"?  All those stories about Martians and Bat Boy were coming from him.  A Baltimore guy.  From Baltimore at that same time came the wonderful Royalettes ("It's Gonna Take A Miracle") and the now-forgotten balladeer Ronnie Dove ("One Kiss For Old Time's Sake.")

Joey Reynolds.  Holy Cow, that made my day.


Joey Reynolds gave me a copy of the 45 of "Rats In My Room" and told me the story, why it was banned in NYC because they were having a city-wide rats health issue. Also he had another new song about guy calling information, using the lyrics of Chuck Berry's Memphis. The Shirelles, who were from North Jersey, did a theme song for Scott Muni's WABC-AM show, that was based on "Tonight's the Night." Sadly, we lost Jerry Blavat last year. Between listening to the rock music, also I use to listen to Jean Shepard on WOR-AM with his funny childhood stories. Radio isn't like it used to be, it's kind of sad.


Clipper

Another Colorado based musician...

How long have you lived there?