Blast from Your Past - Amazon Countdown Sale!

To celebrate Father’s Day and Baby Boomer’s Recognition Day (06/21) we’re counting down to the BFYP Book 1 – Amazon Countdown Deal!

What’s a “Countdown Deal” you ask? This ebook sale offers a fun read about pioneering Radio DJs back in the dawn of ♪ Rock & Roll, at a special price for four days only. Details …

61% OFF: Beginning Friday, June 19, 2015, at 5:30a.m./PDT, the EBOOK edition of Blast from Your Past! Rock & Roll Radio DJs: the First Five Years 1954-1959 is ON SALE for only $1.99.

41% OFF: It inches up to $2.99 on Sunday and Monday: June 21^st at 2:00a.m./PDT and through June 22^nd – sale ends that night at 11:00p.m./PDT. (Back to original $4.99.)

Does Dad need a summer read? Know a special Baby Boomer you want to surprise with a fun addition to their Kindle library? Don't miss this sale!

"Cousin Brucie" Morrow at WINS/New York August 24, 1959

♪ Let’s Rock & Roll down Memory Lane together … lots of great historical trivia with true tales of nostalgia from our friends behind the radio mic!

A little tease: Table of Contents and a couple of excerpts (see link on DJ name) - enjoy, then grab your copy quick, before the sale fades away ...

♪ Rock On!

Fifty Years Ago this Month – Sexy Surf Music swallowed by British Tsunami

Collage of vintage Calif radio stations

1965, a time of change and revolution, Surf Music treaded water, barely hanging ten at the top of radio charts on the crest of a thin wave. 

BFYP is grabbing your surfboard memories out of the garage and giving it another push to remind you, June is International Surf Music Month. Cowabunga, dude! Let's go surfin' ...

50 Years Ago this Month - Timing Everything for Real Don Steele

Radio in the West would never have been the same without fast-talkin’, slow-walkin’ “Real” Don Steele (1936-1997).

Beginning with KBUC/Corona in 1960, the California pioneering DJ tested a half-dozen markets from California to Washington, before heading back to his native Hollywood.

Steele’s fortuitous timing teamed him up with popular KHJ/Los Angeles a few weeks before debuting its “ultra hip” Top 40 Boss Radio format, May 3, 1965. It set the standard popular music format for nearly a decade. Yep, timing is everything … (more)

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!

 

@BlastFromPastBk

Facebook.com/BlastFromYourPast48

Blast from Your Past - Book 1, Excerpt 5: DJ Ken Chase aka Mike Korgan

[LR note 04/29/15: With heavy heart we report the ascent of Jack Ely to Rock & Roll Heaven, Monday, April 27, 2015. He was lead singer of The Kingsmen, whose song, "Louie Louie" became a legendary party song. BFYP DJ Ken Chase produced the record in 1963. His 1950s story is below. Party on, Jack!]

Every April 11^th is “International ‘Louie Louie’ Day”! There are no raucous parties (that I know of) happening (unless at your place, and you didn't call me!), or even a link on the Brownielocks site that lists it as a special commemoration day.

But at BFYP it deserves distinct recognition because Ken Chase (aka Mike Korgan), one of our pioneering Rock & Roll DJs, produced the iconic song by The Kingsmen in April 1963. “Louie Louie” rose to the top of the charts and by November, and for all time, became the “ultimate party song.”

Granted, 1963 is out of the purview of BFYP Book 1 (1954-1959), but Mike’s tenure at the mic began well before “Louie Louie’s” bouncy beat hit the airwaves.

Rock on in Excerpt #5 from Book 1, Blast from Your Past! Rock & Roll Radio DJs: the First Five Years 1954-1959. Enjoy the moments … again!(TM)

Rock the Party Bus April 11, 2015 with "Louie Louie"!

Well, we’re ten days into the month and I’m just now posting the 50 Years Ago this Month trivia. My how time flies when you’re havin’ fun – in Vegas, Baby! 

1965 news? April 19 WINS/NY gave up … 

Car Radios Blaring Louder than Ever

Sixty years ago, radio was thought to be gasping its last breath as the "boob tube" took over the airwaves ... and then along came Rock & Roll!

March 10, 1965, The Temptations’ #1 hit “My Girl” popped out of your car radio as my groovy new nephew, Steven, popped out singin’ a louder tune for my brother & his wife. 

Like our kids, radio grew, matured, & dared to find its way in a reinvented world. 50 years later it’s still #1 says RAMP … "In-Dash Radio Doohickey Still Rules"!