Today was the day when the BBC ended full access to Sounds outside of the UK. Live stations are still available for those who want to make the effort.
My Beeb listening is done with the Lyrion system. The Sounds plugin has been updated to accommodate the new restriction. As it turned out, my subscriptions are still working, so in effect I’m not affected in any way that matters to me. Yay!
I listen to Internet radio stations both near and far. One that isn’t too far from here is WATD-FM, based in Marshfield, MA.
The station’s call letters stand for “We’re At the Dump.” Its founder and owner is a gentleman named Ed Perry, who has some stories to tell.
This Perry anecdote reminds me very much of what happened to me on August 16, 1977.
“One Sunday morning in February 1959, I was playing rock and roll when the teletype started printing furiously from The Associated Press,” he recalled. “It was about the plane crash in Iowa that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. I read the news over the air, and the rest of the day I only played music from those three guys.”
I was freshly graduated from college and working as a DJ at a small AM radio station in Western Massachusetts, when the AP teletype started printing furiously. Elvis Presley was dead.
Will you hear my request from the back of the station wagon in the Playtone Records parking lot? Tune in to TuneIn to find out!
Update: They played my request! It’s the last song before Tom says goodbye and introduces the closing requested song.
My deep dive into storage boxes continues, unearthing this bit of buried treasure. It’s an air check from my bygone radio announcer years, but I don’t have a reel tape deck to play it.
In the radio biz of long ago, there was a subtle distinction between the Easy Listening and Middle of the Road formats. The former was intended more for background music, while the latter would have some livelier, ear-catching tunes.
Frank Sinatra sounding like Ray Charles.
One of the very successful musical collaborations between Herb Alpert and Burt Bacharach.
