The Day the Music Died

January 31, 2024 11:10 AM CDT

Saturday night Those Were the Days will again be spinning the feel-good tunes. The show will begin with a time capsule of February 3rd. 1959. I will spin the top five songs from the Billboard chart, and we will play highlights from the careers of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper. They lost their lives in a plane crash on a cold winter night in Iowa. On the night before their deaths, they had played one of their gigs for the 24 city Winter Dance Party Tour in Clear Lake, Iowa. They criss-crossed the Midwest in an old school bus. The trip took them right through Richland Center on Highway 14 after a gig in Kenosha on the way to Montevideo, Minnesota. I have always been fascinated by the story of three of the top artists of the day playing one-night shows in the awful Midwest winter weather. I have been to the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake and even once walked the old fence line to the crash site in a farm field where a small memorial had been erected. Don Mclean coined the phrase ‘the Day the Music Died’ in his 1971 release American Pie. Saturday night we will spin a few hits from that innocent time in early 1959. We will also play all of your favorite requests through the decades.

Last week we heard from listeners all over the state and the country. Callers from Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Florida, checked in. I hope to hear from you this weekend. Tell your friends about fun radio and trivia on Saturday nights. If you tune it at 6 pm and do not hear us, be patient. We will have high school wrestling during the day, and it should be done by that time, but you never know. I can guarantee that we will have a full show. Maybe during the music show I will recap my wrestling career. That will take five seconds and then we will get back to the show! Those Were the Days, my friend.

Phil