Sledding Into 1974

January 10, 2024 10:17 AM CDT

When I was a ‘wee-Nee’ back in 1974, my biggest wintertime thrill was making paths for my Apollo runner sled. It was a Christmas gift a few years before when moon missions from NASA were one of my fascinations. The sleigh could hold up to 4 people and it had the emblem of a rocket painted on the wooden boards. I could sled from the hog houses all the way past the barn and the manure spreader all the way to cows in the barnyard. The biggest challenge was avoiding frozen manure clumps that could stop a sled abruptly.  While I was warming up in the barn or the house or waiting for the scab on my face to heal from a sleigh riding mishap, I was keeping track of the latest radio songs. In January of 1974 I was a Top Forty Doogie Hauser!  I could have been a doctor of hit radio songs. My spare time was spent listening to radio up and down the dial. WLS in Chicago (89 on the dial) and WISM in Madison (1480 AM) were my two favorite stations. Some of my favorites from January of 1974 include…The Joker-Steve Miller Band, Show and Tell-Al Wilson, Smokin in the Boys Room-Brownsville Station, Helen Wheels-Wings, Spiders and Snakes-Jim Stafford, Just You ‘N’ Me-Chicago, Rockin’ Roll Baby-Stylistics, Jungle Boogie-Kool and the Gang, Dy’er Maker-Led Zepplin, Photograph-Ringo Starr, I Got a Name-Jim Croce, and Come and Get Your Love-Redbone.

Saturday night between six and midnight we will have the light on for you (sort of like Motel 6 but you can’t stay here). You can help with the playlist of tunes from the fifties through the early nineties during Those Were the Days on WRCO FM 100.9, WRCO.com, or on the Civic Media app.  We received good comments about last week’s Garage Band feature.  I enjoyed digging out old vinyl and playing a few forgotten Wisconsin bands during last Saturday night’s show. Thanks for supporting local radio and all of our locally produced shows.

Phil