Be Kind Rewind to 1984

In the year of 1984 home video came to Aubrey Corners. For $2.00 and a $30.00 deposit, you could rent a movie and a VCR. The first two movies I rented were Don’t Look in the Basement, and Eddie and the Cruisers. It would be a couple of years before I saved enough from my mobile d.j. business and hay making money to afford my own VCR. In the fall of ’84 John Cafferty and & the Beaver Brown band had a hit from the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack called On the Dark Side. Prince was having more hits from the Purple Rain movie soundtrack; Bruce Springsteen was an even bigger celebrity as he traveled the world on the Born in the USA tour. A song from that album, Cover Me, was on the October survey. MTV was still making hits. Billy Ocean, the Cars, Cyndi Lauper, David Bowie, Huey Lewis, Night Ranger, and Sheena Easton were all getting massive play on the video channel. This Saturday night I will pretend that I am the featured disc jockey at Doug’s Pub in Cazenovia, and you will hear all of the hits from the era. That is where I was spinning forty years ago. I made many friends, and they did not even try to beat up the kid from Ithaca which I am very grateful!

It will be a fun Saturday night during WRCO’s Those Were the Days between six and midnight. The family weddings are over until December. I missed you last week. Hopefully you enjoyed our Bubblegum Music countdown courtesy of Forgotten Hits. The request line will be open for you to call in a favorite request and the trivia bell will be ringing this week on WRCO FM 100.9, WRCO.com and the Civic Media app. It is time to put away my going to weddings outfit and put on my t-shirts and jeans for some old-time rock and roll. I will have to hit an extra bottle of Ski soda pop to give me a boost after a full day covering the Ithaca parade and homecoming football game.

Phil

p.s. this is what a writer sent to Kent Kotal’s Forgotten Hits website after hearing the Bubblegum Countdown last Saturday night.

Hi there Kent,

You nudged me to do something last Saturday night that I NEVER would have dreamed I would do!

Well, I actually decided to listen to Phil Nee’s Those Were The Days show on WRCO in Richland Center, Wisconsin, just to learn which songs made the Bubblegum Top 40, and am I ever glad I did.

Phil’s show was very professional and very well done. So having heard the show once, I am probably going to check out some of his future shows, just to see what a regular show of his is actually like.

He has obviously been doing these shows for some time, because he had quite a few interviews with many of the recording artists that had recorded these classic bubblegum songs, even recording artists like David Cassidy that are no longer alive.

Anyway Kent, thanks for nudging me into listening to the Those Were The Days oldies show on WRCO FM. This may be something that I start doing on a regular

basis now thanks to you.

All the best,

Sam Ward

****Thank you, Sam, for taking the time to listen. I hope you let us know when you tune in. We can spin a song for you.