Blast from Your Past: Search results for ron riley

Showing posts sorted by relevance for query ron riley. Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, August 22, 2014

Blast from Your Past - Book 1, Excerpt 1: DJ Ron Riley

Beginning with this article I'll periodically post excerpts from Book 1 (1954-1959) of the Blast from Your Past series. I'm hoping this will inspire me (more) to finish Book 2 and inspire you to read and relive the best days of Rock & Roll Radio. ~ Enjoy the moment ... again! LR

Chapter 1 excerpt from Blast from Your Past! Book 1

Rock & RollRadio DJs: the First Five Years 1954-1959

Oh, my papa, to me he was so wonderful

Oh, my papa, to me he was so good

“Oh, My Pa-Pa,” Eddie Fisher’s #1 hit, January 1954

Not quite Rockin’ & Rollin’ yet!

(Read this fast and loud!) I’m Rockin’ Rochelle coming to you from BFYP-FM (Blast from Your Past-Full Moon), broadcasting to the world from sunny Cal-i-forn-i-A!

We’re spreading music and mayhem throughout the land, with lively behind-the-mic tales of your favorite Rock & Roll Radio DJs from yesteryear!

Poodle skirts, saddle shoes, bobby sox and ducktail hair, hiphuggers and peace signs – we’re ready to ROCK!

Let’s go trippin’ down mem’ry lane and check out those wild-n-crazy guys and gals who kissed your ears with Rock & Roll music for the souuulllll!

First up for your platter-spinning pleasure … a real Midwest Rock & Roll DJ treasure.

Ron Riley

Best known at WLS/Chicago, Illinois

Ron Riley … or did you know him as “Ron ‘Ringo’ Riley”? How about “Smiley Riley”? With stints at WLS-Chicago, Milwaukee’s WOKY (pronounced “walky”), and even his own Bowling for Dollars TV show, Ron never wanted to be anything other than a deejay.

“Come on-a My House,” Rosie Clooney crooned to the impressionable, adolescent teen. It was the early 1950s and Ron Riley headed to downtown Chicago often, eager to watch the guys in the fishbowl radio studios spin Rosie’s platters.

“I just knew that was what I wanted to do,” Riley said, reminiscing. A child of the ‘40s, “there wasn’t a lot … well, not really any, Rock & Roll music then, so I grew up appreciating all types of music – big band, mostly. When not selling insurance, dad’s greatest fun was playing sax and clarinet with local dance bands on weekends. There was always music in our house.”

Young Ron realized that even the disc jockeys didn’t know what to do with Rock & Roll. How do you introduce something so feisty and unpredictable to a radio world previously ruled by big bands, boozy ballads and smooth talkin’ gentleman announcers?

But wait, there's more! »

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

50 Years Ago 6-Cent Stamps +Wolfman Moon January 1968

Breaking News 01/18/18: Hugh Wilson, creator of WKRP in Cincinnati, the most fun and irreverent radio station not on real airwaves, left for Rock & Roll Radio Heaven January 14^th. Thank you for the Rockin’ laughs, Hugh!

Always News: BFYP Rock and Roll Radio DJs: Book 1 (1950s) and Book 2 (1960s) ready at Amazon to take you boogieing down Memory Lane! Cheers to the Golden Age of Rock & Roll Radio ... Enjoy the moment ... again.

And now, flip on the mic, let’s Rock On back to 1968 …

Happy Retro New Year! It’s January 1968 … Again!

Ah, the good ol’ days … remember when 1st class postage raised from 5 cents to 6 cents? Oh, we were incensed!

At Blast from Your Past, we spend much time, in "remember when" pasts. There is a reason for that—the 1960s gave us the Golden Age of Rock and Roll Radio—and it’s still fun!

More than that, though, the era nurtured sweeping change, with music mirroring our attitudes. Mid-decade, radio chart Top Tens faded from Bubblegum Pop in ’61, ushering in girl-group sounds like “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” (The Shirelles) #1 at WIP/Philadelphia (January 23, 1961), to January 15, 1968’s #1 spinning at WLS/Chicago, “Bend Me, Shape Me” (American Breed).

Both love songs tugged at the heart strings, but “Tomorrow’s” violin strings were old school, compared to “Bend Me, Shape Me’s” heavy drumbeat and guitar riffs. An upbeat with a downbeat sound, reverberated through our growing pains as a new generation came to terms with war and discrimination. Musically, it lead us straight into the Heavy Metal era.

Heralding the mass manufacturing of portable, transistor models, Radio fought for its relevance, with the infamous boob tube. And like Rock and Roll, it proved Radio will never die. It simply shape-shifts into a different howling animal.

Which brings us to the animal we celebrate every January 21^st, regardless of the year. Hint: Is it any wonder he was born under January’s Wolf Moon?!

Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938-July 1, 1995), self-described, “Original Rock & Roll Animal,” aka Wolfman Jack, turned a raucous 30 years old in 1968!

The iconic Radio personality is featured in the Blast from Your Past books, to which the series is dedicated. As a man, like all of us humans, Wolfman Jack had his foibles; as a howling Radio DJ and later, television host, he personified the innovation of broadcasting.

In January 1968, Wolfie and business partner, Mo Burton, enjoyed the fruits of their labors established in 1966, with a studio in Hollywood. Taping their shows stateside, they muscled their way over the airwaves of a powerful, towering Radio transmitter in Rosarito, Mexico. Olé!

From the San Diego border, to Canada and points far East, Wolfman’s crusty voice boomed over XERB/1090’s radio waves and lit rebellious fires in impressionable teens.

Wolfman’s XERB strayed from Rock & Roll, pushing funky and soulful to the top three on its Soul 30 chart, January 3, 1968: #1 “Boogaloo Down Broadway” (Fantastic Johnny C); #2 “Chain of Fools” (Aretha Franklin); #3 “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You” (Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell).

How’s your Boogaloo? Can you dig it! Ah, lay a little Soul on me …Have Mercy!*

Still perfecting his Wolfman persona in 1968, his transformation called for learning to electrify live audiences, in gigs up and down California. Though most comfortable behind the mic, he enjoyed thrilling his listeners. “Most of his fans had ‛never seen anything freaky-deaky like this.’ It was a more exhilarating high for him than any hallucinatory could produce.”** Polishing his stage presence would serve Wolfman Jack well throughout the 1970s. Aoooowwwwwoooo!

As we strut into this 21^st century New Year, take a moment or two for a January 1968 fun flashback, and Enjoy the Moment … Again!

Featured Radio Survey: WLS/Chicago hits the mark January 15, 1968, with a smiling image of BFYP DJ, Ron Riley, once briefly (and reluctantly) known as “Smiley Riley”—well before 1968, Ron lost the goofy personality name and was just a smiling, fun DJ. 50 Years Ago Ron rocked WLS! Were you listening? Recall that awesome day when …

Celebrate JANUARY 1968: 50 Years Ago and … Rock On!

Blast from Your Past Gifts

Blast from Your Past on Facebook

Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk

* XERB Radio Wolfman Jack Archives.

** From BFYP Book 2, The Swinging Sixties; Wolfman Jack Part 3.

♪ ♪ ♪

Friday, June 1, 2018

50 Years Ago June 1968 Motown to Prog Rock

>>BFYP BULLETIN 06/26/18: In case you were under a rock recently, rather than listening to Rock, you may have missed more sad news. Pioneering WABC DJ Dan Ingram rose to R&R Radio Heaven, Sunday 06/24/18. Though he isn't one of our BFYP DJs (we have other big names like Cousin Brucie, Ron Riley, Jim Stagg and more), Dan was mentioned and revered by many in their interviews, as a dynamite DJ who made an enormous impact in the early Rock & Roll Radio world. RIP, Mr. Ingram. (Pictured right, at WABC, July 27, 1961.)

06/11/18: News quickly circulated in the broadcast industry about the rise to Rock & Roll Radio Heaven of “Uncle Ricky” Richard W. Irwin. The ReelRadio.com* founder, pioneering DJ, PD and audio geek, succumbed on June 7, 2018 after a prolonged illness. As a longtime member of RR, I and BFYP books owe a great debt to Uncle Ricky. ReelRadio allowed me to hear, experience and read about the vibrant voices of pioneering Radio DJs, which made my telling of their stories richer. Thank you m’dear. RIP. *The RR site is archived for now but its longevity is tenuous. Go while you can … it’s a #RetroRockRadio treat.
And now, as we honor Uncle Ricky, let's flip on the mic, and Rock On back to 1968 …

Motown Surrenders to Prog Rock

Were you suffering a sunburn from your day on the beach 50 Years Ago this Month? Or hiding in cool, dark movie theaters, peeking through your fingers at the horrors of Rosemary’s Baby, or equally horrific Vietnam war film, The Green Berets?

Radio to the rescue to lighten the mood and cool our red faces, with nighttime Rock on the radar 50 Years Ago this Month …

June 10^th: Tom and Raechel Donahue ended May 1968 with KSAN/San Francisco fans and owner, Metromedia, lovin' their format style. So they spread the love to its KMET station in Los Angeles. Tom’s progressive rock format began with a meager four hours per night. But not for long. “The Mighty MET” soon broke through the underground to full time Rockin’!

June 20^th: A stellar appearance at the famed Copacabana on this day in 1968, gave Martha Reeves & the Vandellas’ new single “Forget Me Not” a fighting chance on the charts. It debuted on KISN/Portland OR Good Guys Survey for June 25^th at #47. Alas, this tribute to long-distance military love failed to impress, and dropped off the following week. They had hit their peak on a great run through the 1960s.

Featured Radio Survey: As a beacon of Rock & Roll in the Pacific Northwest, KISN/Portland, kept its listeners tuned in to the in-crowd, 50 Years Ago This Month. ♪ Swim in the cove, have a snack in the grove … ♪ Recall that awesome day when …

Celebrate JUNE 1968 and … Rock On!