A 1966 Ford Country Squire was the station wagon.
The songs in the back of the station wagon came from extension speakers connected to a Lear 8-Track tape player.
Author: DOuG pRATt
Telco POTS STOP
Work on the patio is progressing. Removing the 50-year-old concrete next to the garage revealed the underground conduit holding the pairs of copper wire used for the Plain Old Telephone System, or POTS.
A long time ago, before Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, I explained the trouble I had with that old Telco wiring.
“With the old copper wires the telephone crackled when it rained, even after Verizon swapped wire pairs in the buried pipe, so we were glad to be rid of it.”
Hanks at Harvard
Tom Hanks’ commencement speech at Harvard last Thursday. Hey, he makes a reference to The Adventures of Superman, and goes on from there to list more comic book characters!
Hanks didn’t advise the grads to “follow your passion.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/opinion/stem-women-gender-disparity.html
A nice commentary on Hanks’ comments from the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/31/tom-hanks-commencement-harvard/
Two Guys, One Gay, on Route 66
George Maharis has died at the very advanced age of 94. From the NYTimes, where that publicity photo came from, I learned that Maharis was gay. (Bring back white sidewall tires!)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/28/arts/television/george-maharis-dead.html
Curiously, there’s no direct mention of his orientation in the Hollywood Reporter obituary, despite it having been relevant to his leaving the series.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/george-maharis-dead-route-66-star-1235502542/
Maharis’ character was obviously based upon Jack Kerouac, with co-star Martin Milner looking like Brian Wilson’s older brother who wasn’t in the Beach Boys. The pilot episode of Route 66 is excellent, with strong adult content. The memorable theme was by Nelson Riddle, who wrote the equally memorable theme to the Batman TV series.
CORRECTION: A certain gentleman going by the name of “Denro” says, “Riddle me this, Nelson. The Batman theme was written by Neal Hefti!” Here are some Batunes that Riddle did compose, borrowing liberally from Hefti’s ditty:
From WABC to WRKO
Rewound Radio is playing Musicradio WABC airchecks from the ’60’s and 70’s for its Memorial Day Weekend programming.
As I have said here many times, WABeatleC was the sound of my childhood in Connecticut. Listening to WABC was my inspiration for wanting to work in radio when I grew up.
After my family moved to Massachusetts, I listened to WRKO in Boston on my bedside GE AM radio. Here are some RKO airchecks from my peak years of listening to the station, before buying my first stereo and tuning the Pioneer SX-440 receiver to WBCN FM. At one point, a bit of a commercial with WABC’s Dan Ingram can be heard.