50 Years Ago this Month – Batman Rocks Radio

1966 bore the weight of conflict and free speech. Those of us graduating high school in the late ‘60s teetered on the cusp of one extreme or the other. For many, our choices programmed the rest of our lives – into mainstream college and families, or experimenting with life and visionary innovations. But the country – and we – were still young.

Fifty Years Ago this Month, music played a crucial sanctuary for our insecurities, much like today. No self-respecting car cruising the drag was without a radio; and like televisions today, a radio commanded space in every room of the house.

Did your after-school job take a month to earn up to $40 for that Silvertone 4-speed automatic phonograph? Thumbing through the Sears (& Roebuck) catalog though, you could score an AM clock radio for half that. We were cool. ♪ California Dreamin’ … on such a winter’s day … ♪

 

With our radios came those smooth-talkin’, happy-hawkin’ DJs who echoed our fears and soothed our tears … if only Batman could save the world!  

At WILS/Lansing Michigan, it was Batman to the rescue! Trading on the hottest show on television, the station’s “Top Sounds of the Week” for February 1966, featured “The exciting adventures of Bat-Fink and Rubin, the wonder-midget.” No, we were not particularly politically correct “in the day” … 

Rock & Roll Never Forgets – Record Store Day!

Say hi to Jack in Wayne City IL!

It’s Record Store Day! Boomers – back in the day, what did you do when you heard a great new song on the radio? Hot-footed it down to your corner record store to buy it, of course. Do you know where your vinyl records are?

Yep-they're '70s radios!

Hunt them up, play them reverently. There’s nothing like vinyl for soul-catching layered sound. If you’re missing a fave, it might be a little more difficult to find a local record store, but there must be one – go dig in the secondhand bins for a long-lost treasure!

Have an unforgettable record memory from days of yore? Share it! I recall the first time I heard Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” in headphones … oh, the ecstasy as its multi-leveled riffs buzzed in one ear and out the other like a psychotic bee on steroids!

And for those into new music, yep – they’re still making vinyl records. The reports of the death of those black spinning platters was greatly exaggerated!

The Record Store Day site is teeming with names of stores around the country participating in new exclusive releases and re-release specials, all weekend long.

“Best thing to do?” they say? “Follow your local store(s) on their social media(s) or give them a shout, or head on in in advance to find out what’s on the dancecard. There are parties being planned Saturday. It’s gonna be awesome.”

So put on your dancin’ shoes and boogie down to your closest record store; or jump-jive at home – set a stack of ol’ 45s on the turntable, and Rock On!

 

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