50 Years Ago this Month – September

Hurry! Don’t Miss the Last Train to School! 

Before September 1966 our favorite primate was Kala – Tarzan’s Great Ape mother – or Ham the Astrochimp. Then we heard, “Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees!”

September 12^th 50 Years Ago this Month The Monkees debuted on NBC. But their first hit single wasn’t their theme song. By the show’s opening night, “Last Train to Clarksville” was already climbing the charts, at #28 on WOKY/Milwaukee’s “Lucky Number” survey for September 9^th.

 

Shortly after, WFIL 560 AM in Philly, pulled a switcheroo so they could have fun too. So long, MOR (middle of the road stuff) and hello Top 40: “The Pop Explosion – Famous 56”!

What were you doing in September 1966? Listening to the radio? Where? Who was your fave DJ? Tell me! Might end up in a book …

Featured Radio Survey: Take a look at the WOKY/Milwaukee, week ending September 9, 1966 with a survey that watched The Monkees climb – bringing back memories yet? A little help: “Sunshine Superman” by Donovan shined its way to the #1 spot.

Celebrate SEPTEMBER 50 Years Ago … Rock On!

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50 Years Ago this Month – Radio Love, Not War

Fed Up with War – On Radio Charts We Were Makin’ Love! 

July starts out with a bang every year in grand celebration of our illustrious country. Sustaining the American patriotic enthusiasm is the challenge.

Listen! WOR-NYC news July 16, 1966

Especially when 50 Years Ago This Month our music of the moment emphasized our desire to make love, not war.

Though WMEX/Boston in July 1966 patriotically declared DJ Larry Justice’s “Music and Justice for All” on their “15 and Ten Survey,” the hits were enough to make you swoon.

As a July 4, 1966 KOWN survey attests for then, rural San Diego County, we were heating up our summer with anything but war songs. “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James and The Shondells held the #1 spot at KOWN/Escondido, California, on the Independence Day weekend.

Following close behind at #2 was “Searching for My Love,” by Bobby Moore & the Rhythm Aces. Mmmm, that smooth soulllllll sound. (See the rest of the survey’s love-song list on our Featured Radio Survey page.) 

BFYP DJ, Neale was a "fishbowl" DJ!

The locals-only 1,000-watt radio station was small, but proud with “It’s What’s Happening” as the “Only Official Music Survey for North San Diego County.”

How could it not be popular? Its prime location with fishbowl windows to watch the DJs in action, made it a fun and provocative, hot summer night teen hangout.

Where did you celebrate this month of 1966? Ahhh, go ahead – take a sparkly red, white & blue walk down Memory Lane. Enjoy the moment … again!

Featured Radio Survey: Of course, it’s the rare, KOWN/Escondido official survey for July 4, 1966! “145-KOWNighttime” was on-air 7:00p to midnight, with Mike Larsen spinning your fave vinyls …

Celebrate this month 50 years ago and … Rock On!

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50 Years Ago this Month – A to WXYZ

Fast Talkin’ Slow Walkin’ DJ Dude … It was June 1966 ...

WXYZ/Detroit – was BFYP DJ Joey Reynolds ahead of his time? This guy can TALK and that he did – fast – while grabbing records for the turntable and slapping down The Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.”

 

WXYZ was too proud to give up the music biz through the highs and lows of the charts, but finally opened the conversation for a talk format in 1984.

Back in 1966 the top 40 station followed the Rock & Roll crowd, beat for formatted beat. Think Joey looks bored in his jock picture on WXYZ’s music chart? He was.

My 2008 interview with Joey pinpointed when stringent station formatting became unbearable. “I quit [radio] — in 1967-68. I didn’t want any more of it, I hated it. I wasn’t going to be playing something that someone thought the audience wanted.” And there you have it! [Joey’s story and more in BFYP-Book 2, The Swinging Sixties, coming this fall.] Ah, but did he stay retired ... ?

50 Years Ago this Month – Mamas (& Papas)

Mamas (& Papas) and Mondays in May!

The Mamas & the Papas made radio news commiserating with the lovelorn, as their melancholy “Monday, Monday” hit the top of the charts, throughout May 1966.

 

As early as the May 8^th issue of “The Original Official Top Thirty,” WGH/Tidewater, Virginia, latched on to the song that is distinguished as the group’s only #1 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Were you listening when Bob “Ol’ Boob” Calvert or Roger “The Lodger” Clark set “Monday, Monday” to spinning on the turntable?

Or were you in Chicago when WCFL listeners jammed the (Jim) Stagg Line requesting The Mamas and the Papas’ popular song, keeping it at #1 as late as the May 26th Sound 10 Survey?*

In late May, though no longer charting at KFWB/98, L.A., The Mamas and the Papas were front page news in the station’s Hitline newsrag. (Vol. 1, No. 52, May 31, 1966) Were Wink Martindale, Lord Tim and Gene Weed your fave KFWB heartthrob DJs? Speaking of love …

50 Years Ago this month – Magical Mystery Tour Part 2

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beatles_the_help/

Help! It was a magical mystery tour …

All ears were glued to Rockin’ Radio stations, and eyeballs fixed and dilated on posters taped to the ceiling, as The Beatles launched their second US concert tour.

It began August 15^th at Shea Stadium in New York, heralding the birth of “stadium rock,” as Beatlemania peaked.

NY radio stations, like WTRY (Albany) were in a ticket-giveaway frenzy, and lucky DJs like Lee Gray and Rick Snyder basked in the celebrity and summer sun. 
What was it like for fans and their fave DJs …?