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
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.
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?