BFYP BULLETIN 09/24/23: Another sad note for Blast
from Your Past readers. Pioneering Rock Radio DJ and station owner, Burt
Sherwood (95), passed on to music heaven September 21, 2023, in Sarasota,
Florida. He accidentally stepped into radio in the late 1940s and by the 1970s,
began buying small stations. He never thought of doing anything else. “I got
lucky,” said Burt in a 2008 interview with me, “I knew what I wanted and hired
only people who had more talent than I did.” Rock On, m’friend! Read
an excerpt from BFYP Book 1: The First Five Years of Burt’s WMCA/New
York political intrigue …
BFYP BULLETIN 09/04/23: Rick Snyder
,
a 1950s-ʼ60s BFYP DJ passed away August 14, 2023 at the youthful age of
82. Recalling his interview, it was interesting that he was a 1960s POP DJ, but
as he said, “I begged the PD (at WTRY/Albany NY) to let me play Oldies
through the night.” Of course, Oldies then, were from the 1950s! One of Rick’s
proudest moments came in 1965 when he posed in a studio picture with The
Rolling Stones. Keep on Rockin’ & Rollin’ m’friend!
And, in more music
heaven news, I must pay homage to the idol of my 39 and Holding Club ATT-i-tude,
the late, great laid-back island-charm singer, songwriter and Margaritaville
icon, Jimmy Buffett.
His passing on September 1, 2023, left us with many of his poignant words to
quote, from here to eternity … ♪♪ …If we couldn’t
laugh | we would all go insane | If we weren’t
all crazy | we would go insane … ♪♪
And now, let’s flip on the studio mic, and
Rock On back to SEPTEMBER 1973 … It’s a long one, so grab a libation and
relax with me …
Time to Take a Trip on the Sunshine Ship!
This month’s article is dedicated to the good people
of the Hawai’ian Islands, still reeling and struggling with horrific losses
from August wildfires. 50 Years Ago this Month, our September
Song of Note, “Sunshine Ship,”
by Arthur, Hurley & Gottlieb, was #2 on the KPOI/Honolulu “Action 20
Records” chart. Its uplifting lyrics and lively melody could be just the anthem
needed to reflect hope and ohana for
the Hawai’ian people.
As I mentioned in our August bulletin,
please show your support for radio listeners of KPOA (Lahaina) & KPOI. Give
generously … iHeartMedia
Honolulu offers a link for monetary donations through the Hawai’i Red Cross at KokuaForMaui.com.
San
Diegans, if you want to proudly wear your
support and donate, scoot down to Belmont Park’s Sun Diego Boardshop in
Pacific Beach (or one of several shops in the county) and grab your “Maui Strong”
t-shirt before they’re gone! Your purchase goes directly to support the people
of Lahaina.
♪ … I know a
special place
where the sun is
always shinin’
People helping each other out
and … they’re never
mindin’ … ♪
50
Years Ago this Month we were Rockin’ into Fall …
SEPTEMBER 1973 Radio Music News
♪
In
the wake of Hawai’i’s wildfire tragedy last month, imagine my surprise when I
saw that one of the four vintage surveys I have for your Memory Lane travels
this month is KPOI/Honolulu!
It's special in more ways than one. In survey-collecting, some powerhouse stations are plentiful and grab much
attention, like KFRC/San Francisco, KIMN/Denver, WCFL/Chicago,
WIBG/Philly, WABC/New York. But that doesn't make their music
charts historically valuable. It’s the smaller, or lesser-known stations that
many collectors desire.
Last
month’s Featured Survey, KOVO/Provo, Utah, is a great example. So are
this month’s WAQY/Springfield, Massachusetts, and KPOI/Honolulu’s
music chart with a coveted Psychedelic Seventies-style cover image of The
Beatles. Doubly collectible!
Our
four fun vintage radio surveys this month, are WCFL/Chicago, KPOI/Honolulu,
KKDJ/Los Angeles, and WAQY/Springfield, Massachusetts. Which one
commands our monthly Featured Radio Survey? Not a tough guess, if you
read the intro! And of course, more images coming soon.
So
let’s dig into some September 1973
Music News, and Rock On …
September 19th: When you think of Pirate
Radio (if you’re old enough to know what it is) you most likely dredge up the 1960s
memories of rogue Rock stations off the UK and Ireland coasts—certainly not a religious
station! But yep, though it was only a one-day-hit-wonder off the coast of Cape
May, New Jersey, “Pirate Radio Free America” caused quite a stir at the
time. Religious broadcaster Carl McIntire was in a
continuous battle with the FCC and took his frustrations offshore. McIntire had
grander hopes but not enough dollars for a boat that would run … it did,
however, get his cause and name in the media.
September 20th: Tragedies for whatever
reason, are unfortunately numerous in the celebrity realm. This day, fate
prematurely took Jim Croce, his friend
and guitarist, Maury Muehleisen and four other crew members in a Louisiana
post-concert plane crash. “Bad Bad
Leroy Brown” was still a solid hit on the charts and “Time In a Bottle,” one of
his greatest tunes, shot to the top after its posthumous November release. His
artistry and grounded appeal is still missed.
September 27th: Today in time marked a
significant point in Barbra
Streisand’s career when she released the retrospective single, “The Way We Were,” which doubled
as the title song of the movie, released nearly a month later. Reviving her
flagging popularity at the time, its political theme could be remade with ease,
today.
On Your Tinny Transistor Radio ♪
Let’s Rock September 1973! I
rummaged through the Blast from Your Past Collections to find not
one, not two, but FOUR dynamic vintage radio surveys for you. Of course, only
one made the Featured Radio Survey section, but all four have lots of
fun memories to offer this month. In chronological order week of …
September 1st: KPOI/Hawaii – A rare radio survey, indeed!
Once upon a long time ago, K-POI/Hawai’i was “The Rock of Honolulu,”
serving their pop music fans at 1380 on their radio dial. The old call letters
are now at 105.9 gently swaying with “The Wave, Hawaii's Relaxing Favorites.”
Contrary to today’s soothing style, the 1973 survey #276 boasted
1970s-style raucous Psychedelic art in a rather creepy, yet creative mash-up
sketch of The Beatles!
The BFYP Collections include three other KPOI surveys from back in
the day, all featuring the inimitable self-described, “Original Rock ‘n’ Roll
Animal,” Wolfman Jack. One, also details an artful sketch, but the 1970
image was obviously before we all got into the Psychedelic SeventiesTM.
September 1st: WCFL/Chicago – No doubt in the broadcasting
realm, DJ Larry Lujack made the expansive radio world of Chicago feel
like a small, tight-knit community to his adoring fans—regardless of which
station he chose, to sit behind the mic. Between 1967 and 1973, Larry bounced
between WCFL and WLS. He finally settled in at WLS in 1975 for
about a dozen years.
As I prepped a few pictures
for this article, I casually read over the by-then ubiquitous, mandatory radio
station disclaimer that WCFL published, and discovered why Larry
was likely smiling, and the 7-Up ad said “Right Un!” Note the ATT-i-tude in CFL’s notice (the
italics are mine just for emphasis): “SMALL PRINT DEPARTMENT: The Super CFL
survey represents the relative popularity of records based on industry
tabulations and record sales. So there. WCFL, the Voice of Labor, is
owned and operated by the Chicago Federation of Labor.” Love it!
September 3rd: KKDJ/Los Angeles – Have you ever heard of KKDJ/L.A.?
Not unless you’re my age. 😊 Now known as KIIS-FM, the quirky Los Angeles station
shared its double-sided survey with album-oriented KUTE 102, popular KHJ,
and a combo platter of Spanish stations’ top tunes of the day (in Spanish) that included KALI, KWKW,
and XEGM-95.
KKDJ’s artsy, whimsical banner stands out from the others’
dry headings with a Sunset Boulevard address and boasting “stereo rock.” Top
two “Future Hits!” were “Rocky Mountain Way” by Joe Walsh and “Jimmy Loves
Mary-Anne” by Looking Glass. And they were …
September 8th: WAQY/Springfield, Massachusetts – Though all
our September 1973 radio surveys have
a week ending before mid-month, many of their top five tunes, like on WAQY/Springfield,
stayed at the top for most of September. “The Morning After” (Maureen
McGovern), “Live & Let Die” (Paul McCartney & Wings), “Feeling Stronger
Every Day” (Chicago), “Touch Me in the Morning” (Diana Ross), and “Brother
Louie” (Stories), were all around for a long while.
The obscure WAQY music
chart wasn’t just a Springfield staple, but “only hand-printed” entry forms in
“The Wacky Rock Pile” survey were eligible for a lucky listener to win a Honda
mini-bike at a Thom McAn Store! You weren’t ‘70s chic unless you owned a pair
of Thom McAn shoes.
Monthly Song of Note ♪
Rumor has it, “Sunshine
Ship” #2 on KPOI/Honolulu’s September
1973 chart, was written with the Hawai’ian people in
mind. Island listeners identified with its bouncy, people-helping-people
attitude. The upbeat tune by Arthur, Hurley & Gottlieb, doesn’t even have a
pinkie-hold on the Top 30 tunes of our other three September ’73 surveys, nor
on any in close time frames. But on KPOI it began bubbling under in mid-July and steadily made its way up to the
top five. It just couldn’t quite knock Diana Ross out of 1st, with “Touch Me
in the Morning.”
Fifty years later, “Sunshine Ship” seems like the
perfect anthem for Hawai’i during its post-wildfire rebuilding.
♪ … But to get there … take a
little trip
So c’mon everybody ... get on board the Sunshine Ship … ♪
Quirky Band Names ♪
As more and more groups use the frontman’s name or solo music stars break out,
some months of 1973 had a lack of creative names to play with. But, have you
ever wondered how prolifically popular band, Pink Floyd, a Rock chart staple since 1965, settled on their name? Well, let
me tell ya …
Picture this … late 1965 the band known as Tea Set discovered another band at a gig
also sporting the name … seriously? Two Rock bands with the same peculiar
moniker? Original guitarist Syd
Barrett swore it was true. His immediate response? Why not
take the names of two blues icons, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, and smash
them together? So there you have it. Life and band names can change in an
instant.
SEPTEMBER 2023 Music Events & More ♪
September 15th: The dinosaur of music
returns! It’s National
8-Track Tape Day. I kid you not. Every year on this date muscle cars and
music come together again to celebrate the 8-Track Tape Player that Ford
announced as an option for its 1966 Mustang, along with luxury models of
Thunderbird and Lincoln.
September 25th: Although National One-Hit Wonder Day apparently no longer has a support link, we wouldn’t
want to add insult to injury for the many musical
gems
that became one-hit
wonders.
C’mon, let’s give ‘em the credit they’re due. Unless, of course, they’re the
silly ones like Alan Sherman’s 1963 sadly laughable “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter
From Camp)” (1963). Or, as much as I dislike talking smack about Radio DJs,
we could have done without Rick Dees & His
Cast of Idiots (so they knew what they were creating!) and their parent-irritating
“Disco Duck” (1976). For
your enjoyment, a One-Hit Wonder from each Rockin’ decade … 1954: “Sh-Boom” (The Chords); 1962:
but 2nd time around on the charts September 1973 “Monster Mash” (Bobby
Pickett); and also in September 1973 charts top ten: “Brother Louie” by
Stories.
BFYP Featured Radio Survey ♪♪
SEPTEMBER 1, 1973 ~ 1380 K-POI/Honolulu’s “Action
20” survey has a terrific island motif border, but the Psychedelic Seventies
Beatles cover is a cross between “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Frankenstein.”
Artistic, yes, but … well, it makes for a great conversation starter a
half-century later! Let’s explore the hits 50
Years Ago this Month in Rock & Roll Radio! Where were
you that groovy day when your radio played …
Let’s Celebrate SEPTEMBER 1973
and … Rock On! ♪
BFYP Book 1 (1954-1959)
on Amazon
BFYP Book 2 (Swinging
‘60s) on Amazon
Blast from Your Past Gifts
Share your Golden Oldies
R&R fun on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
LinDee
Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and author by way of Rock &
Roll. Two books (of three planned) are published in her Blast
from Your Past series, available on Amazon (eBook and print): Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959; and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties. Coming soon …
Book 3 – The Psychedelic Seventies!
Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally
visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed
sites of reputable note. Occasionally, since I often feature real people and/or
singular sources there may be an unsecured link. As with everything
cyber-security, use at your own discretion and risk. No compensation is
received for any mentions of businesses, products, or other commercial
interests. *All holiday and special event days are found at Brownielocks.com’s calendar site.
Enjoy!
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