Sunday, December 25, 2011

A real holiday treat

Remember when radio stations would do big year-end specials? They'd play the top hits of the past year, have produced retrospectives, countdowns, contests, custom jingles for the occasion. Now only three companies own all the radio stations in America and they celebrate the season by firing those few employees they still have.

Well, good news! Fun radio still lives!  Okay, you have to go to the internet to find it, but still!


Great Big Radio has begun a week long celebration of 1968 -- a great year for music (Beatles, Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, Otis Redding, Temptations, Dylan, Aretha, Hendrix, Janis, the 1910 Fruit Gum Company),a truly shitty year for world events,and a zany year for pop culture. You'll hear it all -- the songs, commercials, news bytes, classic radio broadcasts, even top of the hour ID's! Check 'em out. Here's their site but they're also on fifteen apps and streaming services. 

Stagger back to the days when radio mattered and styles were ridiculous.

13 comments :

  1. I wish I still had the tape I made of my local station's best-of-71 marathon. (As I remember, "Bridge over Troubled Waters" was No. 1).

    Oh, and 1968 wasn't totally bad - there was Apollo 8 flying around the moon, and the Packers won their second Super Bowl. The Year of the Pitcher kinda sucked, though.

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  2. It would have been 1970, since "Bridge Over Troubled Water" topped the charts in February of that year.

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  3. fake old timey radio is in the year-end extravaganza spirit:
    http://www.nerdist.com/2011/12/thrilling-adventure-hour-52-christmas-on-mars/
    (featuring Busy Philipps, Colin Hanks, Kevin Pollak, Michael Hogan, Alison Brie, and Nathan Fillion)

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  4. I clicked on the link and immediately had "Jennifer Eccles" by the Hollies blasting out of my speakers. A song that we actually still play on the air. We still do the big Christmas and year end specials. Those jingles are still expensive but it's worth it.

    Mahalo for the link. Aloha from Maui and Mele Kalikimaka.

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  5. Not to sound like the Valley girl that I probably am deep at heart (considering I graduated from Calabasas High in the early '80s), but: Dude, this is totally awesome!

    Many thanks, Ken. Happy holidays to you and yours.

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  6. Ken...everyone...thanks too much! It was fun putting it together. Enjoy.

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  7. This is awesome Ken - and GBRG....thanks!

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  8. What do you mean the Year of the Pitcher sucked? Mind you, I was born in Detroit, which might make me prejudiced, but I thoroughly enjoyed it until the final out of the World Series.

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  9. It'd be really interesting to be able to hear an actual day's worth of radio from a given date. I'm sure that'll happen in the next few years or so.

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  10. Rewound Radio, the spin-off of the Musicradio WABC website, does airchecks from the WABC, WMCA, WOR-FM, WCBS-FM and even the pre-all news WINS broadcasts. The replays run on Satrudays, and they've also got an iPhone/iPad app.

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  11. This is so cool because it is not just the top 10 songs but all the music. The worst thing about Golden Oldies stations is they only play the top songs of an era not the other 99% that was the real sound of the times.

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  12. Hey Ken, Friday question for you:
    Have you ever had trouble editing scenes in an episode, just to leave one big scene intact? For an example, say on M*A*S*H* you had a great Hawkeye speech at the end of the episode, and there's not a line that you want or feel need to be cut -- but the episode is still too long. Do you trim the big scene, or, do a dozen little edits all over the rest of the episode? I know you've talked a lot about editing, but, I was wondering if you ever had to defend a special scene from the chopping block. Thanks.

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  13. It's 1967 this weekend on K/men 129.

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