1986-A Forty Year Flashback

In January of 1986, I was loading my trailer each weekend so that I could go play records at the bars, parties, school dances, and class reunions. I was pulling in about $50.00 per night and spending a little more than that at the Music Shop each week in Richland Center because I needed to buy the latest hits. Some of the hot ones were Party All the Time-Eddie Murphy, Small Town-John Mellencamp, Walk of Life-Dire Straits, Goodbye-Night Ranger, Living in America-James Brown, Life in a Northern Town-Dream Academy, Tarzan Boy-Baltimora, and What You Need by INXS. Those were tunes that were guaranteed to get them away from their bottle of Blatz, or their Screwdrivers or Fuzzy Navals. My column speakers often served as drink tables. Sometimes the patrons would get rowdy and not want to leave. One such ruffian once threatened to pound on me and break my little records if I did not keep playing. My darling girlfriend (eventual wife) got in his face and told him where to go. I thought I was for sure going to eat a knuckle sandwich, but alas, he sheepishly walked away. Way to go, June! My Wham records were spared.

During Those Were the Days on WRCO Saturday night, I will be featuring a few songs from the January of 1986 countdown. Of course, you can request anything from the fifties through the early nineties. It is so great to hear from our Southwest Wisconsin listeners. We can now honestly say that we are worldwide. This past Saturday night, we had a caller from India. It was 7:30 am India time when he rang us up. Hats off to Santana and congratulations on your recent wedding! Tell your friends outside the area to join us at WRCO.com or by downloading the Civic Media app. I hope you will join us for this weekend’s edition of WRCO’s Those Were the Days between six and midnight. If you want me to keep playing past midnight, please don’t try to beat me up unless you want to suffer the wrath of June!

Philip