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Before IPOD playlists and MTV and classic rock, there was AM radio. For almost 20 years stations like KLIF in Dallas and WIBG in Philadelphia and WLS in Chicago dominated the listening habits of teenagers.
For millions of listeners in the greater New York City area, the two stations of choice for kids were WABC and WMCA. Like the scene from American Graffiti, radios in cars and on beaches might all be tuned to the same station as a single disc jockey like Wolfman Jack or Cousin Brucie rambled on.
I was right there with those millions of teenagers tuning every radio within reach to AM 77.
(Listen to WABC - 1967 Top 100)
My favorite day of the year for radio listening was December 26 because it signaled the end of non-stop Christmas music and the beginning of “the countdown.”
For a solid week, WABC would play the top radio hits of the year. The countdown would start at 100 and work its way down to number one and then start all over again. If you were a pop music fan, the countdown just sucked you in. If Incense and Peppermints is only the #18 super hit of the 1967, what could be better? There is no way that Judy in Disguise (With Glasses) came in at #17.
In the days before the Internet and instant information, there was no way to get the Top 100 list without first listening to hours of radio and the accompanying commercials. As a result, I found myself carrying a transistor radio and a crumpled piece of paper around the house. I numbered the page to 100 and scratched in the songs as they were announced.
The Top 100 was just an extension of the weekly Top 40 that was aired each Tuesday night. With the weekly excitement (at least in my house) of an American Idol final, the DJ would play songs from forty down to number one. It was big news in 1967 when Light My Fire jumped five places to push Windy out of first only to be bumped by Ode To Billy Joe two weeks later.
Top 40 radio was a format that began in 1954 at WTIX in New Orleans. The concept supposedly came from a radio station owner who kept hearing the same song played over and over on a jukebox. The owner trimmed the playlist of songs down to the ones determined most popular.
The bible for radio programmers was the Billboard Magazine Top 100 chart. The Billboard charts of pop songs started in 1955. Songs were rated based on actual sales nationwide and regional charts allowed regional bands to get more radio airplay.
Reaching #1 was every band’s dream but songs that stayed on the charts for an extended period were just as profitable. The Beatles, for example, had the most #1 hits (21) but Elvis Presley had the most charted records (107) compared to 48 for the Beatles. Interestingly, The Theme From a Summer Place by Percy Faith beat out the Beatles’ Hey Jude for the #1 song of the 60’s. The #1 charted song of 1970’s was surprisingly Debbie Boone’s You Light Up My Life.
If that last paragraph brought back fond memories instead of nightmares of an old statistics class, then look for a book called Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn.
There was a time when soul, rock and pop music all lived together on Am radio. How else could Sammy Davis Jr.’s The Candy Man, The Staple Singers’ I’ll Take You There and Neil Young’s Heart of Gold all hit #1 in 1972.
The rise of FM radio helped conquer and divide Top 40 AM radio in the 70’s but I still think back on those TOP 100 lists from the 60’s.
Share your comments and suggestions by emailing: flipside@tx.rr.com or visit the Flipside blog at http://flipsidecolumn.blogspot.com/
The Christmas holiday is like a time machine. No matter how old we are, the holiday has a way of transporting us back in time. One reason is that we haul out a time capsule every year when the Christmas decorations appear.
It started with my family’s artificial Christmas tree. It magically grew thinner each year to the point where Charlie Brown would have been sympathetic. I was too young to remember it but we apparently enjoyed a silver tree lit with a rotating wheel of color in the late 50’s. The “new” tree lasted for at least 25 years and was finally retired long after we had left home.
Tree ornaments are a special part of Christmas decorating. Some survive generations while others get intentionally lost after only a single season. Our tree had an eclectic bunch or ornaments that were either passed down from grandparents or purchased when we were very young. My mother could tell a story about each one and I know my brother and I had favorites that we grabbed for first when tree trimming time came. Rarely were ornaments added to the collection in later years though.
The ornaments were carefully packed into several empty cases that once held 12 jars of Knott’s Berry Farm jelly. We knew Christmas was close when Aunt Maudie’s case of jelly arrived from California each year. Only a handful of ornaments and decorations from my childhood have survived but the familiar padded boxes are still in use 40 years later.
Still packed inside one of those cases is my mother’s favorite Christmas decoration - the Christmas Crèche or Nativity. All I know is that it was my grandmother’s and it got a prominent spot on the bookcase each year. I always imagined it as a valuable heirloom but it was probably purchased at Montgomery Wards in the 1950’s. I would offer to help set up the figurines each year hoping to create just the right effect. No matter how I positioned the wise men and the shepherds, my mother would patiently readjust them late at night to make the scene look more reverent and less like a sporting event.
Our living room was small and lacked a real fireplace so mom and dad were forced to rely on the magic of Santa and less on the “Night Before Christmas” scenario. Gifts appeared on Christmas morning under the tree but as we grew older Santa just dropped them on the two love seats nearby.
My memories from childhood may be foggy at times but I remember Christmas. I remember the pine scented candles and Santa cookie jar. I remember the popular Christmas songs that WABC radio played over and over and the four holly jolly Christmas albums my mother would pull out each year by Burl Ives, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand. I remember the same holiday TV specials and the same holiday TV commercials (Santa riding a Norelco shaver for example) and of course every New Yorker remembers the WPIX Yule Log that burned each Christmas Eve.
It’s because we did the same things year after year (and probably because we got new toys) that my Christmas memories are so strong.
Once we were married and had our own children, we started new Christmas traditions but kept many of our own from childhood. I am sure our parents did the same and their parents and so on. I can’t imagine it any other way.
I hope my kids feel the same way in thirty years and I hope that those old Knott’s Berry Farm cases are still holding those familiar ornaments and Crèche figurines.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
Dear Flip – I haven’t started my shopping yet and it’s Christmas Eve. You seem to have experience in last minute shopping. What would you suggest I buy for my family? Since time is short, I suggest you head to a large department store and only buy items that come pre-wrapped in a holiday box. For dad, try the 18-hole desktop executive golf course. Consider the perfume dispenser for mom and the Mp3 slippers for your sister. Good luck.
Dear Flip – We want to bring a gift for our friends tonight but hesitate because we don’t want to embarrass them if they didn’t get a gift for us. What should we do? Make the first move. Present the gifts to them at the door. This courteously gives the host time to wrap someone else’s gift or drive to CVS before they close.
Dear Flip – We have a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve after church. Last year my little brother got to open a cool gift while I opened a sweater? Try this. Each family member can open one package or “steal” one that’s already been opened. This should lead to some quality family time.
Dear Mr. Side – I will get home from college at about 7 p.m. tonight. My old high school friends are having a really cool party tonight as well. How long do I need to stay at my parent’s house before I can leave for the party? There is a formula for calculating PQT (parent quality time). Take the number of weeks it has been since you were last home and multiply times five to get the proper number of minutes. For example, if you saw them at Thanksgiving, you need to make small talk for at least 20 minutes. Showers don’t qualify as parent quality time.
Dear Flip – My kids want Santa to bring them a laptop and a Wii and a bike. Santa is magical they say so he should be able to bring anything they ask for. Unfortunately my bank account is not magical. Any advice would be helpful. It’s about time you got some credit here. Tell them that mommy and daddy send money to Santa on April 15 every year. Based on how big that check is, Santa decides what he can bring. Show them the cancelled check from last year and explain that IRS stands for I (love) Rudolph & Santa.
Dear Flip – My brother and his wife are great people but they are lousy cooks. It’s our turn to go to their home for Christmas and we dread it. What would you do? Instead of the traditional hostess gift, bring a round roast with mashed potatoes and some mixed vegetables. Explain that you are both are on a strict diet.
Dr. Tim – I will cook for hours tomorrow while my family watches football all day. They will then devour the meal in 15 minutes and return to the TV room. Is there anything I can do? I would start with a 7 course meal that takes an hour to serve. Then I would set all of the DVR’s in the house to record the Little House On The Prairie holiday marathon.
Dear Flip – My sister is still angry that I melted her David Cassidy 45 rpm record in my EZ Bake Oven on Christmas almost forty years ago. Isn’t it time she let it go? You have one chance to put this conflict to rest. David Cassidy is appearing at the Nokia Theater on February 6 with Davey Jones of the Monkees. Go to the concert and buy a new 45 record for her at the souvenir stand.
Merry Christmas to our readers. You can find old Flipside columns at http://flipsidecolumn.blogspot.com. Send column suggestions and comments to flipside@tx.rr.com.
It seems unlikely that a movie about minor league hockey in the seventies would achieve cult status. It seems even more unlikely that the three goonish nerds who appeared in the movie are still celebrities today. But here they were at the Allen Event Center facing a long line of autograph seekers and well wishers.
The goons are The Hanson Brothers, a trio of trouble featured in the 1977 movie Slapshot that starred Paul Newman as player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs. The Chiefs are a bad – make that really bad – minor league franchise from a depressed Pennsylvania steel town that finds a spark and wins a championship after three misfit brothers join the team. The quirks and fighting that the Hanson Brothers demonstrate in the movie have become legend in hockey arenas and locker rooms ever since.
The movie’s Hanson Brothers are actually two brothers named Steve and Jeff Carlson along with David Hanson. A third Carlson brother would have appeared in the movie but was called up to the Edmonton Oilers NHL team from the Johnstown (Pa) Jets, where all four of them were playing. Combined, the Hansons played a total of 34 years in professional hockey and brought those experiences to the movie.
The Charlestown Chiefs are a fictional team but their story is based on fact. The screenplay was written by Nancy Dowd, sister of Johnstown Jet player Ned Dowd, and incorporated many true stories and characters from the gritty minor league hockey circuit in New York State and Pennsylvania.
A fan favorite is a fight that breaks out between the brothers and their opponents before the game starts. It’s based on an actual 1970’s Jets playoff game where Steve, Jeff and Dave tangled with the Buffalo Norsemen during warm-ups over a racial slur. During the fight, a Buffalo player tried to escape into the stands only to be pushed back onto the ice by Jets fans.
According to a 2007 Sports Illustrated interview, Jeff Carlson once pounded a particularly annoying opponent on the head with the announcer’s microphone. “All the crowd could hear was poom, poom poom!,” he said.
Today the Hanson Brothers make about 25 celebrity appearances. Many of the appearances are fundraising events where the brothers have raised over $14 million for various charities over the past 30 years, according to Steve.
They received a warm reception as they dropped the puck at the November 19 Allen Americans game and graciously entertained several hundred fans who waited for autographs and photos.
“We have been fortunate that the movie has such longevity,” said Jeff. “Its popularity just keeps going and going and going.”
“We were hockey players and not actors when this all started,” added Steve. “Once it took off we needed to make a decision about a career in hockey or sign a movie contract. The two didn’t fit together so we went with the movie.”
The original Slap Shot movie is rated among the top sports comedies and led to two sequels over the years.
I think that Dave may have hit it on the head when he tried to explain the appeal of the movie. “The humor is pretty crude, the dialogue is often politically incorrect and it’s a violent movie.”
Fans of the movie Slap Shot will have no trouble finding more information on The Hanson Brothers in Wikipedia and favorite scenes are all out there on YouTube. Just don’t try the stunts at home!
Before IPOD playlists and MTV and classic rock, there was AM radio. For almost 20 years stations like KLIF in Dallas and WIBG in Philadelphia and WLS in Chicago dominated the listening habits of teenagers.
