Rest in Peace, Tom Petty

In the shadow of one of the worst shootings in American history, in between the news network full coverage, and the madness that follows such things, we have lost one of our great musical lights. Tom Petty was found unconscious yesterday morning, and finally, after much heartache and misinformation, pronounced dead of cardiac arrest at the age of 66, early last night.

The first time I saw or heard Tom Petty, or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, was in the movie FM, friends had referred to him as the new Mick Jagger. I don't know how accurate that is or was, but it was memorable. His music was the sound of my teens, my twenties, and so on, it truly mapped the 1970s, the 1980s, and 1990s for me. Hard Promises was one of three albums I bought with my very first paycheck. The great thing about Petty albums consistently is that you not only got the hits like "A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)" and "The Waiting," you also got AOR tunes and hidden gems like "A Thing About You," "Kings Road," and "The Criminal Kind." Yeah, I wore those grooves out.

I can remember having two, not just one, cassettes of Tom Petty's songs recorded from the radio when I first got a cassette recorder. He was an FM rock favorite and almost all of his music got airplay. Even before I graduated high school in 1982 (and Petty was white suburban FM rock and roll then) he had a catalog that included some of the best of the time, from "American Girl" and "Breakdown" to "Listen to Her Heart" and "I Need to Know." He was not a favorite, like Bowie or Prince, but man, he was always there, and always rocking. Yeah, he was a favorite, I just didn't know it.

Later favorite albums would include Long After Dark, which holds a special place in my heart for getting me my first date with a college girlfriend. She was a Petty fan, and my inside knowledge of when the album was coming out (easily found in Billboard magazine which I read obsessively when I worked at the college radio station) dazzled her enough to date me. This album also included Petty's move into the MTV era from that of FM AOR. I remember loving the post-apocalyptic music video for "You Got Lucky," the red vinyl single for "Change of Heart," and my favorite tune off the album, the B-side "Between Two Worlds."

My favorite Petty song comes from the next album Southern Accents, an album full of oddities mixed into the usual southern rock and roll highlights. This one had the hilarious country ditty "Spike" about a punk rocker, as well as the hit single with acid trip video, "Don't Come Around Here No More," coolly co-written by genius co-producer Dave Stewart from Eurythmics. But it was the weird dance vibe of "It Ain't Nothin' to Me," also with Stewart, that still blows me away. I don't know why, but I love this song even today and turn it up whenever I hear it.

Later Tom Petty, already a superstar in his own right, would officially go solo from the Heartbreakers, and also join with Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Obrbison, and George Harrison to form the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. Petty, with and without the Heartbreakers, would continue to release albums and singles through to 2014. He was always producing and always innovating. We have lost another legend, a man who filled my life with music, creating a soundtrack of memories. We will all miss Tom Petty. Rest in peace, man.

Coast to Coast AM Election Night

Today is Election Day, the beginning or the end of a dark age, depending on who you want to win. I'll stay away from the election and politics and direct my anger at a more convenient, and for regular readers, a more familiar target. I'm talking about George Noory, the current host of Coast to Coast AM.

I've taken aim at George before, for his ruining one of my favorite radio programs and for his complete lack of interviewing style. You can read about that here, here, and here. I've got yet another bone to pick with old George.

Tonight, Election Night, George has extended Coast to Coast AM another hour for election coverage. Election coverage. It's almost as if George has no idea what the show he's hosted for over a decade is supposed to be about. Coast to Coast is a show about the paranormal. I can hear the news, or the election on every station on the dial. I tune into Coast for something special, something specific. Unless we're electing a reptilian alien, and I'm pretty sure we're not, despite what you've heard, that's not in Coast's wheelhouse.

This is one week after a catastrophic Ghost to Ghost show. Coming once a year, a decades long tradition on Coast, this is a night-long show where callers phone in and tell ghost stories, and it rocks... until recently. The last few years George has cut it down by hours. Last week we barely got an hour and a half. That's what we waited a year for?? Why couldn't the Ghost to Ghost show have been extended???

Ghosts and the paranormal are what the show's about. It even says so on their website, nothing but news about UFOs and ghosts and Bigfoot. Or is the website too hard for someone who needs to have Uber and Instagram explained to him? It's not like George's interviewing skills could be improved (well, actually they could, a little research beforehand, not napping while a guest talks, and maybe a follow-up question once in a while...), but you could give us more ghosts and less election!

It's November, we are all sick of politics, but most of us who love Coast to Coast AM are tuning in for the paranormal. So if you're listening tonight, and can actually get through the call screeners, ask George when the real Coast to Coast AM is coming back. If we can't get the leader we want, at least give us the radio we want!

The GAR! Podcast - Steak, Tech, and Old School Radio

The Biff Bam Pop! Podcast Network presents The GAR! Podcast, the Glenn Walker and Ray Cornwall weekly podcast where they talk unrehearsed about whatever happens to come to mind. It's an audio-zine for your mind, a nerd exploration of a nerd world, coming to you from across the vastness of suburban New Jersey via Skype.

This week, we're talking about Manny's Original Chophouse, Evernote, the Apple iWatch, commute listening, Terry Young and Hot Hits Radio, and recording on cassette tapes, along with all the usual stuff.


Check out our latest episode here or above, also available on iTunes and Stitcher. We're also on Facebook here and here, and on Pinterest. Contact us directly here.

You can check out the complete show notes and listen to the episode onsite here. We'd love to hear your thoughts and comments, either below or on the GAR! Podcast website, so please let us know what's on your mind! Welcome to Episode 143 of The GAR! Podcast!

Enjoy, and until next time, GAR!

Shadow People

Shadow People ~ As I've mentioned in this blog many times before, I'm a big Art Bell fan, or at least I was when he was the host of Coast to Coast AM. If I'm being honest, neither entity has done all that well separately and on their own, which is a damn shame. I blame George Noory, but that's a fight for another day. One of the things I used to love about Art on Coast is when he would talk about Shadow People, those nights would creep me out.

I'm already afraid of the dark so listening to Art talk about malevolent living shadows with the lights out was always a bad idea, but a lot of people have encountered them and believe in them. So when I first heard of this flick called Shadow People, also known as The Door, involving a talk radio host, I had to track it down and watch it.

What's really weird about this flick is that everything about it seems like it stepped out of an Art Bell episode of Coast to Coast AM. It's based on a viral video, seen here, that may or may not be real. Sleep Study GR 16 was supposedly a real thing and caught shadow creatures on video, maybe. Right.

The movie is also very social media conscious and features a late night radio talk show host, Charlie Crowe, who's like an old school cross between Art and Joe Frank, with just a touch of Morning Zoo as well. A paranoid caller, claiming to be pursued by shadow people, sends Charlie photos and files from the Sleep Study, and we're off.

Half documentary, half thriller, Shadow People is interspersed with interviews, sort of a poor man's Blair Witch Project. Because of this, it's really hard for the movie to find its flow and rhythm. Just when I started to care about a character, 'real' footage or interviews would take me right out of it.

The movie is of course all fake. This is neither documentary nor thriller, it's just a horror movie, and not a very well executed one either. Shadow creatures that come when you fall asleep could be pretty frightening, but this movie can't quite seem to mine the material. Nowhere near as good as I wanted it to be.

Twice Shy: The Return of Art Bell

We've all heard the saying (or at least the song) "once bitten, twice shy." Well, that's how I feel about the latest return of Art Bell. He keeps going away, and then unexpectedly coming back, only to leave again just as unexpectedly. I'm a fan, but I really have to wonder how many fans he really has left after all these boy-who-cried-wolf returns and retirements. Pretty soon, no one will care, if it hasn't gotten there already.

The double-edged Sword of Damocles is that while Art Bell is perhaps a broadcast legend and one of the best interviewers in the business, he is also just as dependable as groundhogs are at predicting the weather. As in the past, I can't help feeling that Art will eventually let me down.

Rather than talk about what a crappy host George Noory is in comparison, and how he's destroyed Coast to Coast AM, a once reputable program despite its questionable content - I will concentrate on Art's newest incarnation. If you want to read about how much Noory sucks and has ruined the show, you can go here and here.

After Art's abortive attempt at satellite radio, resulting in thirty-odd pretty cool episodes (about which he said this week "satellite doesn't like me"), he has retained that show's name for his online radio network, Dark Matter. It appears to be 24/7 with genre programming, also available on the TuneIn Radio app, on which many of us fans listen to his hundreds of Coast reruns.

Apparently there are a number of radio stations who have agreed to broadcast the new show, called Midnight in the Desert, live from midnight to three in the morning. Art's insistence on only broadcasting live, and at that time has been problematic for this fan who usually is just getting to bed at two or three. At least do a repeat right after, ya know?

The format, topics, and guests are much the same as they were back in the classic Art Bell Coast to Coast AM days. Art has not lost his skills as an interviewer, and the commercials are not just fun and off, they are insane - the show is worth a listen just for that. The 'news' segments however border on the truly insane, more like "Ancient Aliens" meets a fanatical End Times website - my least favorite part of the show.

One of the things I always enjoyed about the old Art C2C was how interactive it was with its fandom. This is something that has been lost with Noory's reign on Coast and their absolute refusal to answer anyone on Facebook or Twitter. Why have them if you won't use them? With Art's new show there is a new excitement in social media. I have been enjoying a few listening parties with new friends on Twitter that have been a lot of fun.

So far so good, but how long before that sword drops? Time will tell, enjoy it while you can. Once bitten, twice shy...

History of the Eagles

History of the Eagles ~ The Eagles have always been in the background of my life, and that's saying something for a boy from the South Jersey suburbs. The Eagles were FM radio, they were California, they were marijuana, they were the seventies. "Hotel California" was one of the first rock 45s I bought and their last album, The Long Run, was one of the first albums I bought. I was never a huge fan, oh I had favorites like "On the Border" and "The Disco Strangler," but they were just always there.

This two-part documentary takes it from the beginning as back up for Linda Ronstadt to their big hit years to the solo years to the never-ending reunion tour. Interviews are done individually with members and associates covering in the first volume such topics as Jackson Browne's songwriting technique to the early production of Glynn Johns to the Eagles' own songwriting styles to trashing hotels with Joe Walsh to the wild after parties of the 'third encore.'

We watch as membership changed in the band, and differences emerge. They spend almost thirty minutes on Hotel California without ever saying what the title track is actually about. Eventually it becomes clear as to why the interviews are all separate, they can't stand each other. During the making of the album the band members realize they were all alphas fighting for supremacy, and the breaking up began there.

As work on The Long Run began, they were already effectively shattered, mentally, physically, and socially. Drugs and drink only accelerated the process at that point. During and after one apocalyptic concert, tensions were so hot that the band was over. As they say, the Eagles went out with a whimper not a bang.

Part two of the documentary picks up the solo careers of the separate Eagles, leading up to the reunion tour fourteen years later. I was intrigued that getting Joe Walsh into rehab was partially behind the reunion. Rivalries aside, it kinda proves they were for the most part still friends. Or should I say, selectively still friends.

The second half mostly covers the recording of Hell Freezes Over and the reunion tour. There's still some tension, and money got in the way, eventually squeezing Don Felder out. Other than that, it's just the tour. This is sad as it comes off as little more than an average rockumentary without the context of the first part.

History of the Eagles is very long at just over three hours, which is probably why it was cut in two parts. After watching it I had had enough of the Eagles for a while, and that's just the opposite effect that such a film should have. Interesting stuff, but just a bit too much, for me at least, and I'm an Eagles fan.

Brewster's Millions 1945

The 1985 version of Brewster's Millions with Richard Pryor and John Candy is one of my favorite guilty pleasure films. It's silly, it's funny, it's predictable, but the talent involved elevates the movie to a new level. I'll watch it whenever it's on, and laugh every time.

Brewster's Millions is an old idea however. Previous to Richard Pryor's updating, there was a 1945 film, one of a total of ten movie versions, radio dramas, stage plays on and off Broadway, a musical, and numerous adaptations for TV either veiled or obvious. It's been done in cartoons, to music, and even in Bollywood. The story of a man forced to spend money to learn the value of money is resilient. Old ideas get around.

As I recently watched it again, today I'll be talking about the 1945 film. Like all versions of the story, it's based on the 1902 novel by Richard Greaves AKA George Barr McCutcheon, author of the now largely forgotten Graustark book series. There are also elements of the stage play in this. Each version features updates to the times, though originally a stockbroker, here Brewster is a GI returning home from the war.

Here's the gist. Penniless Monty Brewster comes home from the war to find he's inherited eight million dollars, but in order to get it, he must first spend a million dollars in sixty days, with no assets, and not let anyone know why he's doing it. His dead uncle wanted him to hate spending money.

Dennis O'Keefe is in the title role, with Helen Walker as his fiancée, both serviceable. Look for Neil Hamilton, Commissioner Gordon from "Batman." Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson plays the family servant (for lack of a better word, butler maybe? later he's a majordomo) and is by far the best part of the movie. The actor, best known from "The Jack Benny Show," gets all the best lines, the best laughs, and steals the movie. Notably, a sign of its times, the film was banned in Memphis because his character was portrayed and treated too well.

There is care, and comedy, in the style of the decade depicted, but no one on screen approaches the charisma level of Eddie Anderson. I think I would have really dug the movie more had he been cast as Brewster. Still, it's a pleasant entertaining film, and I was happy to see it again. See it if you get the chance.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #33

The "Quincy" Punk Rock Episode

Back in the day you knew when a trend hit prime time drama, it was over, so over. You knew Satanism was over when "Starsky and Hutch" had to deal with it, and when they did their disco episode... it was clear disco was dead. And then there's the infamous "Quincy" punk rock episode.

"Next Stop Nowhere" first aired on Sunday night, December 1, 1982, in the eighth and final season of "Quincy M.E." I never really watched the show but caught the faux punk band Mayhem as I was popping through channels (there were only a few if them in those pre-cable days). The point of the show was star Jack Klugman fighting against this music that not only promoted violence, but also killed!

Now the silliness of this episode has been skewered and beaten to death by many better than me, like Opie and Anthony (when they were still called Opie and Anthony, that is), so I won't go into that, but there is one more memory of the episode.

The same night it aired, the deejay on WXPN's Yesterday's Now Music Today had taped the two Mayhem songs from the TV, and played them on the show that night. I think that left more of a memory than the episode itself.

Remembering Casey Kasem

This past weekend we lost Casey Kasem, at the age of 82. He was an actor, announcer, voice artist, disc jockey, and television personality, and always seemed t be part of my life.

As a kid I knew his voice from Saturday morning cartoons - Casey was Robin, Alexander, and Shaggy, just to name the biggies. When I got older, and was obsessed with music and charts, I was a hardcore fan of "America's Top 40."

Let's not remember the shame of his last few years and his family who seem even crazier by the minute, but let's remember the man who told us to 'keep our feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.' Casey Kasem will be missed.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #31

Remember Karin Begin? I do. I was unaware of her local, and then much later real, demise however. This blog entry started off as one about Beat Planet, a local WXPN radio show that was influential to me back in the day. I may get to it at some point in the future, but in researching it, I came upon the sordid tale of Karin Begin.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s I loved WXPN, the radio station of the University of Pennsylvania. They were the successful adult version of what passes for most college radio. They were not just different and sophisticated, but they were cool too. Hell, they were the coolest. They had wonderful specialized music programs like Amazon Country, Joe Frank, Gay Dreams, Star's End, Sleepy Hollow, Yesterday's Now Music Today, and the aforementioned Beat Planet. And they also had regular deejays as well.

Afternoon drive was where I discovered Karin Begin on XPN. She was quirky, edgy, fun, and played great music. And she was a redhead, and I've always had a thing for redheads. I always enjoyed listening to her. But music was changing, and around then new wave was becoming alternative, and alternative was becoming mainstream. A shiny new station called WDRE caught my attention for a couple years, and I missed what happened to poor Karin Begin.

Karin Begin became so hot, a Philadelphia magazine did a story on her, one that went from feature to expose when her background turned out to be falsified. When it further came out her entire resume was made up, XPN fired her. Upon reading about it, I did remember some of the details. She intimated she and Kiefer Sutherland had been an item, and was in his movie The Bay Boy. I remember renting it to see her, but couldn't find her.

While I cheated on XPN with DRE, Karin moved to one of my favorite radio stations, Z Rock in Baltimore, as Shannon Rock. There she was interviewed for "48 Hours" for an episode about lying, which resulted in her dismissal there. Does anyone check resumes any more?



Karin next resurfaced in San Francisco as Darian O'Toole doing mornings and competing with the syndicated Howard Stern with her own brand of talk, rock, and raunch. She did well for a while with her 'ovaries with attitude' identity there, and her propensity for untruth continued to be part of her repertoire as well. Eventually she list that job too.

In 2008, at the age of 40, Karen Begin died of respiratory failure, complications from, believe it or not, a broken leg. A real shame. She might have been a compulsive liar, but from what I remember, and what I read, a very cool and resourceful lady. Perhaps, in her own way, she was another lost hit of the new wave.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #29

"Bop 'Til You Drop" by Rick Springfield



There was a time when Rick Springfield was cool, we may all want desperately to want to forget it, but it's true. Memory is a tricky thing. We may want to remember Rick Springfield as bubble gum pop, but there was a time he was considered not only rock, but even a little tiny bit new wave. I heard "Jessie's Girl" for the first time on WMMR, and follow-ups "Affair of the Heart," and the two videos featured here, all on WYSP during their new music hour.

Rick Springfield was impossibly huge in the early 1980s, between his music career, appearances on "General Hospital," and even a feature film Hard to Hold, before vanishing into semi-obscurity.

The truth is that he had been around a long time before his 'overnight success,' was a minor pop idol and even had his own Saturday morning cartoon in the 1970s. And after, he was the original "Forever Knight," the original "Human Target," and released what I think his best album, Tao.

I fully agree with my online friend DJ Marilyn Thomas, "Bop 'Til You Drop" is a New Wave song, no matter what you say, you selective memory music heathens.

And then there's this one...

"Human Touch" by Rick Springfield



Rocker trying desperately to be new wave in a music video, trying to capitalize on the odd music video fashions of the time, pretending it's the future, and looking uncomfortable the whole time - check. For a long time, this was what music videos looked like. At least it's not...

"You Got Lucky" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers



Wow, the future looked kinda bleak in the early 1980s...

Satellite Radio Reshuffling

A couple weeks ago one of my favorite satellite radio channels, Book Radio, disappeared, replaced with something called Rural Radio.

Here's the official word from SiriusXM Radio: "As of July 15, SiriusXM Book Radio is no longer available on SiriusXM, but our commitment to books and authors remains high across many channels. Classic radio theater and stories continue on RadioClassics (SiriusXM channel 82), and audiobooks air on our "Late Night Read" show at night on SiriusXM Stars (SiriusXM channel 106)."

I would much rather have had a 24/7 channel dedicated to audiobooks, but at least something of what once was still exists in some form. Of course, that's not the only worry I have had of late about satellite radio.

Those of you who know me, or are regular readers here, know that I am a huge Coast to Coast AM fan. Or at least a huge fan of some of the show's content and some of its hosts. Due to ClearChannel and SiriusXM parting ways, C2CAM will be leaving satellite some time in August. Despite my problems with its content, it is, along with Opie & Anthony and Radio Classics, among others, one of the major reasons I subscribed to satellite radio to begin with.

My worries are over. This week, Art Bell, the original host of Coast, and innovator of that now much-copied radio format, has announced his return from retirement. Not only that, he will be returning to the microphone on SiriusXM Indie Talk Channel 104. Outside of C2CAM actually returning to its glory days, original programming, and hosts, this is a win-win situation for me. The show begins September 16th.

I'm happy, and I won't miss George Noory falling asleep, doing crossword puzzles, or just not paying attention to a guest on air at all.

Let Coast Be Coast

We've talked about my radio habits and obsession here before. Up until I got satellite radio, I still enjoyed exploring the AM dial in the middle of the night. Some time in the late nineties I discovered Art Bell and Coast to Coast AM.

This was more than a year before Art finally came to Philadelphia, syndicated on 1210 AM. I remember an intriguing and heated discussion about UFOs and alien abductions. I also remember that night getting out of my warm bed to log on the computer at around three in the morning to see the artist's rendering of the aliens, you know, a visual to go with the audio. Yeah, I was hooked, and have been for close to fifteen years.

Mostly I was delighted to find talk radio that was not about politics. I could hear that nonsense anywhere and any time. I like different in my talk radio. It's probably why I have been attracted to things like Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Dr. Ruth, Dr. Drew, radio dramas, audiobooks, and Joe Frank. Coast to Coast AM was definitely different.

I was overjoyed when the program found its Philly home and was a faithful listener almost every night. My insomnia proved helpful in that endeavor. Night after night I listened to a myriad of guests and topics, always in the realm of the paranormal. That was Coast's forte. If you wanted intelligent (and sometimes not so) discussion about ufology, cryptozoology, mythology, pseudoscience, conspiracy theories or anything involving the odd or surreal, Coast to Coast AM was for you.

There's a lot that can said about the host Art Bell. Surrounded by rumor and conspiracy himself, he was and is a consummate radio professional. No matter the insanity or unlikeliness of the guest or caller, he was always fair, entertaining, and at the top of his game. There are few talk radio hosts as sharp and composed as Art Bell.

Due to personal issues, Art has had to retire from radio and the show several times - the final time was in the late 2000s. He has been replaced the last time by George Noory. George is quite talented himself, but every time I hear an old Art show, it becomes quite obvious how inferior the replacement is to the original host. He never challenges guests or listeners, is often uninformed, and frequently seems inattentive or not even listening to guests and callers.

Noory also seems to have a problem with open lines. He doesn't do it that often. Anyone who knows talk radio knows that it's not about the host, it's about the callers. Art knew this, and his regular technique was to not screen callers as is usually done - he just put them on the air. Often open lines was the best part of the old Coast to Coast AM. Since George has come in board, there also seems a shift in topic, more toward politics, and current events. I'm not happy with that at all.

The two biggest nights of the year on Coast to Coast AM are New Year's Eve and Halloween. On New Year's Eve they take psychic predictions for the upcoming year, and on Halloween, the show becomes 'Ghost to Ghost' as callers tell ghost stories. I love Ghost to Ghost. However, it too has gone downhill in recent years. Noury screens the calls, taking away the spontaneity, as well as the need to think on his feet, I suppose.

This year, last night, Noory even cut short the program by taking up the first hour with news, and an interview with a security expert. Seriously? Real Coast to Coast topics are rare enough recently, and now you're truncating the best show of the year??

It's no wonder that other radio programs similar to the original Coast to Coast AM, like Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis and A View from Space, are growing in popularity and Coast is falling. Politics and current events can be heard anywhere on the dial, the topics that made Coast great can not. I want my show back.

Please! Let Coast be Coast!

Dick Clark 1929-2012

We have lost another legend today. Media mogul, television entertainer, TV producer, game show host, disc jockey, and just all around nice guy Dick Clark passed away in surgery today after suffering a massive heart attack. America's oldest teenager has passed away.

I never missed "American Bandstand," from before I can remember to probably past my college days when it ended, I watched every week. I was a music addict, took my radio everywhere, and in a pre-internet world, "American Bandstand" was the place where the current artists, the new acts, and the about-to-happen phenoms appeared. Everyone was on "Bandstand," and everyone was interviewed, if only briefly, by Dick Clark. If you made it to the show, you knew you had made it.

Now "Bandstand" was a gigantic part of his career, it wasn't everything the man had going on. He was a prolific television producer, creating shows like the "Pyramid" game shows, "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes," "The American Music Awards" and "New Year's Rockin' Eve," the last of which has become an American tradition. For decades Clark braved the cold to watch the ball drop, and more recently, after his stroke, America tuned in to see him just make an appearance, just to see how he was. Yeah, we, as a nation, cared how this man was doing. That says a lot.

Clark created and produced numerous TV programs including various game shows, talk shows and even prime time drams. He owned a chain of restaurants and theaters.  He was also a disc jockey here in Philadelphia before "Bandstand" came along, which was also born in Philly. As I said, we have lost a legend today, Dick Clark will be missed.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #12

"Living on the Borderline" by Smash Palace



In our last two entries in this series, I talked about Quincy and Lulu Temple. Let's consider this part three.

Smash Palace was the final edition of this band, and rumor has it they are still around from time to time.

"Living on the Borderline" was released in 1985 and I heard it out in clubs, and on other college radio stations in the area.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #10

"Turn the Other Way Around" by Quincy

You know all that 1970s movies and television about teenagers in high school just hanging out? You know how every kid represented a stereotype or a character type? There was always the one geeky kid who was carrying a radio or sometimes even an early boombox whose entire life revolved around that radio? Yeah, that was me circa 1979-1980 and later unfortunately. It's true, I was almost "Angie Baby."

I used to play this game with my friends, where they would turn the dial from one end of the FM band to the other, stopping at each broadcasting station, and if it was music, I would have to, and usually could name the song title, the artist, and sometimes the album. So yeah, there was a time when I was a vast storehouse of useless knowledge for not just comics, but also pop music.

That running from band end to band end made me discover a whole new world before 92.5 FM (at the time WIFI, a top 40 outlet), - college radio. One of the first new bands I heard on these buried treasure radio stations playing music I had never heard before was local band Quincy.

The End of an Era

Yesterday WYSP-FM changed their format and call letters to all sports and WIP-FM. I'm not a big sports fan other than Wings lacrosse and sometimes the Philadelphia Eagles or Dallas Cowboys (you know where to send the hate mail), I think it's unfair for me to ask why we need another sports station in Philly, but there it is, ya know? It's not the first time WYSP has changed formats, but never so drastic a change before.

I grew up with WYSP, from when I first became aware of FM radio in the mid-seventies to when I fell away from terrestrial radio a few years back and discovered the more eclectic satellite radio. In the radio wasteland of Philadelphia, WYSP was always the cooler, hipper choice when compared to direct rival WMMR and distant competitor WIOQ. I envisioned stoned ex-hippies at the former and future NPR listeners at the latter, whereas WYSP listeners seemed like either myself, or folks I wanted to hang out with. WYSP always had the new, newer and newest music and trends.

WYSP was originally the FM version of AM pop/rock station WIBG, and its call letters stood for "Your Station in Philadelphia." It started rocking in the early 1970s and quickly became WMMR's biggest competition. As I mentioned, WYSP always seemed to have newer music and harder rock than WMMR. Those that listened could usually tell the difference with hearing a DJ or a station ID. WYSP was the first place I heard DEVO, Adam and the Ants, the Sex Pistols, Joan Armatrading, and even Rick Springfield.

When WYSP had news, it was cool news, same with the talk. I remember the Source days with Cyndy Drue, the Dr. Demento show and the Comedy Hour on Sunday nights. I remember the engineer who did the dead-on Mr. Rogers imitation and recorded versions of "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Iron Man." I remember Ask Anita. I remember listening to "Innerview" with Jim Ladd, as he talked with Roger Waters about what "The Wall" was really about, and when he interviewed Ray Manzarek telling apocryphal tales of the late Jim Morrison. I remember learning of John Lennon's death from WYSP.

I remember the Howard Stern years, along with the Opie and Anthony years. I remember the two weeks after 9/11 when WYSP was all talk, taking calls from listeners twenty-four hours a day and letting them vent, grieve or just talk. This is not as sad as that, but it like losing a lifetime friend. Even if I haven't seen you in a while, you were a friend. I will miss you, WYSP, and so will all of Philadelphia and the surrounding area. Goodbye, old friend...

Eddie Fisher 1928-2010

Eddie Fisher passed away yesterday from complications of hip surgery.  He was 82. 

Fisher was a singer and actor on radio and television, but he was probably better known for what he did in his personal life.  Fisher married five times.  Among his wives were Elizabeth Taylor, Connie Stevens and Debbie Reynolds.  Actress Carrie Fisher is his daughter from that last marriage. 

His recording career was huge and he ruled the charts until some guy named Elvis Presley came along.  He will be missed.