I’ve been wanting to write this one for a while, but recent events have made it imperative. I have always been an active free-radio listener. From the time my parents gave me my first transistor radio, I’ve been tuned in. First on the AM dial—WFIL and WIBG—and then to all the FM stations I could find. Once I could drive, night-time brought radio from far away, like CKLW and WOWO and WABC and my favorite for Sunday nights, Rockin’ Ray on WBT, Charlotte, NC. Started dating the guy who would become my husband and found out he was listening to the same stuff. (How many times has he told me over the years that WCRO in Johnstown was playing songs long before anyone else?) Kismet!
Those were days of truly “free” radio, when some DJs got to play what they wanted to play. Other stations had playlists (some with major repetition), but we had a lot of choices. If you look at the top 40 from any period in the 1960s, you find it ran the gamut from pop to rock to country to whatever. As the 1970s progressed, radio became more and more programmed. Playlists narrowed by genre. Disco took over and we cried.
By the 1980s, I was living in Philly and listening to WIOQ. What a lineup—Harvey in the Morning, Helen Leicht, Ed Sciaky, David Dye! And then WMMR, not because of any radio personality (as they were becoming, instead of DJs), but because they supported local bands that weren’t just the Hooters (yes, that’s where Beru Revue comes in). I don’t think anyone in radio has ever known more about music than Ed Sciaky; he was very much a believer in the business.
When I left Philly, I moved to the land of country music (and I don’t mean Nashville). Acck! Painful for a while, but then WXPN built a tower in Harrisburg and I found creative radio (and Helen Leicht and David Dye) again. Ed Sciaky was having trouble finding work (which should never have been the case), but that was a sign of the times. Syndication was beginning to rear its ugly head—programming for the masses.
Now I live in Harrisburg and have improved radio options. (Don’t even suggest satellite radio—way too generic and impersonal.) In addition to WXPN (which seems to be having some trouble finding its feet lately, struggling to please both the contributing boomers and the Gen-X and beyonds), I have a better signal for WRTI (Temple U’s station—I only listen to the evening jazz, not the daytime classical). And I have come back to my roots in local radio. There’s a station in Beaver Springs, PA, called Wheels 106.1 (they don’t webcast, so don’t even look for it). The morning show is local, the rest of the day is syndicated (and that playlist is sliding into disco and we’re still crying).
But what a morning show! Shane Nelson (www.shanenelson.com) plays pretty much anything between the mid-1950s and mid-1970s. People call in with some obscure requests and he seems to be able to fill most of them. I’ve heard songs on that show I’ve never heard in my life. Even better is his two-hour weekend show. He chooses a year (this past weekend was 1957) and plays the Top 30 from the week (this time the second week in May). He pretends it is that time and gives news updates and show business gossip as though they’re current. I don’t always like all of the songs, but it’s always interesting to see how music has developed over time. And we shouldn’t just be listening to a small selection of the vast amount of music available anyway. Shane seems to be a believer the way Ed Sciaky was (for him it’s Elvis instead of Bruce).
And I’m writing this because Shane hasn’t been on for a week and his website hasn’t been updated in a little while and I’m wondering if the syndication monster has taken over and devoured yet another piece of creative radio. I certainly hope that’s not the case—it would be a real shame.
