WRCO Blog

Return with us to this weekend in 1969 on this Saturday nights edtition of Those Were the Days.  What a great period for Top 40 music!  Tommy James,  the Doors,  Marvin Gaye,  the Bee Gees,  and the New Colony Six were among the artists and groups  that were riding the radio waves the most.   We will also have a live request show and the chance to win prizes when we play 'Magic Cowbell Trivia".    I will fly back in the stations pedal helicoptor after wrestling to man the 'Close And Play'.  Give us a call on Saturday night.  You can always email me during the week and make a request for a song or feature.  I  look forward to hearing from you.

Phil

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This week I had the chance to chat with the lead singer of the Marshall Tucker Band, Doug Gray.  He helped found the band in 1971 shortly after returning from his service in Vietnam.   We will share portions of that interview on Those Were The Days this Saturday night!  The MTB broke out of the Southern Rock scene with a huge hit in 1977 called 'Heard It In A Love Song'. Other classic songs include Can't You See, and Fire On The Mountain,  which have been requested on a regular basis  during the last 25  years of our program.  They have released a new live greatest hits album!  You can buy it as a vinyl album which also comes with a free down load. 

It is amazing to note how many new releases are being issued as vinyl record albums.  I am afraid that there might be a shortage of cds in a couple of years.  It is hard to believe that record albums have made such a comeback.  I am finally cool again!  It has been a long time coming.

Join us for a full 6 hour show with requests, trivia, and the Marshall Tucker Band on this weeks edition of Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.

Phil

This week on Those Were The Days we will remember some classic mid-70's hits.  Well known hits that are still known today were released during time.  It is unreal to me that some of those songs are 37 years old and are enjoyed today by more than just the generation that grew up with them.   In 1975 several generations were not flashing back to the music of the 1920's and 30's.  It goes to show how timeless many of those songs are!

Those Were The Days will follow our high school wrestling coverage on WRCO FM 100.9  Saturday night.  We will have trivia and requests later in the program after I return back to home base in the WRCO peddle helicopter.  I hope to hear from you on Saturday night.

Take Care.

Phil

Along with our regular features on this weeks edition of Those Were The Days, we will jump in the Ford Maverick and drive back to this weekend in 1977!  Disco songs like Car Wash by Rose Royce,  Hot Line from the Sylvers, and You Make Me Feel Like Dancing by Leo Sayer were big.  The Eagles were flying high and Aerosmith had an up and coming single with Walk This Way.  The group Kiss had released a good single called Hard Luck Woman.  We will feature some of these and other 1977 cool tunes. 

Listen for trivia and other surprises this Saturday night between 6 and midnight.  Thank you for the great requests last week.  It was one of the best nights we have had recently.  You made me dig for tunes that we had not played for a while.  I hope to hear from you on Saturday night.  You can also email me this week and I can make sure that I rummage  through my vaults and have it ready to play for you.  My address is  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Phil  

WRCO FM 100.9 is the place to be for another musical party featuring the music that I have collected over the past 40 years. The year of 1967 is still one of the best music years ever!  I will back up that statement on this Saturday nights Those Were The Days.  Hear what was hot and happening during January of '67.  Wisconsin native Gary Myers will join me by phone.  He has written two books on Wisconsin rock and roll of the 50's and 60's.  He was in a group that was known as the Portraits and they released several songs during 1967 including two songs that were used in movie soundtracks.  Gary has released a cd of the Portraits music and it is available on his MusicGem website and the address is music.gem.com. 

Request a song during this Saturday nights program.  We will ring the magic cowbell and find out how much useless knowledge you still have.   I hope you enjoy all of those old songs of the 50's through the 80's on Those Were The Days this weekend.

Phil

Hear part two of my interview with Dennis Tufano of the Buckinghams this Saturday night on Those Were The Days.  They were the most successful of the late 60's Chicago area bands.  Hear Buckingham classic songs like Susan,  Don't You Care,  and Back In Love Again.

I hope that you will request a song this week.  Challenge yourself to play 'Stump the D.J.'  Request a song from the 50's through the 80's that you don't think  we have.  Even though the show is now over 25 years old, we still play at least one song every week that we have never played!  Listen for the 'Magic Cow Bell' to ring and see if you can win the trivia prize. 

I will hope to hear from you this Saturday night.  You can call the request line at 608 647-4155 or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Thanks.

Phil-WRCO

To kick off a new year on Those Were the Days, we will feature portions of an interview with Dennis Tufano during the first two Saturday nights of the year.  Dennis was an original member of the Buckinghams.  It has been a 25 plus year mission of mine and I finally tracked down Dennis!   We will talk about that incredible year of 1967 in which the group had 4 top ten hit records.  Next week during part two we will feature coments about his days as a dou with group member Carl Giammarese and later days when he toured and sang with Olivia Newton John.  We will have the request line open all night Saturday night.  Give me a call and try to stump me.  I love it when someone calls and makes me dig for a song that we have rarely played.  Trivia returns this Saturday night as well.

We will keep on rocking in 2012! 

Sincerely,

Philip James Nee

Hey Rock and Rollers!  During our Those Were The Days time on Saturday night we will feature the 24th annual Triviathon.  Held on New Years Eve for many years,  it just happens to fall on Saturday night in 2011.  I know that many love to hear the trivia questions each Saturday night, so this time you will possibly hear 30 plus questions.  Many of your favorite songs from the 50's through the 80's will hit the airwaves again during Triviathon which will start at 6 pm on WRCO FM 100.9.  If you would like to enter a team, check out more details on this website.  Listen in January 2012 when we get back to our regular format and special guests including a first time caller to the show that sang lead on 4 top 10 hits in 1967. 

Thank you for reading.

Phil Nee

Those Were the Days will celebrate Christmas Saturday night with a host of great holiday tunes from our favorite artists of the 50's through the 80's.  We will feature some of the great musical moments from those good ole' days and the 'Nee Deep Christmas Group' might even make a few appearances.

Back in the old days at home we always had the radio on while the folks were dining on oyster stew and I was stewing over how many presents my sister had,  and how many I didn't  have.  She was usually on the 'nice' list.  Whatever your holiday plans are for Christmas Eve, I hope you will have the radio on in the background. 

Merry Christmas from the Solid Gold Dancers and me!

Phil

This week on Those Were The Days hear some of the hottest 45's from the 1969 Billboard survey.  We will feature some of the top songs that were on the charts as the 60's ended and the decade of the 70's drew near.  It was the year that my parents sprung for a color tv made by Curtis Mathis and a UHF antenna.  I was able to watch Sesame Street,  which debuted in November, and I quickly discovered Marsha and her sisters on the Brady Bunch.  Tunes from CCR, Three Dog Night,  and the Beatles along with your special requests will be featured on this weeks program.  Listen for the chance to win when we play trivia and have a great time at 33 and 45 revolutions per minute.  Those Were the Days can be heard on WRCO FM 100.9 Saturday nights between 6 pm and Midnight.  Spend Christmas Eve with us next Saturday  night.  Can you believe that it is so close to the end of the year? 

Thanks for reading.  I will look forward to hearing from you Saturday night.

Phil

Hey Rock and Rollers!  On this weeks Those Were The Days Saturday night program,  Lee Loughnane will be my guest.  Lee has been the trumpet player in the great group Chicago since 1967.  I played trumpet in the Ithaca junior high and high school bands from 1976 until I was asked to go to study hall in the Spring of 1982.  So you can see that Lee and I have a lot in common.  Chicago has a brand new Christmas album in stores and available for down load.  Hear about that from Lee Loughnane and  we will play some classic Chicago hits on this weeks show.  The request line will be open and you will be able to try and win prizes from the grab bag of goodies.  You just have to remember some stuff from the good old days.  Be with us on WRCO FM 100.9 this Saturday night between 6 pm and Midnight.

Thanks for the good feedback on last weeks 71 from '71 year end countdown.  It was great fun putting it together.

Philip

As we approach the end of the year, it is time for our annual classic year end countdown.  This year we will flash back 40 years to 1971 and remember the top 71 tunes.  I will be counting them down on this weeks Those Were The Days between 6 pm and Midnight Saturday night.  It was a great year for music and it featured many future greats that saw the first signs of success on the music charts.

New artists in 1971 included:  The Osmonds,  Helen Reddy,  Alice Cooper, Olivia Newton John,  Cat Stevens,  Rod Stewart, and Earth, Wind, & Fire.  The top 10 selling artists according to Billboard magazine were the Bee Gees, The Jackson 5, Bread, Dawn, The Carpenters,  Aretha Franklin,  The Osmonds,  Chicago,  Three Dog Night, and James Brown.   Hear songs from many of these artists on this weeks show during the 1971 end of the year countdown.

Thank you for reading this.  I hope you enjoy this weekends special show.

Phil

Return with us to 1974 during this weekends Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  Hear the story behind the number one song this weekend in '74.  Billy Swan remembers his chart topper 'I Can Help'.  Billy wrote Clyde McPhatter's big hit 'Lover Please',  was a member of Kris Kristofferson's band, and he was a record producer before he enjoyed his surprise hit in late 1974.  Our six hour tribute to the 50's through the 80's pop radio memories hits the airwaves  between 6 pm and Midnight Saturday night and can be heard  on WRCO FM 100.9.  We will take your requests, play trivia, and we wont act our age!  I hope to hear from you Saturday night.

Phil

Those Were The Days began on October 12th 1986.  We now currently play songs that were new when the show started!  The show is a Top 40 variety show which features music from 1954 through 1989.  I began collecting records in 1971.  My first 45 was 'Have You Seen Her?' by the Chi-Lites.  I love to share my collection each week and its really great when someone makes me dig out something that we have never played before.  It is amazing to say it still happens after all of these years!   We do play a few album cuts that may have not been released as singles to radio over the years.  A great number of local records have made our airwaves as well.  Richland Centers' own Vilas Craig and the Vicounts and the Madison based band Clicker are among the most requested.   We do get a few requests for Country songs from time to time.  Our rule of thumb is that the song had to have made the Top 40 or Pop charts for us to play it on Those Were the Days.  That is why  you might hear some early Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, or a comedy record by Ray Stevens.  The request line number is 608 647-4155.  You can also email a request or dedication to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  I hope that you will listen to Those Were The Days Saturday night from 6 p to Midnight.

Happy Trails.

Phil

One of my favorite themes of the program is when we give the history behind a song.  We will do that with a few classics this Saturday night on Those Were The Days.  Jim Ed Brown and the Browns were a very successful trio in the late 50's and early 60's on the Country and Western survey.  They did also have three big hits on Rock and Roll radio in those days.  Recently I talked with Jim Ed about the 'The Three Bells'.  That was a number one hit for the Browns.  It was only a big selling record because Chet Atkins at RCA  insisted they record it.  Hear the story behind the song this Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9.   The request line will be available for all 6 hours of the program and get ready for trivia! 

Phil

Hey Rock n' Rollers!  This Saturday night we will remember the early days of television.  An appearance by a musical act would almost guarantee an even greater amount of record sales.  Hear snipits from previous Those Were The Days interviews with the likes of Dick Clark and Steve Allen and musical acts like the 5th Dimension and Tommy James and the Shondells about appearing on the Ed Sullivan show.  We will also feature great music and special features from the 1950s through the 1980s until Midnight on WRCO FM 100.9.   I have vivid memories of watching for my favorite artist or group on a tv show.  In the 70's The Midnight Special featured a wide array of talent live on stage. Saturday afternoons I would always try to catch American Bandstand.   From 1948 until early 1971 the Ed Sullivan show was a showcase for plate spinners,  dancing elephants, comedy acts,  and the top musical artists of the day.  My friend Kent Kotal has been featuring memories of the Ed Sullivan show on his site Forgottenhits.com. He has been collecting memories of the Sullivan show from all over the world.   This is what I wrote.

 
Kent,

Phil - WRCO

I hope you will listen to Those Were The Days this Saturday night.  I will talk with you soon.

Phil

This week Those Were The Days will be back to its regular format.  Between 6:00 p and Midnight hear your favorite 50's through 80's pop radio memories on WRCO FM 100.9.  We will take your rock and roll requests and you can win some fun prizes if you know the answer to our pop quiz.

This time we will also feature hits from this week in 1967.  Hear coments from Jay Proctor (of Jay and the Techniques),   Billy Jo Royal,  Carl Giammarese (of the Buckinghams), and Russ Giguere (of the Association).  All of those artists had big records on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart this week in '67.    The top movie in the land was To Sir With Love and the title song by Lulu was the number one song in the World!

Here is a 1967 piece of trivia.  The original list price for a standard, 1967 Fastback Ford  Mustang was approximately $2,700.  We may ask you about that on this weeks Those Were The Days and you could win a prize just for reading this!

I hope you enjoyed the Halloween party this past  Saturday night.  It was great fun putting that together. 

Hear a few haunting Halloween ditties on this Saturday nights Those Were The Days! There have been many songs with a Halloween theme over the years. Some of the most requested spooky classics will be featured this weekend. Plan your pumpkin carving, or costume construction around the seasonal classics that you will hear this weekend on WRCO FM 100.9. Here is a list of some of the most requested haunted tunes. 1. Monster Mash-Bobby Boris Pickett 2. Ghostbusters-Ray Parker Jr. 3. Witch Dr.-David Seville 4. Frankenstein-Edgar Winter Group 5. Haunted House-Jumpin Gene Simmons 6. Thriller-Michael Jackson 7. Werewolves of London-Warren Zevon 8. Purple People Eater-Sheb Wooley 9. Time Warp-Rocky Horror Picture Show 10. Twilite Zone-Golden Earring Did you know? Monster Mash by Bobby Boris Pickett made Billboards Hot 100 chart three times. It was number one for two weeks in 1962 when it was originally a hit. The original recording hit the chart in 1970 and again in 1973. The third time it made the charts it hit number 10 in the Summer of 1973. Win a prize just for reading this. On this weeks show we may ask you how many times Bobby Pickett's Monster Mash hit the charts. If you are the first to call us with the answer (three) you will win a prize from the grab bag of goodies!

This Saturday night we will flash back to a weekend in October 1977. Hear from Fleetwood Mac, Firefall, Peter Frampton, Steve Miller Band, and Andy Gibb. Those are just a few of the artists that will be featured. According to Joel Whitburn's book,' Pop Annual', these were the top artists of 1977. 1. Fleetwood Mac 2. Leo Sayer 3. Steve Miller Band 4. Stevie Wonder 5. Eagles 6. KC & The Sunshine Band 7. Bee Gees 8. Rose Royce 9. Linda Rondstadt 10. Barry Manilow. Artists that made their Top 40 debuts in 1977 included: Jennifer Warnes, Genesis, Foreigner, Andy Gibb, Peter Gabriel, REO Speedwagon, Kenny Loggins, Chic, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The request line will be open for you to request a song and we will be playing trivia. We will have a high school sports broadcast on Saturday for a time. Join us before and after the sporting event for more of your favorites of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s on WRCO FM 100.9. Here is something really cool! Just by reading this blog, you will already know the answer to one of Saturday nights trivia questions. During 1977 many people thought the Beatles had reunited. There was a group getting played on the radio known as Klaatu. The group sold a few records partly because of the suspicious Beatles fans. They were actually a trio from Canada. The two sided hit that was getting played was Sub-Rosa Subway and Calling Occupants (which was also recorded by the Carpenters in 1977). On Saturday night I will ask you this question. Where did the group Klaatu get its name? The answer--the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still. Klaatu was the central character of the 1951 science fiction film. Be ready to say The Day The Earth Stood Still on Saturday night and win a prize from the bag of goodies.l Call me on Saturday night at 647-4155. Leave a message or a suggestion for a show on this blog. Phil-WRCO

I have had the great opportunity to interview many of the legends of the first 35 years of rock and roll.  This week  I got the rare chance to talk with Clarence Carter.  It was a real treat and I look forward to featuring some of his comments on this Saturday nights program. 

Clarence was born in 1938 in Montgomery, Alabama.  He has been blind since the age of 11.  The loss of sight did not prevent him from becoming an accomplished musician.  His first major hit was 'Slip Away' in 1968 which hit number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.  His biggest hit came two years later in 1970 when the song 'Patches' made it to number 4.  The song could have been Clarence Carter's life story, however, it was written by another one time Those Were The Days guest General Johnson.  Clarence Carter is still making music today and is looking for another hit.  Hear about his past hits and what he is doing now on this weeks show. 

We will also play trivia, feature song dedications,  and have another rock and roll party this Saturday night.  Request a song and try to stump the d.j. !  I love it when that happens.  You can win great prizes and impress your friends, family, and me.   The show starts shortly after 6:00 and runs until Midnight on WRCO FM 100.9 Saturday night.  We hope to hear from you this week and weekend.

Phil