WRCO Blog

A listener called and requested that we play a few one hit wonders for our theme.  We can't even scratch the surface of one hit wonders on one show.  I have counted over one thousand one hit wonders that charted between 1960 and 1989!  We featured two full six hour programs, some years ago, and did not play the same one hit wonder twice!  This week we will play some of our favorites and you can check in with your votes for one time big shots on the charts.  The following is a list of some of my favorite one hit wonders from the 1970s:  1970-All Right Now-Free 1971-Get It On-Chase  1972-White Lies, Blue Eyes-Bullet  1973-Dancing In the Moonlight-King Harvest  1974-Rock On-David Essex  1975-How Long?-Ace  1976  Play That Funky Music-Wild Cherry  1977 Ariel-Dean Friedman  1978-Hot Child In The City-Nick Gilder  1979-Driver's Seat-Sniff 'n' The Tears.    Those songs would make up a great mix tape!   Please give me a call and request a favorite during this Saturday night's Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9. It does not have to be a one hit wonder.  We will feature a cow bell trivia question each hour.  Thanks to the listener who suggested our topic for this week.  If you have an idea for a theme, please let me know.  I am always up for suggestions.  Thanks for reading this.  I will charge the Ronco Record Vac and get ready to play the grooves on the radio this Saturday night.

Phil

One of the most successful movie soundtracks was released to the music buying public in November of 1977.  Saturday Night Fever became a box office movie smash when it was released late that year.  The music from the movie was released a month before and contained many hits.  Some had already been radio smashes and others would become well known because of the John Travolta motion picture.   The music was made primarily from 1975 through 1977.  This Saturday night during Those Were The Days, I will spotlight some of those disco classics!  Our 'Solid Gold Dancers' should be in fine form!  They will have 'Night Fever' and hopefully will be 'Stayin' Alive.  It will be a 'Disco Inferno' when they put on their 'Boogie Shoes!'  It will be an honor to play your favorite hits on the radio this Saturday night during Those Were the Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  I will be back in the studio to assemble all of your requests from the fifties through the eighties.  Whenever the cow bell rings, we will hit you with a trivia question.  I hope you enjoyed last weeks shows which featured favorites from 1977 and 1972.  While the show was on Memorex, I was spending the weekend with my bride and some friends.  While in Galena, I came face to face with a music maker by the name of Jim Post.  He was a part of the dou 'Friend & Lover'  which had the 1968 hit 'Reach Out Of The Darkness'.   I interviewed him on the phone years ago.  It was great to chat about his career in person.  He still performs his Mark Twain show in Galena.  Check him out sometime!     I will talk with you Saturday night between six and Midnight.  Thank you for reading this.

Phil

For the first four hours of Those Were The Days this Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9, we will spend some time forty years in the past.  The year of 1977 had a large amount of great songs that we feature on a regular basis during the show.  Find out how good that year was for music between six and midnight Saturday night.   Some of my favorites included:  Easy-Commodores,  Give A Little Bit-Supertramp,  Dreams-Fleetwood Mac, Long Time-Boston,  and Life In The Fast Lane-The Eagles.  We will also spend some time in the Fall of 1972!  That was a great time for popular music.  Several records that I bought at Saffells and the 'Dime Store' in Richland Center are still featured on the radio each week.  I will not be taking your requests this week.  Hold on to those this weekend and please call me next Saturday night.  We have some great shows ahead which will wrap up 2017 including a tribute to the movie Saturday Night Fever which was released in December of 1977!  Thanks for reading and I really appreciate lending us your ears all of these years!

Phil

On WRCO FM 100.9 Saturday night, we will be featuring more of the greatest hits of all time.  During the fifties, sixties, seventies,  and the eighties, there were many haunting hits.   Some of them get requested all year through.  Some of our favorite Halloween hits include:  Dinner With Drac-John Zacherle "The Cool Ghoul",   Purple People Eater-Sheb Wooley,  Haunted House-'Jumpin'  Gene Simmons,  Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead-The Fifth Estate,  Season Of The Witch-Donovon,  Witchy Woman-Eagles,  Frankenstein-Edgar Winter Group,  Spiders & Snakes-Jim Stafford,  (Don't Fear) The Reaper-Blue Oyster Cult,  and Ghostbusters-Ray Parker Junior.   By far the most popular requested songs, that fit a Halloween theme,  through the years have been the following:  Twilight Zone-Golden Earring,  Werewolves Of London-Warren Zevon,   Thriller-Michael Jackson, and Monster Mash-Bobby "Boris" Pickett.  The Monster Mash has been so popular that over the years it charted three times!  When I was just a 'wee-Nee'  back in '73, I thought it was a brand new song when it hit rock and roll radio that Summer and went all the way to the Top Ten.   I hope you will join our fun Halloween radio party Saturday night during Those Were The Days.  We will be on with all the hits between six and Midnight.  Please give me a call and stay tuned for trivia!   We will also pay tribute to another iconic rock and roller that we lost this week.  Fats Domino has always been a favorite.  Maybe we can spin a few of his amazing records Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9.

Phil

I can remember many songs from my younger days that were playing during the many bus rides to rural schools and athletic events.  There was a year or two riding from Ithaca to Sextonville elementary that our bus did not have a radio.  Our young voices took over singing in unison some of the top songs of the day.  Here is my list of the top five tunes that we used to croon on the bus ride to Sextonville...5.  Delta Dawn-Helen Reddy   4.  Joy To The World-Three Dog Night  3.  Me And You And A Dog Named Boo-Lobo  2.  Bad, Bad Leroy Brown-Jim Croce  1.  Little Willy-The Sweet.  We did not have sources to search for song lyrics.  We just heard those songs on the radio so much and we knew all the words.  Later when the Book Nook opened in the Richland Square I would buy Hit Parader magazine.  That was a publication that listed lyrics for the most popular songs of the day.  I remember hearing We Are The Champions by Queen on the way home from a Junior High basketball game.  Even though we were blown out, it made me feel better thinking about us being a team through thick and thin.  For high school basketball games, I rigged up some speakers to attach to my cassette player.  Those were the days before boom boxes.  Another song I vividly recall after yet another loss was Hold Your Head Up by Argent.    Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 we will recall some of those songs and stories.  Maybe you can request a song that you remember hearing in your younger day while riding the bus!  We will be weaving all of the requests together and playing trivia during our Those Were The Days program featuring the best of the fifties through the eighties. 

Phil

This Saturday night on Those Were The Days we will take the time tunnel back to October 1970.  WRCO FM 100.9 will feature a few highlights from the Top Forty including:  All Right Now-Free, Green Eyed Lady-Sugarloaf, Candida-Dawn,  and Cracklin' Rosie-Neil Diamond.  There were great tunes on the bus radio as I rode to and from Loyd school and Mrs. Peckham's class.  There were great songs runnning through my head as I climbed the monkey bars and tried to be close to my first crush victim, Betty Nelson.  I am not sure what happened to her.  Her parents moved away shortly after she discovered that I liked her.  Join me Saturday night for another blast from the past on WRCO FM 100.9.  Between six and Midnight you can call and talk to the d.j. (me). We can discuss music, and you can request a song. I look forward to those that call trying to stump me.    It is old school radio and for that I am very proud.  Maybe you can win a prize from our sponsors when we throw a trivia question at you.  I will be waiting all week for Saturday night.  Thanks for reading.

Phil  (the guy with the tiny grill.  I have cooked for many people on that little Weber.  The food tastes great!)

It seems that we have featured a lot of tributes to the artists that we have lost recently.  This week we were shocked to learn of the death of Tom Petty.  Of all the artists that have debuted in the last forty years, he might be the one that is appreciated over the generation gaps more than any other.  Teenagers, parents, and grandparents all seem to like Tom Petty's music.  My daughter loves his songs and she had the chance to see him and the band at Summerfest this past Summer.  He may be the one artist who played halftime at a Superbowl that old and young enjoyed together.  When I first saw a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album in the stores, I thought it was some teeny bopper band.  With a name like Heartbreakers, all I could think of was the Bay City Rollers, Shaun Cassidy, or the De Franco Family.  I remember hearing the song 'Breakdown' a few times on the radio and being impressed. It was obvious that they were no boy band!  In early 1980 when I heard 'Don't Do Me Like That',  I thought that was a prefect radio song.  It was Tom Petty's first top 10 radio hit.  He had so many great hits in the eighties.  His live album in 1986 featured a great rendition of the Searchers hit 'Needles And Pins'.  That made the top forty featuring vocals from Stevie Nicks.   She sang on the biggest radio hit for Tom Petty back in 1981 with 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around'.   We will throw on some old Tom Petty songs during this Saturday nights Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  I will be in the studio to take your requests and play trivia between six and midnight.

Phil

The year of nineteen hundred and seventy-three was a very fine year for popular music.  I argued a bit recently with another music nerd who downplayed the years popular tunes.  While it is no 1967, it still had lots of music that I still enjoy hearing today.  Some of the Phil Nee faves that I spent my farm chore allowance on included:  We're An American Band-Grand Funk,  My Maria-B.W.Stevenson,  Ramblin Man-Allman Brothers,  Brother Louie-Stories,  Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting-Elton John,  Midnight Train To Georgia-Gladys Knight & the Pips,  China Grove-Doobie Brothers,  Free Ride-Edgar Winter Group,  Live And Let Die-Paul McCartney & Wings,  and Jimmy Loves Mary Anne-Looking Glass.  It took a lot of egg gathering, hay stacking, calf feeding, barn cleaning, and milker washing to have enough money to afford that many forty-five records!   Join me Saturday night as I once again prove my mom wrong.  She used to ask "why do you waste your money on those records....when you are just going to throw them away in a year?"  Mom,  I still don't throw anything away.  Just ask my wife, June.  On the airwaves of WRCO FM 100.9 we will set sail for 1973 and other locations including the fifties through the eighties this Saturday night.  I would like to thank all of our past and current listeners for making Those Were The Days an event.  I will be in the studio between six and midnight for our final show in the month of September this Saturday night.  Please give me a call.

Phil 

This weekend will be the first of the Fall season.  The weather has been very Summer like lately.  That means there will be more campfires, front porch sitting, garage hanging, and weekend rest and relaxtion with Those Were The Days on the radio Saturday night!  We will dig out a few songs of Fall this time including:  See You In September-The Happenings,  September-Earth, Wind, and Fire, Dancin' In The Moonlight-King Harvest (Ron Fruit's favorite song),  Night Moves-Bob Seger,  School Is In-Gary U.S. Bonds, and more.  If you have a suggestion for our Fall list, please give me call.  You can also request any song that hit the pop charts from the fifties through the eighties.  If we put pins on the map from where we get request calls and feedback from, it would represent a wide area around Southwest Wisconsin.   We are very proud of that.  Calls from Mount Hope and all the way to Oakdale (near Tomah),  Reedsburg, Baraboo, Sauk City, and Black Earth are places where we have received recent requests.  Check in and let us know where you are located either through this blog site or give me a call.  I will be waiting all week for Saturday night!

Phil  TWTD host Saturday night from 6 p-Midnight on WRCO FM 100.9

Saturday night during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9, we will flash back fifty years to 1967.  We have talked about that great music year several times during 2017.  This weekend it will go along with the Riverdale School districts homecoming and fifty year celebration along with the anniversary of the University Of Wisconsin Richland.  We have been promoting the year long celebration of 1967 that you can follow at forgottenhits.com.  Our friend Kent Kotal has done a fantastic job of recapping what was taking place each day of that year.  We will feature songs from the fifties through the eighties during Those Were The Days and your requests.  We will also go parking in 1967 with songs that were hot this weekend fifty years ago including:  The Letter by the Box Tops,  Come Back When You Grow Up-Bobby Vee,  Brown Eyed Girl-Van Morrison,  Museum-Herman's Hermits,  Dandelion-Rolling Stones and I Had A Dream-Paul Revere & The Raiders.  We might even spin the song that was Riverdale High Schools  theme of the homecoming dance, It Could Be We're In Love by the Cryin' Shames.  Perhaps you will win a prize from our trivia challenge!  Join the music party Saturday night on FM 100.9.

Phil

This Saturday night during Those Were The Days, I will be drifting in my mind back to the Fall of 1982.  When I spin songs from Asia, A Flock Of Seagulls, and John Mellencamp, I will be right back in Wausau Wisconsin at Trans American School Of Broadcasting.  That was a fun time in my life.  Fresh off the farm, Marty and I rented an upstairs apartment and later were joined by Kevin.  There we watched a new channel called MTV twenty-four hours a day.  We combined each others music collections and made the most awesome mix tapes.  In our spare time we attended morning classes at the broadcast school and attempted to learn the radio trade.  We had a good group of classmates including Bill Scott whom we hear courtesy of Wisconsin Radio Network on WRCO here in Richland Center.  We someday should write a book or write a script about some of the things that happened that year.   Some of which cannot be mentioned in this column or on WRCO FM 100.9.  The Milwaukee Brewers made it to the World Series that Fall and the music on the radio was solid for the entire year.  I remember a trip to a Brewer game with my broadcast school buddies.  One member of our group always wanted to do play by play of every event for practice.  He took his cassette tape recorder to the Brewer game to work on calling a baseball game.  Around the third inning he decided to go for a cold one and gave the recorder to me.  He told me to fill in for him while he was gone.  Soon after that a drunk guy turned around and said "Hey, shut up!"  and tore up the score sheet.  I broke a cardinal sin of live microphones and swore at him.  This was all caught on tape.  We had a good laugh listening to that on the way home.  I hope you will join me for Those Were The Days this Saturday night between six and midnight.  I will be spinning some of the best from the Fall of '82 and your rock and roll requests from the first thirty-five years of rock and roll.  Trivia returns this week and you can try to win and amaze your friends!  Perhaps we can hook up for more memories Saturday night?

Phil-Trans American School Of Broadcasting class of 1983

After two weeks of Green Bay preseason football, it will be time to take those old records off the shelf.  I am so excited to play fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties music on the radio again and that will happen Saturday night on FM 100.9.  The request line will be open for you to dedicate a song during this holiday weekend.  We will also pull out a few hits from this weekend in 1969!  As little Phil was getting on the kindergarten bus that Fall, there were many great hits on the radio including:  Sweet Caroline-Neil Diamond,  Honky Tonk Woman-Rolling Stones,  Green River-C.C.R., Sugar Sugar-Archies (a favorite among the kindergarten class at Neptune school),  and Lay Lady Lay-Bob Dylan.  On Saturday morning I would watch the Curtis Matthis television set and see shows like The Banana Splits (tra la la la la la la tra la la la la la la).   The first episodes of Scooby Doo were also airing and I loved the Captain Crunch commercials that encouraged me to bug Dad at Wilson's Grocery Store in Richland Center to buy a box.  There was probably an action figure or a treasure map inside.  Growing up in the country is a great thing for a youngster.  My childhood seems magical as I look back on it now.  Those of us that grew up on a farm sometimes felt isolated and far away from excitement.  That is where the radio came in.  Listening to local radio and those far off signals late at night gave us a taste of what was happening in places we had only read about.  I am proud to say that I have now passed 31 years of working in radio and hopefully that will continue for a long time.  The medium of radio has meant so much to me for my entire life.   Thank you for being a part of it.  Perhaps we can talk on Saturday night when Those Were The Days will be back on WRCO FM 100.9?

Phil

The Packers play two Saturday night exhibition football games in a row.  That means Those Were The Days will return September second.  Being blocked by the Packers will mean a chance for me to clean up my record and cd cases and reorganize.  Perhaps when our old rock and roll show returns in September I will be able to find your requests even quicker!  We have some great shows coming up this Fall.  We will have more tributes to 1967 during this 50th anniversary year.  Our guest d.j. coughed up $350.00 for G.R.A.C.E.  to pick one hour of music from the Those Were The Days era.  He will get the FM 100.9 spotlight during a show coming up this Fall.  I will miss talking with all of you during the next two Saturday nights.  Please don't forget the Those Were The Days radio show while we are gone.  We will be back on September 2nd.

Phil

It will soon be forty years since Elvis Presley died in Memphis.  His music is played today even more than it was forty years ago.  On this weekends Those Were The Days program we will look back at some of his best movie songs.  Elvis movies were fun and some of the tunes we heard coming from those tiny metal speakers hooked on our car windows at the drive in were pretty good.  I have been an Elvis fan since I was a 'wee Nee'.  There was an Elvis greatest hits album package that was for sale on television in the early seventies. After digging out money from my Log Cabin syrup bank, I sent my $4.99 off to a Madison television station.  When the two record set arrived it seems that I played those albums constantly.  I would practice my lip curl in the mirror and eventually perfected my Elvis tribute act well enough to perform for Mrs. Varana's fifth grade class.  That was as far as my impersonater career went.  I would always read the TV Guide and look ahead to a possible Elvis movie airing on a local station.  I remember seeing 'Love Me Tender' on the Saturday afternoon Family Theater on channel three.  The film kept breaking and they would play instrumental music until it was fixed.  Elvis movies often were shown on the late show when I was growing up.  That is where I first saw 'Kid Gallahad',  'Live A Little, Love A Little',  'Tickle Me',  'Loving You', and several others.  It is still fun to pop in an Elvis movie and escape for an hour and a half.  My favorite films include:   5.  Change Of Habit (with Mary Tyler Moore)  4.  Follow That Dream (I feel its one of his best comedy roles)  3.  Viva Las Vegas (with the beautiful Ann Margaret)  2.  Jailhouse Rock (what a great dance scene to the title song!)   1.  Speedway (I am a Nancy Sinatra fan and once got to ask her about making movies with Elvis). 

I will be in the studio to take your request this week during Those Were The Days.  We will also pay tribute to Glen Campbell who died this week.  We used to play his greatest hits album in the old farm house and watch his 'Goodtime Hour' on the Curtis Matthis television set.  He was an amazing entertainer and I was always wowed by his guitar playing.

  I am sad to say that this will be our last show until September second.  The Green Bay Packers have two Saturday night preseason games in a row and our show will take a two week break.  We need to get our old rock and roll fix this Saturday night and have a real party since we wont get together again for a while.  I hope to talk with you Saturday night.

Phil

Hey rock and rollers!  I hope to hear from you Saturday night when I again host Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  This weekend we will go on a road trip to August of 1974.  We were watching history as one President stepped down and another stepped up.  The Summer was wrapping up quickly.  I had met a guitar playing pretty young lady that Summer that provided me with my first crush. I was crushed when she left with her family after a Summer vacation and went back to the east coast.  The Top 40 chart provided me with a diversion although I could not sing along with All I Need Is The Air That I Breathe by the Hollies without getting a bit misty!  Other radio jams during the first weekend of August 1974 included:  Rikki, Don't Lose That Number-Steely Dan,  The Night Chicago Died-Paper Lace,  Waterloo-Abba,  Rock Your Baby-George McCrae,  Taking Care Of Business-B.T.O.,  and Sure As I'm Sittin Here-Three Dog Night.  I will play a few of these and your rock and roll requests during our six hour radio party this Saturday night during Those Were The Days.

Phil

In the days of the forty-five record, there was an A side and a B side.  The A side was the hit side and the B side of the record was normally the throw away side.  Sometimes record companies would try to make the B side so bad and off the wall that you would never listen to it or consider it better than the hit side.  This often failed and record buyers and radio djs would make a hit out of the flip side.  This Saturday night, we will take a look at some of our favorite B sides and some of yours during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  I will be in the studio to accept your requests from the fifties through the eighties.   Once per hour we will throw a trivia question on the air and you can win some cool prizes.  I hope you will flip for our flip sides and your favorite rock and roll requests this Saturday night during Those Were The Days.  We had a blast last Saturday night when we played many of your requests we haven't played for awhile.   I love it when you try and stump me with a forgotten classic.

Phil

Saturday night (7-22) we will cruise back to 1987 during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 and we will be taking your requests for music of the fifties through the eighties.  When we look at the Summer of 1987 music, it is hard to imagine that these songs are thirty years old.  I was hosting Those Were The Days when these songs were  brand new!    The station was still getting its new music on 45 r.p.m. records.  I was in charge of putting the new music into rotation and it seems like yesterday when some of these songs were stacked on my desk at the old radio station building.  Some of my favorites from that era include:  Something So Strong-Crowded House,  Seven Wonders-Fleetwood Mac,  Since You Been Gone-The Outfield,  Shakedown-Bob Seger and Alone-Heart.  There was a one hit wonder called Heart And Soul by T-Pau which I still think is a great radio Summer song.  That year my life was quickly changing as my girlfriend, June, became my fiance and wedding plans were being finalized. Young ladies in the Ithaca area were breathing a sigh of relief because I was off the market!  A wedding was held on a beautiful September day.  I am proud to say that we will celebrate thirty years later this year.

I hope you will join our Those Were The Days radio party this Saturday night from six until midnight on WRCO FM 100.9.

Phil

On the Those Were The Days radio program this Saturday night we will play for you some amazing hits from the fifties through the eighties.  This Saturday will be July 15th and we will pay tribute to the number 15 with songs through the years that only made number 15 on the Billboard charts.  I think you will be impressed with the number of songs that stalled out fifteen spots from the top, however, they are very well known today.  Some of the favorites include:  China Grove-Doobie Brothers,  S.O.S.-Abba,  Give A Little Bit-Supertramp,  Words-Bee Gees,  Laugh Laugh-Beau Brummels,  Drivers Seat-Sniff n' the Tears,  Refugee-Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and Cuts Like A Knife-Bryan Adams.  This proves that being number one is not always better.  It seems these songs did not get overplayed and are more fondly remembered now.  I will be answering my own phone and hopefully you will give me a call with a request between six and midnight.  You could also win tickets, food, and merchandise, when we play trivia during the radio party on WRCO FM 100.9 Saturday night.

Phil

It was so great to get back home just in time to host Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 this past Saturday night.  Our wonderful trip to Switzerland had only one snag.  We were held over in Canada for a night.  I woke up Saturday morning in Montreal and we caught the 8 am to Chicago.  Our arrival time by car to Sextonville was 3:15 p.  One hour later I was at WRCO preparing for the show.  Perhaps I will be better rested and over the jet lag this Saturday night when we again take those old records off the shelf.  Your requests will be welcomed and we will be playing trivia.  The feature will be a trip back to the Summer of 1972.  It was a great time for music.  I was busy trying to buy all the records my small income could afford.  I would ride along with dad once a week to the feed mill.  I would walk to Schultz Brothers (the dime store) and look at the records and the model cars.  Than I would run fast in my Pro-Ked sneakers to Saffells music store.  They had a portable record player and I could audition new songs from Elton John, Gallery,  Looking Glass,  The Hollies,  Bill Withers,  and a new group called The Eagles.  Those are great memories for me and I will play a few of those 45 r.p.m. records this Saturday night between six and midnight during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  Please give me a call that night at (608) 647-4155.

Phil  

We have some fun shows coming up this Summer on WRCO FM 100.9.  For the June 24th show, we will be taking you back to the Summer of love 1967.  Courtesy of Forgotten Hits dot com and the writer of that website Kent Kotal, we will play for you the top fifty songs from the Summer of '67.  I will have lots of slices from some of the interview guests from the past that had hits during that year.   I think we will back up our argument that 1967 is the best year ever for popular music!   We will not be taking you requests.  That feature will return on July 1st.  I will be back in the studio to take your calls and we will flash back to another favorite Summer for music, 1982.  Thank you for being a part of the show all of these years!  I will talk with you soon!

Phil