1977 Green & Growing Hits

April 24, 2024 10:57 AM CDT

In the Spring of 1977, the oats were a dark green hue, and the planting plans were starting to take shape on the old Willow Valley farm. I was busy patrolling County Highway B with my Hiawatha three speed bike. My ankles were getting chilled because my high-water pants did not go all the way to my sock line. Occasionally I would put a playing card in my bikes’ front spokes so that I sounded like a motorcycle in my mind. The young farmers daughters that lived along the Willow creek were not interested in me but were only using me so that I would make them a cool mix tape. My parents bought me a Panasonic Stereo that year. It had a BSR turntable, AM/FM radio and most importantly, a cassette player and recorder. I could tape my records and steal songs from radio broadcasts. It had a plug-in microphone so I could pretend that I was on the radio. My favorite FM stations to glean songs from included Z-104 (Madison), D-92 (Dubuque), and even WRCO which played some Top 40 hits after 7:00 pm each night. A few of my favorites from the spring of 1977 are, Couldn’t Get It Right-Climax Blues Band, Calling Dr. Love-Kiss, Heard It in a Love Song-Marshall Tucker, Mainstreet-Bob Seger, Lido Shuffle-Boz Scaggs, Feels Like the First Time-Foreigner, and Jet Airliner-Steve Miller Band.

This Saturday night I will pretend I am on the radio again during Those Were the Days on WRCO. My pant legs will almost make it to my sock line and the mix tape that we make will be really cool. The six-hour radio show will air between six and midnight on FM 100.9, WRCO.com and the Civic Media app. You could be the winner of some really cool stuff. Here is a TWTD blog shoutout to our new online listeners in Kenosha and Cambridge Wisconsin. Let’s have some fun again this Saturday night.

Phil