When I worked professionally at KING in Seattle a few years later, I bounced the idea off the Program Director, but inasmuch as we were a Top 40 station, not Oldies, he didn’t think much of it. My professional radio career could be summarized as a meteoric rise followed by an equally meteoric fall. By late summer 1974 it was over.
In later years, a number of DJ’s tried something similar, and some even found success in syndication. I was working in computers for large banks and insurance companies, so I barely noticed.
So let’s have some fun.
Where were you on Tuesday, March 9, 1965? I was in my junior year at a grossly overrated Catholic prep school in New Jersey. (I could have gotten a better education at the local public high school.)
If you’re going to do a show like this, you need a theme. The one I used in college still works. When Motown held recording sessions at their studios at Hitsville USA, quite often musicians from the Detroit Symphony were brought in to supplement the Funk Brothers. Work like this was considered desirable for the money brought in. Berry Gordy went so far as to brand this amalgam of musicians the San Remo Golden Strings. They released a few singles and drew a little bit of attention. One of their items struck me as perfect for this project. So here’s my theme song.
San Remo Golden Strings: “Festival Time”
Petula Clark had started as a child actress in British cinema after the war. In November 1964, she released a song written by husband Tony Hatch and topped the British and American charts. By March, her first hit was on its way down, and it logged in this week at #10. It’s a beautiful song, and it blew me away the first time I heard it.
I loved “Downtown” when it came out. I was in the 7th grade at an exam school and was studying LATIN!
A side note about the Funk Brothers...I met two of these wonderful gentlemen at a Herman Cain Rally....and a few weeks later they provided the music for Rick Santorum!
I recognized them and spent the rest of the afternoon shootin’ the breeze and talkin’ shop with them.