Phil Nee

It will be great to be back with you this Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9.  The Packers blocked us last week. 

The year 2016 has been a rough one for old rock and rollers.  We lost Glenn Frey earlier this week and Saturday night we will pay tribute with some of our (and your) favorite Eagle songs.  It will be a celebration of the legacy of the music that Glenn leaves behind.  One of my earliest memories of the Eagles is when I saw them play on NBCs' The Midnight Special back in 1973.  In 1975 I went to Saffells Music Store and bought The Eagles Greatest Hits (1971-1975).  This was the album that became the biggest seller of the 70's and 80's.  Every song was a hit and there were no filler tunes or new songs to clutter it.  I loved Glenn Frey's solo work in the 1980's.  'I Found Somebody' was one of those I remember from the first months that I was exposed to MTV.  That is my favorite among his solo releases.  Playing country tunes in the early 1990's I recall the Eagles tribute cd that several country artists put together. It brought the groups songs to a new generation and to a new audience. 

Tune in 100.9 WRCO FM on Saturday night for more of the best of the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties during Those Were The Days between 6 p and Midnight.  I will be in the studio to take your requests and to give away some cool trivia prizes.

Phil

The Green Bay Packers can be heard on WRCO FM 100.9 this Saturday night.  The pregame will begin shortly after 5 pm.  This means Those Were The Days will have the weekend off.  I hope you will join me Saturday night January 23rd for the next solid gold rock and roll radio show.  We will go back to 1974 and your requests will be welcomed.  In the meantime I will be digging for more relics.  Each week I dig through my vinyl vaults and add a track or two to our playlist.  When you listen on Saturday nights, you will hear at least one song each week that has never been played on Those Were The Days. Since the show has aired since October of 1986, that is a bunch of songs!  Have a great weekend.  Go Pack!  

Phil

One of my favorite groups in my youth was a band called Off Broadway.  They played around the Madison area a few times including opening up for the Beach Boys and other big name acts at the Dane County Coliseum.  A while back I talked to Cliff Johnson of Off Broadway and we will share a few of his words this Saturday night on WRCOs' Those Were The Days.  Off Broadway made just two albums back in the day.  The first was called 'On' and it was in a lot of vinyl and tape collections in 1980. The second album was titled 'Quick Turns' and it was not promoted or distributed well.   The song 'Stay In Time' made it to the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980 and it still gets asked for on our show.

Off Broadway was one of the many albums I had on cassette tape so I could blast it as I traveled the back roads in my 1975 Ford Maverick.  Here is a list of some of my other favorite tapes...1.  Get The Knack-The Knack  2.  Double Platinum-Kiss 3.  The Best Of Buddy Holly  4.  Heaven Tonight-Cheap Trick  5.  Abbey Road-The Beatles  6.  BTO 2- Bachman Turner Overdrive  7.  The Doors  8.  K-Tel Records Rock '80   9.  Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits  10. The Best Of Bread (just in case I wanted to impress a date). 

I hope you will tune it to WRCO FM 100.9 Those Were The Days' this Saturday night between 6:00 p and Midnight because that is where the party will be!

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCOs'  Those Were The Days, we will stop and park in 1976.  It is a fun countdown with tunes from artists and groups such as:  Bay City Rollers, Ohio Players, Sweet, Hot Chocolate, and Fleetwood Mac.  That era of music is often overlooked.  I was a Top Forty fan and I am still a fan of the three minute pop song.  I hope to hear from you this Saturday night.  We will ask a few leftover 'Triviathon' Questions.  Your requests will be welcome.  I hope you will join the 'Solid Gold' Dancers and me from six until Midnight on WRCO FM 100.9

Phil

I know it is a busy weekend, however, I hope you will tune in 100.9 WRCO FM this Saturday night between 6 and Midnight.  You may be a little tired from all of the Christmas get togethers or from taking back gifts that don't fit or work.  Those Were The Days will be on so that you can escape to the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties.  I will be in the studio to take your requests and we will throw you a few trivia questions.  We will look at music news from this week and a look back to December of 1965 when the Beatles album 'Rubber Soul' was released for Christmas. 

It marked a big change for the Beatles from pop love songs to deeper folk tunes.  This was one of the first by any artist that was not just a way to get the radio hit on a long playing record and several cover songs for filler.  I did not discover this gem until well after I began my hobby of buying records.  Some of the Rubber Soul songs were familiar because they were on the double 'red' album Greatest Hits 1962-1966.  Canadian songstress Anne Murray had a hit with a song called You Wont See Me in the Summer of 1974.  When I learned it was a Lennon/McCartney song, I had to find the album that it was on.  It is easy to see why this album was and is so highly regarded after all of these years.  I will spin a few from my Rubber Soul album this Saturday night during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  Happy Holidays!

Phil

The Solid Gold Dancers will exchange gifts and I will be the dj Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9.  Rock and Roll Christmas records will spin and anything else you would like to request during our six hour Those Were The Days radio show.  We will take a look at old music news and salute the new Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame soon to be members.  This was the story breaking the news about the inductees courtesy of Associate Press.

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   UNDATED (AP) - The groundbreaking Los Angeles rap act N.W.A. will join a quartet of 1970s era FM radio rockers - Chicago, Cheap Trick, Deep Purple and Steve Miller - as 2016 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Both Miller and Cheap Trick make it during their first year on the ballots. The induction ceremony for the Cleveland-based hall will be held April 8 in Brooklyn's Barclays Center. HBO will carry highlights later in the spring.

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We have certainly played Chicago, Cheap Trick, Deep Purple, and Steve Miller music over the years on Saturday nights.  I hope to hear from you during this weekends show.  I will be in the air chair and the turntables will be turning this weekend.

Phil

This Saturday night you can travel in the time tunnel back to 1983 with me on WRCOs' Those Were The Days. It was a great time to be listening to the radio and it was back when MTV actually showed videos! Hear some iconic

1980s classics along with our usual fantastic requests from the fifties through the eighties. I will be in the studio to take your requests and we will play trivia. You might even hear a rock and roll Christmas tune on WRCO FM 100.9!

Take Those Were The Days with you during your weekend endeavors. We will have a blast from the past together.

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCOs' Those Were The Days we will remember the records of Gary Lewis & The Playboys.  Hear Gary tell a few stories behind those songs and other facts.  There are people that still don't know that he has a famous father.  Gary and the group enjoyed seven top ten songs between January of 1965 and the Spring of 1966.  I will be back in the studio this Saturday night to take your fifties through the eighties pop radio requests and I will throw some trivia questions at you.  Last weeks program was fun to put together.  It was an all Seventies night inspired by the book 'Ranking The 70's'.  There were a few on that countdown that I admit being tired of when they were popular on the radio.  It seemed fun to hear them again this past weekend.   Give me a call Saturday night and we can talk about it.  You can leave a coment at this site, email me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or reach me on your rotary dial telelphone.

Phil

This holiday weekend I hope you will have a 70's dance party with WRCO FM 100.9.  I will be counting down the most played songs of the decade during our six hour program.  It is a great mix of the variety of songs that made the 1970's so much fun.  There is disco, pop, country cross-over, ballads, dance classics, bubblegum, and folk all represented.  The show is inspired by a new book called 'Ranking The 70's' by Dann Isbell and Bill Carroll.  It is a must have for all 70's children and chart fanatics.  It would make a great Christmas gift.  Find out what the number one song of the 70's is!  This Saturday night we will play songs that were over played on radio back in the day.  Many of them don't get played that much in 2015.  We will hang the disco ball and get our groove on Saturday night with the Solid Gold Dancers during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.   I will not be taking your requests this week.  We will return in December with four Saturday nights of requests and trivia.  Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCOs' Those Were The Days radio program, we will be playing a stack of 45's that were on the charts in November of 1969.  During that time I was taking week day bus rides to Neptune school.  It was a rural school with no phone.  One day a student got hurt and the teacher had to send a kindergarten student down the state highway to use the phone at the nearest farm house.  Can you imagine that happening today?  Songs that we heard on the buses AM radio that November included:  Sugar Sugar-The Archies, Eli's Coming-Three Dog Night, Down On the Corner-C.C.R., Wedding Bell Blues-5th Dimension, and Suspicious Minds-Elvis.  These songs were wrapping up one of the most creative decades of the century.  This Saturday night I will be in the studio to answer the 'old time rock and roll support line'.  If you have a song that you haven't heard on the radio since way back when, please give me a call.  Save a few brain cells for trivia.  We will have a question each hour during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 this Saturday night.

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 we will crank out more great music from the fifties through the eighties.  I will be in the studio for 6 hours of requests and trivia.  We will play a few of my favorite tracks from some great record albums that were released in 1975.  While still just a 'wee-Nee', I was a record buying phenom!  I was starting to make the conversion from buying single hits on 45 r.p.m. records to purchasing complete albums.  I had to decide whether I wanted the vinyl copy or the cassette version.  Some of the favorite albums blasting out of my speakers were..A Night At The Opera by Queen.  The Marx brothers were my heroes and here was this English band naming its albums after the brothers Marx movies!  The first time I heard Bohemian Rhapsody, it floored me...Born To Run-Bruce Springsteen.  I heard the title cut on WRCO in the Fall of 1975.  The opening drum beat is still exciting forty years later.  I wanted the Wilson sisters to baby sit me and sing Crazy On You and Magic Man.  The album Dreamboat Annie was a 1975 purchase for me at Shultz Brothers Variety Store in Richland Center.  The Kiss album Alive came out in 1975.  A friend of mine loaned me his copy and I became an instant fan.  Many of my music friends have made fun of me for liking Kiss over the years.  While their lyrics may not have been as deep as Bob Dylan's, the music was fun.  I still maintain that Alive is one of the best 'live' rock and roll albums ever!  Other great albums from '75 include:  The Eagles-One Of These Nights,  Paul Simon-Still Crazy After All These Years,  Fandango!-ZZ Top,  Fleetwood Mac-Fleetwood Mac, and Venus And Mars-Paul McCartney & Wings. 

Join me for some of the greatest music ever cut on vinyl this Saturday night during WRCOs' Those Were The Days.

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 our old rock n' roll radio show (Those Were The Days) will highlight hits from November of 1973.  It may have been one of Top Forty radios' last hurrahs.  There was so much good music blasting out of those 3 inch radio speakers!  We will stop and park in that moment for a time.  The show will begin with a guest disc jockey.  Al Hushka has been a long time staff member of WRCO.  You have heard his voice for years reading advertisments during our programs. As of last week, he is now semi-retired.  Al began his radio career with stints in Viroqua and Prairie Du Chien.  Hear 'Cousin Al' remember his days behind the mic when many of the most memorable Those Were The Days' tunes were brand new.  Join Al and me for memories of radio the way it used to be.  The request line will be open between 9 pm and Midnight.  We will also throw a few trivia questions your way.  Since I don't text or tweet, I hope you will call me Saturday night during Those Were The Days. 

Phil

Halloween has not been the same night as our Those Were The Days radio show very often during the past twenty-nine years.  That means we will have a real bash this Saturday night.  I will be in the studio to hand out song treats and a few tricks.  There are so many records from the fifties through the eighties that have a haunting theme.  We will be spinning a few of those.  I am sure that the Witch Doctor and the Purple People Eater will stop.  We will do the Monster Mash with Bobby 'Boris' Pickett.  The song originally hit in 1962 and made it back to the charts in the late sixties.  It made another comeback to pop radio in the Summer of 1973 and it was a top ten hit.  Request a song with a Halloween theme or ask for anything that made the Billboard pop charts during the first thirty-five years of rock and roll.  Play trivia and join the Solid Gold dancers dance team this Saturday night.  Those Were The Days is heard every Saturday night between 6 pm and Midnight.

Phil

During the fifties through the eighties there were many songs with titles about life and living.  We will play a few of those this Saturday night during WRCOs' Those Were The Days.  Songs will include: My Life by the Beatles,  What Is Life from George Harrison, Billy Joel's My Life, Walk Of Life-Dire Straits and many more.  We will flash back to this weekend in 1977 and the request line will be open during the second half of the show.  Celebrate life and living with good friends and WRCO FM 100.9 this Saturday night.

Phil

The Fall of 1966 was one of the greatest times for pop culture.  We still recall vividly the toys, shows, movies, and music after all these years.  Star Trek and The Monkees debuted on tv that Fall.  The Monkees were near the top of the charts with 'Last Train To Clarksville', Tommy Roe was singing ' Hooray For Hazel',  and Neil Diamond was having one his first successes with ' Cherry, Cherry' .  The 1966 Christmas catalog was coming out and young Philip was drooling over cool toys including:  Mr. Potato Head,  Frosty the Sno-Cone Maker, Hoppity Hooper Game, Super Ball, and Batman bath tub toys.  My friend Hal Lifson even wrote a book some years ago about all the fun stuff from 1966.  I hope you will tune in for another Those Were The Days radio show on WRCO FM 100.9 this Saturday night.  Your requests will be welcome and we will have a trivia question each hour that will make you stop and think.  Become a Solid Gold dancer this Saturday night.  Keep that transistor radio close to your ear and hear some fun stuff!

Phil

This Saturday night Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 will take you back to the way it used to be.  Have fun listening to the radio and enjoy the power of music that can lead you back to who you were with, what you were doing, and what kind of stereo system you had in your car.  On Saturday nights show we will stop and park for a time in 1971.  The Fall of '71 had some great hits including: Maggie May-Rod Stewart, I Just Want To Celebrate-Rare Earth, Do You Know What I Mean?-Lee Michaels, Sweet City Woman-The Stampeders, and more.  I was saving my money made from my farm work and the quarter my Grandpa gave me every Sunday after Church.  These funds would eventually be placed  in my plastic coin holder for a trip to Saffells in Richland Center.  I would soon join the record buying public which I am still a part of forty-four years later. Enjoy the Fall hits from 1971 and request a song from the fifites through the eighties.  I will be in the studio and there will be a pop culture quiz.  You could 'Go To The Head Of The Class' and win a prize.

John Lennon would have been seventy-five on October ninth.  I plan to spin a few in honor of the legendary former Beatle.  I have been a Beatle fan since I was a wee-Nee.  In the Fall of 1980 I remember buying the single (Just Like) Starting Over.  It sounded so good on the radio and it was so great that John Lennon was back on the radio with a hit after several years.  That is what made his death even more sad in December of that year.  He potentially could have given us so much more music.  I was in high school at the time and young people my age were suddenly listening to his music and all the Beatles catalog of songs even more than they were before. 

It will be a busy Saturday night when we feature the Fall of 1971,  some John Lennon songs, and your requests during Those Were The Days.

Phil

I have had the chance to interview hundreds of music makers and tv stars during my twenty-nine years as host of Those Were The Days on WRCO.  This Saturday night my special guest will be making his first appearance.  Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame member Little Anthony will talk about his book 'Little Anthony: My Journey, My Destiny'. He has a new album coming out which features a duet with George Benson.  Anthony will tell a few stories about his sixty year career and the night of his induction when a Rolling Stone bowed to him.  I will be answering as many phone calls as I can this Saturday night during our six hour Those Were The Days radio show.  Request a song, play triva, and enjoy the groovy sounds you hear on WRCO FM 100.9.  Keep the radio on as you travel through Southwest Wisconsin this weekend enjoying the many festivities.  It should be another beautiful time.  Lets have some fun!

Phil

This Saturday night we will feature six hours of great music from the fifties through the eighties on Those Were The Days.  One of our G.R.A.C.E. bidders will be a guest d.j.  Join Jeff Peper when he plays some of his favorite pop radio memories.  It is the second time for Jeff to join us on the air thanks to his families generous bids during our radio  benefit auctions for cancer patients.  It is always fun for me to see the playlists that guest d.j.'s come up with.  Many times there are songs that I have not thought of for a long time.  Jeff does a great job featuring tunes from the different decades and genres that we normally play on Saturday night.  We have two other hours of guest d.j.s, however, they will not be able to make it this week.  They will do their guest shots later on this year.  Later this Saturday night we will say hello to some favorites from this weekend in 1980.  We will visit the 1985 class reunion and hang out for a time during a memorable music Fall of 1972.  We have a full night of Those Were The Days music on WRCO FM 100.9 this Saturday night.  We will not be taking your requests this weekend.  Hold on to those until next Saturday night.  We have more live shows in October.  This weekend I will be making an appearance at the Ithaca School fair and at Ms. Junes reunion.  Thanks for your loyal listening.

Phil

This Saturday night on Those Were The Days we will give you the story behind my favorite 'two hit wonder' group.  The Looking Glass had two memorable hits.  The first hit the radio in 1972.  Brandy (You're A  Fine Girl) was all over the radio during that time and it is still played today.  I also remember it being the first song on my favorite K-Tel album (Believe In Music) that came out that year.  The groups second Top Forty hit debuted on WLS radio in Chicago September 15th of 1973.  It was called Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne.  This song has been lost in the shuffle and has not played as much as Brandy over the years.  While Brandy hit number one in the Summer of 1972, Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne only climbed to number thirty-three in the Fall of 1973 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.  According to Ron Smith's book Chicago Top 40 Charts 1970-1979,  Brandy was number one in Chicago and Jimmy was number two.  I was listening to WISM in Madison at the time as well.  I heard Jimmy as much or more than I did Brandy the previous year.  This Saturday night I will share the stories behind those two hits with Elliot Lurie who was the leader of the group The Looking Glass.  Did you know?---after his hit making days Elliot Lurie went on to work on movie and tv soundtracks.  He wrote the theme song to the Disney channel classic show Lizzie McGuire.  Join me Saturday night for another edition of Those Were The Days.  I will be in the studio to take your requests of music from the fifties through the eighties and give you more cowbell.  Win a prize and impress your friends Saturday night between 6 and Midnight.

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 we will travel back to this weekend in 1984 during our six hour Those Were The Days radio program.   I will be taking your requests from the fifties through the eighties and perhaps you can give me a call and request a song.  Our 'old school' radio program will provide trivia and great memories.  Back in the Fall of '84 I was courting the lovely Ms. June and I was a big shot mobile d.j.  It was big time for fifty bucks a night on a good evening and double that New Years eve at Doug's Pub in Cazenovia. There were many softball tournaments, wedding dances, high school record hops, and class reunions where the Aubrey Sound provided the entertainment.   Those were fun nights playing vinyl records and cassette tapes.  I would buy the latest forty-five hits at the Music Shop in Richland Center.  Big hits at Doug's Pub this weekend in '84 included:  Cover Me-Bruce Springsteen, Let's Go Crazy-Prince, She Bop-Cyndi Lauper, Rock Me Tonite-Billy Squier, and When You Close Your Eyes-Night Ranger.  When things really got rocking, I would have to put a piece of insulation under the turntables so they did not skip.  Hopefully the 'solid gold' dancers don't make my turntable skip this Saturday night when they starting jumping around the WRCO studios!

Phil