WRCO Blog

This Saturday night my special phone guest on Those Were The Days will be George McCrae.  He had a number one hit in the Summer of 1974 with the song 'Rock Your Baby'.  It also wound up as one of the top songs of that year in music.   George also sang back ground on his then wife Gwen's 1975 hit called 'Rockin' Chair'.  That was a song George was set to record, however, suggested it for Gwen and it became her only hit.  I very much remember watching George and Gwen on American Bandstand promoting those songs.  In 2017 you can buy new music from George McCrae.  His new album sounds like it would have fit in back in the 1970s' but it still has a modern feel.

I will be at the WRCO studios this Saturday night and you can help program the show with music of the fifties through the eighties.  There were some outstanding requests last weekend!  There are people that call and ask for the same song every week and that is alright.  It does make it fun, however, when a song is asked for that I have not played since my hair was its original color.  You can also win a trivia challenge with us this Saturday night while listening to WRCO FM 100.9.

Phil

This Saturday night we will go parking in April of 1965.  Tune your radio to WRCO FM 100.9 and travel back courtesy of the hot tunes from that Spring. Many memorable songs were in the air as I watched my dad preparing the fields for planting.  The radio was always on in the house or the barn.  It was a farm kids connection to the outside World.  Did you know?  Although WRCO AM 1450 was first on the air in October of 1949,  WRCO FM 100.9 signed on the air in 1965.  At the time most everyone listened to the AM band.  Cars and trucks did not have the FM band for several more years.  When WRCO first had an FM station for Southwest Wisconsin, it was a direct simulcast of the AM programming. The station started doing seperate programming later with local sports and other specials.  In 1965 WRCO featured what was known as a 'middle of the road'  format.  It was the softer side of pop music including a few instrumentals.  Artists such as Petula Clark and Herb Alpert were in regular rotation.  That is why I still like their tunes today.  It takes me back to those wonderful days growing up on the farm with the radio playing the soundtrack in the background.   Saturday night on Those Were The Days, I will spin a few of those records from this weekend in 1965 including I'm Telling You Now-Freddie & the Dreamers (which was number one),  Eight Days A Week-The Beatles,  Tired Of Waiting For You-Kinks,  I'll Be Doggone-Marvin Gaye,  and King Of The Road-Roger Miller.  I will be in the studio propped up with caffeine and the request line will be open for you to make a song suggestion.  We will feature a trivia question each hour during Saturday nights show.  Leave the radio on while you color your eggs and spend time with family and friends this holiday weekend.

Thanks to last weeks guests including Kent Kotal.  I hope you enjoyed our tribute to 1967.  We plan to visit that year a few more times during 2017.  Check out forgottenhits.com for more about last weeks program and a daily look at events from fifty years ago. 

Phil

The year of 1967 is the first year I think of when I recall great radio pop music.  Whenever I would debate how great those 365 days were with some of my fellow music nerds, we would often agree that no year compares.  Every style and genre was represented on the popular radio charts.  During our year long tribute to those am radio days of fifty years ago, we will continue to feature special programs on our Saturday night radio show Those Were The Days.  The ideas for many of the 1967 features have come directly from forgottenhits.com.  The man that writes that site has made time to be on the line with me this weekend .  Kent Kotal will be my guest on Saturday night.  Each of us will have the extreme challenge of picking our ten favorite songs from 1967!   Kent's choices are very good and I am a little jealous of a couple of his picks!  My ten faves are songs that I never tire of even after hearing them for fifty years.  Kent will be on the air during the 'dueling d.j.'s'  segment from the start of the show at six until eight.  You will hear songs from artists and groups such as; Cowsills, Otis Redding, Nancy Sinatra, New Colony Six, Monkees, Stevie Wonder, Mamas & Papas, Doors, and Procol Harum. 'Thanks to Kent for his dedication to forgottenhits.com.  Check it out this week and read about all that happened this week during 1967. 

We will also go parking during the first four months of 1972 and 1982 on Those Were The Days Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9.  Both of those years are also great ones to profile.  You may be surprised how many songs from these years we still play often.   I will not be taking your requests this Saturday.  That feature returns next Saturday night April 15th.  Have a great weekend and thanks for reading and listening.

Phil

Saturday April first is April Fools Day 2017.  Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 will celebrate with foolish songs for the holiday.  I did not realize how many songs have titles that contain the word ' fool'.  During our best of the fifties through the eighties radio show you will be able to hear some of them.  Here is my unofficial list of top ten favorite fool songs.

1.  Wont Get Fooled Again-The Who   2.  Fool For The City-Foghat   3.  Everybody Plays The Fool-Main Ingrediant 4. Fool (If You Think Its Over)-Chris Rea   5.  A Fool Such As I -Elvis  6.  Poor Little Fool-Rick Nelson  7.  Fool On The Hill-The Beatles  8.  She's A Fool-Lesley Gore  9.  Foolin' Yourself-Styx  10.  What A Fool Believes-Doobie Brothers

I sure hope you can listen to WRCO FM 100.9 on Saturday night for our Those Were The Days show.  Request a song from any of the decades that we play.  It is always great to hear from you (no fooling)!

Phil

We found out that Chuck Berry had died just before we started our Those Were The Days radio program last Saturday night.  Many requested some of the 'Godfather Of Rock n' Roll's'  best licks during last weeks show on FM 100.9.  This weekend we will play for you some of the best cover versions of Chuck Berry songs.  My favorites include:  Promised Land-Elvis,  Reelin' and Rockin'-Dave Clark Five,  Roll Over Beethoven-Electric Light Orchestra,  Memphis-Johnny Rivers,  Back In the U.S.A.-Linda Rondstadt,  Rock and Roll Music- Beatles or Beach Boys, and Carol- Rolling Stones.   Many have the opinion that there would not have been a Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, or many other groups and artists without Chuck Berry's influence. 

  Many will talk this week about his guitar licks.  I have always been impressed by his lyrics...........I saw her from the corner and she turned and doubled back and started walking towards a coffee colored cadillac.  (Nadine),  The night was young and the moon was bold.. So we both decided to take a stroll. Can you imagine the way I felt? I couldn't unfasten her safety belt! (No Particular Place To Go),     Los Angeles, give me Norfolk Virginia Tidewater four ten o nine. Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin' And the poor boy's on the line (Promised Land),  They furnished off an apartment with a two room Roebuck sale. The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale, But when Pierre found work, the little money comin' worked out well. "C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell. (C'est la Vie).   

Join the rock and roll party this Saturday night and request a song from the fifties through the eighties.  We will ask you six trivia questions (one per hour) during Those Were The Days Saturday night between six and Midnight.

Phil

On Saturday nights Those Were The Days, I will dig out a few 45's from this weekends Hot 100 survey from 1984 and give them a spin.  I was busy during that time posing as 'Super Chore Boy'  during the day, and 'Prince Mobile D.J.'  at night.  Spare time and change was spent at the Music Shop in Richland Center buying all the latest danceable records many of which I transferred to cassette tapes so they wouldn't make the turntable skip while the frenzied dancers were jumping on the wood floor.  Top requested songs this week in 1984 included:  Jump-Van Halen, Girls Just Want To Have Fun-Cyndi Lauper, Footloose-Kenny Loggins,  I Want A New Drug-Huey Lewis, Got A Hold On Me-Christine McVie (my favorite Fleetwood Mac beauty), and Karma Chamleon-Culture Club.  Many songs from this weekends '84 chart still get requested today.  Join me for requests and trivia for six hours this Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9. There are people that still think that this show is always pre-recorded and I have to let them know that I am gone only a few Saturday nights during the year.  We are proud that we are one of the only radio stations in the state that you can call on Saturday night and actually talk to a person and not a computer!    Give me a call Saturday night.

Phil

On March eighth 1977, a new album hit the record stores.  The group was a British-American band of music veterans known as Foreigner.  They would become known when the first single "Feels Like The First Time", was released later in the month.  By the end of the year they would have two more hits.  The songs were "Cold As Ice" which came out in July, and "Long, Long Way From Home" which hit radio in November.  When young Phil Nee was able to scrape $6.99 together and go to Ben Franklin and buy the album, it stayed on my Panasonic stereo with a BSR turntable for the entire year.  Other faves included:  "Starrider",  "Headknocker",  "Woman Oh Woman",  and "At War With The World".   On Saturday night I will get my old Foreigner album out and play some of the tracks on WRCO FM 100.9.  Those Were The Days will pay tribute to that great long play forty years after it was released.  We have played tributes to other albums recently and that usually motivates people to request a whole bunch of other songs from other albums that were made famous by that group or artist.  That is fine as the night will be wide open for whatever you want to ask for.  Many times I don't think people grab the concept of one album from a group.  In this day and age music lovers usually just listen to a couple of tracks from a group or artist and they don't pay attention to which album the songs were gleaned from.  Many groups don't release complete albums these days.  They will put out an e.p. (extended play) with four or five songs to please their fans.  And fans will only download songs that they know.  They don't always listen to twelve new songs that they may learn to like after a couple of plays. 

I hope you will request a song from the fifties through the eighties during our Those Were The Days radio show this Saturday night while listening to WRCO FM 100.9.  Perhaps you will win a great prize!  You could win concert tickets, food prizes, and gift certificates.

Phil

Back in 1968 I was playing on the linoleum.  The radio was always on and the hits of the day became forever etched in my brain.  Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat,  Spooky by the Classics IV,  Walk Away Renee by the Four Tops,  Lemon Pipers singing Green Tamborine, and Simon Says sung by 1910 Fruitgum Company were among the biggest hits from March of 1968.  Although I was very young, I can remember hearing those songs while I set up my play farm with Tru-Scale toy tractors.  The empty cardboard Quaker Oats containers were my silos and dominoes were my bales of hay. The year of 1968 later became a very violent and sad year.  The music was a great escape from all of the trouble in the World.  Escape with the radio again this Saturday night with WRCO FM 100.9.  I will be in the studio taking your requests for old rock and roll from the fifties through the eighties.  We will have our tough trivia questions (one per hour) during our six hour Those Were The Days radio show Saturday night between six and midnight.

Phil

While I was growing up, during the month of February our family would always listen to WRCO and follow the fortunes of the area high school wrestlers.  Whether it was my cousin Mike Nee or my classmates, I would tape the matches off the radio on cassettes and present them to those local heroes when they returned from Madison.  WRCO has broadcast from the WIAA state wrestling tournament since the early seventies.  This year the state finals will be heard on FM 100.9 starting at five Saturday afternoon.  This weeks Those Were The Days will follow at around nine.  I hope you will join us for our weekly fix of old rock and roll songs.  I will reflect back to the hot hits from this week in 1973 this Saturday night.  You can also try the trivia challenge and request a favorite hit from the fifties through the eighties.  Give me a call on your rotary dial phone this weekend!

Phil

This Saturday night we will take a trip back to 1975 during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  Many feel that the 1970s were not a great time for music.  I agree that there was some schlock songs, however,  you can pick out a few clunkers from every era of music.  This week in 1975 there were many good tunes filling the airwaves including: Best Of My Love-Eagles, Some Kind Of Wonderful-Grand Funk, Black Water-Doobie Brothers, Roll On Down The Highway-B.T.O.,  Boogie On Reggae Woman-Stevie Wonder, and Lady-Styx.  My memories of days on the farm include the barn radio.  It was on all the time and the music made the work lighter.  Dad always had WRCO tuned in, however, when he was outside the dial might change to WISM in Madison or WLS- Chicago (on a good night for reception).  WRCO did play Top Forty music after 7 pm on a program called 'Music Scene'.  That is where I heard many songs of 1975 for the first time.  It was fun when they would take requests and I recall calling in a few from the rotary dial phone in the barn.    In 1986, when I was hired by the station, my dad was still milking cows and listening to WRCO on the barn radio.  He retired in 1989 but the radio was left on! It stayed on until a windstorm took down the electric lines to the barn in the mid-90s.

You can request a song from any of the four decades we feature on Saturday night.  Perhaps you will take a trivia challenge during the program.  I hope to talk with you during this weekends show.

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 we will be twisting our way back to the second weekend of February 1962.  There were no less that three records in the Top Twenty  with 'twist'  in the title.  The Twist by Chubby Checker was making its second stop on the charts after going to number one in 1960.  Gary (U.S.) Bonds was having a hit with Dear Lady Twist.  The number one song belonged to Joey Dee And the Starliters.  It was called the Peppermint Twist and it was ahead of Gene Chandler's Duke Of Earl, and an Elvis song from the movie Blue Hawaii (Can't Help Falling In Love).  A song that often is still requested by the Tokens (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) was a new song.  The question by Wolfman Jack during the trailer for the film American Graffitti asked "Where Were You In '62?"  We will have some fun with that countdown from all of those years ago.  You can join the party and request a song during Those Were The Days.  We play popular music from the fifties through the eighties.  You can try to answer one of the six trivia questions during the show this Saturday night. 

Each week we get requests for songs from the nineties and two thousands.  In the early days of our program,  a new year  was added each year and I tried to stay twenty years behind the current year.   This stopped in 2009 when we added songs from 1989 to our playlist.  I might play a song released in early 1990 from time to time, but we try to keep it to songs recorded in the first four decades of rock and roll.  There are so many songs that never get requested from that earlier era, that it seems we don't need to add more years and decades.  I would never say that the decade of the nineties will never be included, but for now I will be a stickler trying to persuade younger callers to request something older!   Thanks for joining us each Saturday night.

Philip James Nee

Fleetwood Mac released one of the best albums ever on February fourth 1977.   This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 we will pay tribute to this classic disc.  Forty years ago the 1977 airwaves were filled with the sounds of Fleetwood Mac.  They began the year with Go Your Own Way which hit number ten, Dreams (the groups only number one ever), Don't Stop which went to number three, and they closed the year with You Make Loving Fun which topped out at number nine.  Four hits were released from the album during one year.  Radio gave airplay to Rumours' album tracks including: The Chain, Never Going Back,  Second Hand News, and Songbird.  We will pay tribute to Fleetwood Macs'  spectacular set during Those Were The Days this Saturday night.  I will also be taking your requests.  Perhaps you can try and stump me this weekend.  Anyone can trip me with an album track.  I love it when someone calls in a song that actually made the charts and it has not been out of the dust bunnies for many years.  Get ready for trivia and all kinds of free fun and the best of the fifties through the eighties on WRCO FM 100.9 Saturday night.

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 we will flash back to this weekend in 1982.  Our Those Were The Days radio program will spotlight top songs from the likes of The Cars, J. Geils Band, Rick Springfield, and Joan Jett to name a few.  I was just wrapping up my high school basketball career in which I led the Ridge and Valley conference in scoring during warm-ups.  Uncle Rico got it right in the movie Napoleon Dynamite as he attempted to direct his time machine back to '82!  If the coach would have put me in the fourth quarter, we would have won state. 

I will be in the studio and I hope to talk with many of you as we discuss the past and play some of the coolest hits from the fifties through the eighties.  We had some great requests from more than a sixty mile radius around Richland Center this past Saturday night.  Hello to our new listeners in Elroy!  Get ready for trivia Saturday night everytime we give you more cowbell. 

Phil Nee-Class of '82 President

On this Saturday nights Those Were The Days, I will dig up some old records from January of 1977.  My dad surpised me on Christmas day 1976 with the gift of a new stereo record changer. He told me to pick one out and he would buy it. I had a difficult time finding a stereo with a cassette player/recorder.  All of the consoles still featured an 8 track player.  I had already collected many cassette tapes and wanted to drop the 8 tracks in the waste basket.  The only stereo in Richland Center that had the cassette technology was at a store in the Richland Square called 'Capps'.  It was a console model made by Panasonic.  By January of 1977 I was the mix tape making king!  There were so many good songs on the radio from such groups as; Aerosmith,  Fleetwood Mac, Steve Miller Band, Bob Seger, Boston, and many others.   My new speakers rattled the windows in the old farm house.   I will be playing some of the best 1977 January tunes this Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9.   Your requests will be welcomed and perhaps you can win a trivia prize.  We will feature one question per hour during the six hour show.  Perhaps you can stump the dj!  I will look foward to talking with you between 6 PM and Midnight Saturday night.

Phil

We will play more hits from the fifties through the eighties on this Saturday nights Those Were The Days.  It is all part of a 'retro-Saturday' on  WRCO FM 100.9.  This weekend the request line will be open for the six hour show and we will ask you a few trivia questions.  Rare Earth will be the featured group.  They cranked out five Top Twenty hits from 1970 through early 1972.  Hear memories from original drummer and lead singer Pete Rivera during Saturday nights radio show.  The songs of Rare Earth are better known now than when they were new.  I Just Want To Celebrate has been used in several television and radio commercials during the past few years. 

I am still amazed at the long distance calls that we have getting lately.  A first time caller from Mount Sterling checked in last weekend and it was great to chat with them.  The top request of the night was for the song 'I Love You' by the Volumes which was a number twenty-two hit on the Billboard chart back in 1962.  That is a cool song that we had never played in the thirty plus years of the program!  There is still so much great music that we have not yet featured.  Maybe you can try to stump the old d.j. this Saturday night during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 we will be back to play some rock and roll from the fifties through the eighties during our Those Were The Days radio show.  We will have a lot of fun features including a look back 50 years to early January of 1967 when the Doors released a debut album.  Courtesy of Kent Kotal and forgottenhits.com we will begin a year long salute to 1967.  It is a year that I feel is the best ever for popular music and during 2017 I will attempt to show you why.   We will also say happy birthday to Elvis Presley.  Elvis would have been (will be???) 82 on Sunday January 8th.  He  has been our most requested artist through the years.  Even though his movies have been shot down by the critics, soundtrack songs from Elvis seem to be popular requests lately.  Perhaps you can request your favorite Elvis movie song this Saturday night.  I will be in the studio and will be trying to talk with as many listeners as I can.  The 'trivia cowbell'  will be ringing and you can try to win a prize.  This Saturday night between 6 and Midnight you can hear 'live and local' radio the way it use to be with Those Were The Days.

Phil

Two of my favorite things are music and trivia.  The two will come together on Saturday night.  It will be a rare evening when Those Were The Days (now in its 31st year) will combine with Triviathon (the 29th annual).    Hear our usual variety of songs featuring the best of the fifties through the eighties pop radio memories.  We will be looking at some of the top year end songs during that era.  Triviathon will feature questions with  local, regional, national, and international topics.  If you do not register to be an official team on the WRCO website by noon Friday (30th), you can still play along with your friends and family during your New Years Eve celebration and see how your answers compare. 

I want to take this time to thank you for listening to Those Were The Days during 2016.  It was another rewarding year with new listeners joining our solid gold family.  Please support our sponsors of the program.  Those Were The Days would not be possible if it was not supported by area businesses.  The year of 2017 will bring more old time rock and roll fun.  We are planning new features including a year long salute to 1967 which I consider the best year ever in popular music.  Our friend Kent Kotal and his Forgotten Hits website will be dedicated to all things '67 through the entire year.  Check out Forgotten Hits and hear some of the songs and tidbits during our six hour music and request show on Saturday nights.  Happy New Year!  

Phil

I hope you will tune the radio to WRCO FM 100.9 on Christmas Eve.  It is a rare chance for Those Were The Days to be heard during this most special night.  Through the years I have collected a load of Christmas music from the forties through the eighties and this weekend will be a chance to put some of it on the air.  I have been collecting music for forty-five years and I still discover new- old versions of Christmas classics after all of these years.  You will hear songs that you have heard every year and some that you may hear for the first time during Those Were The Days Saturday night.  Our Solid Gold Dancer Christmas party will continue from six until Midnight.  We will try to recreate those Christmas Eves of all those years ago when the family was all together and the radio was playing.  

I hope you have a very special holiday season.  We will not be taking your requests Saturday night, however, I will talk to you real soon.  Remember on New Years Eve Those Were The Days will be heard during the annual WRCO Triviathon!  It will be a bash.

Phil

This week on Those Were The Days from WRCO FM 100.9 I will be spinning your favorite requests.  The solid gold line will be open for you to help program the show with hits of the fifties through the eighties and holiday hits. The special feature Saturday night will be a look back at the last Billboard Top 100 chart of the 1970s.  A look back at the last weeks of 1979 will take me back to my sophomore year in high school.  Some of the fellows and me organized a big New Years Eve party that Winter.  Many of these songs were playing as we got together for a wild (alcohol free) bash!  We were drunk on being young and very foolish.  I was curious though about what a Pina Coloda tasted like.  The hit from Rupert Holmes called Escape (The Pina Coloda song) was the last number one of the seventies.  Other favorite hits of some of Ithacas' finest included:  Jane-Jefferson Starship,  Heartache Tonight-The Eagles, Head Games-Foreigner, Take The Long Way Home-Supertramp, Please Don't Go-KC & The Sunshine Band, Voices-Cheap Trick, Train, Train-Blackfoot and Romeo's Tune-Steve Forbert.  The song that was playing the first time I legally drove the parents' car was Cruisin' by Smokey Robinson.  At the time I thought it was a car song, but I think Smokey was singing about something else I did not know much about.  We will return to those young and foolish days again on this Saturday nights edition of WRCOs' Those Were The Days.

Phil

Hey Rock n' Rollers!  This Saturday night during Those Were The Days, we will go back to December of 1964.  There were some incredible songs on the radio.  American and British artists were battling for airplay and it was pretty even.  The British were striking with songs from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Hermans Hermits and The Kinks.  America was countering with The Shangri-Las,  4 Seasons,  Jan & Dean,  Supremes, and Johnny Rivers.  The year of 1967 has long been my favorite musical year of the 1960s, however, 1964 had pretty cool tunes as well.  This Saturday night during Those Were The Days we will pay tribute to the fifties through the eighties.  Please request a song from any of our favorite decades and stay tuned for the hourly trivia.  There may be snow falling over Southwest Wisconsin.  It could be a good night to stay home and listen to the radio.  We lost a few listeners last week because they were tuned into the Wisconsin Badgers big loss in the Big Ten title game.  The Badger football team won't be ripping your heart out this weekend.  That means no distractions and a great night of great rock n' roll to cheer for.   We continue to talk with new listeners after all of these years.  We are getting good revues in Woodman,  North Freedom, and even Tomah!  

Phil