1984 Air Guitars

February 28, 2024 10:42 AM CDT

A recent poll confirmed that parents and grandparents greatly embarrass their children when they play air guitar. There was a time when playing air instruments was cool. Back in 1984 we had contests to see who the best imaginary players were. I remember being the m.c. for a big contest at Reedsburg High School. They also had a competition for the best ‘flying v kick’ like David Lee Roth from Van Halen. This week in ’84 that group’s song Jump was the number one tune on radio. It was an exciting time to grow up. The social network was the family home phone. Sometimes we were still on a party line. Up to eight families would sometimes be on the same circuit. Long distance rates were cheaper after 6:00 pm. If I wanted to call a young woman from Bear Valley, I had to call late. I needed to coil the long phone cord to the other side of the file cabinet so that I could have a little privacy when I was talking to my lady friend. It was the early years for MTV and pop culture was totally influenced by the styles that we saw on video. There were many British artists that became instant stars because of the 24-hour exposure that the network provided. Some of my faves from March of 1984 include Talking in Your Sleep-Romantics, Back Where You Belong-.38 Special, Middle of the Road-Pretenders, Radio Ga Ga-Queen, Nobody Told Me-John Lennon, They Don’t Know-Tracy Ullman, The Language of Love-Dan Fogelberg, New Moon on Monday-Duran Duran, and That’s All-Genesis.

Saturday night during Those Were the Days, I will be spinning the hits from early 1984 and music from all of the eras that we play. Trivia games return and we will be cranking out the hits until the midnight hour. I hope you enjoyed our archived flashbacks last weekend following local sports. It was great to spend some time with my darling granddaughter, Oaklee, as she turned four. She seems to like vinyl records! Perhaps someday she can cohost Those Were the Days on WRCO FM 100.9 and WRCO.com!

Phil