WRCO Blog

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                                                                                                                 

Our year long tribute to 1981 continues on Saturday night with Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  We will go back thirty-five years with songs that take me back to playing basketball for the might Bulldogs. I remember fun times riding to the games on buses with windows frosted over.   Many songs were playing in my head as I continued to lead the league in scoring during warmups.  The Stones album (Tatoo You) was number one in our locker room.  Queen, Pat Benatar, Bob Seger, and Cheap Trick were among the crowd pleasers at the record hops (remember those?).  Join me for six hours of your requests, trivia questions, bad jokes, and 1981 this Saturday night during Those Were The Days.

Phil

The year of 1970 was a fantastic year for rock and roll music. There w  some great albums from such groups as the Guess Who, Beatles, CCR, and solo artists including: Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, George Harrison, Linda Ronstadt.  This Saturday night on WRCO I will be spinning some hot hits from 1970 and I will be taking your old record requests.   Please give me a call on the hot hits hotline and we will recall the great times. As I write this, my family is celebrating Thanksgiving weekend.  I hope as you read this you are spending time with loved ones.   Request a song for your favorite relative or win them a prize Saturday night when you are listening to Those Were The Days.

Phil

During our 30th anniversary this Fall, Those Were The Days has been featuring some of our favorite groups.  This Saturday night Carl Giammarese will talk about that great rock and roll year of 1967 when his group The Buckinghams enjoyed five top twenty hits.  Several of our listeners recently enjoyed Carl, Nick Fortune, and the Buckinghams at the Crystal Grand in Wisconsin Dells!  They are still touring after all of these years.  My favorite songs of the Bucks include: Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song), Kind Of A Drag, I'll Go Crazy, and Back In Love Again.  We will take you back with some of those radio gems during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 this weekend. 

I will be back in the studio and hope to talk with many listeners that still enjoy the great music of the fifties through the eighties this Saturday night.  Last weekend we featured a classic countdown from 1971.  That was fun putting together.  I heard from a few that graduated from high school that year and they had a great time going back to that year in music.  Give me a call and request a song and maybe you can win a prize playing trivia.  Those Were The Days, my friend.

Phil

On this weeks Those Were The Days we will reunite the songs that made up the 1971 year end countdown.  It was a great time in Top 40 radio with all kinds of genres of music hitting it big.  These were songs such as ' Me And You And A Dog Named Boo'-Lobo,  Joy To The World-Three Dog Night, Draggin The Line-Tommy James,  Proud Mary-Ike & Tina,  and Take Me Home Country Roads-John Denver that we sang on the country school bus.  Tune in WRCO FM 100.9 for this rock and roll special this Saturday night courtesy of our Those Were The Days sponsor family.  I will not be taking your requests this time.  That feature will return next weekend on the big program.  We are getting ready for some great shows coming up at the end the year.  If you ever have an idea for one of our old rock and roll theme shows,  drop me a comment, or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Perhaps it is a year you would like to see us remember, or an artist you'd like to hear more of.  Maybe a theme such as: songs about money, cars, trains, etc.   Listener suggestions have resulted in some of our most memorable Saturday night shows.  Thanks for reading and I hope you listen to the best of 1971 on this Saturday nights Those Were The Days.

Phil

Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 you can request a pop radio hit from the fifties through the eighties.  Those Were The Days is the radio show that you can help program.  Please contact me Saturday night with a request and I will do my best to get in on the airwaves for you.  During the week I dumpster dive looking for old goodies.  That means there is something each week that you have not heard on our show before.  On this weeks six hour blast, I will play some of the  highlights from this weekend in 1974.  It is a chart I can remember like it was yesterday.  My once per week visit to Saffells music store in Richland Center was a highlight for a young farm boy.  I could actually see the records I was hearing on the radio and the colors of the record labels were absorbed by my young brain.  Today when I play Can't Get Enough by Bad Company, I can picture the Atlantic record label gong round and round.  When Sweet Home Alabama is on the air, I remember seeing it in the record store and the MCA label on the 45.  November of 1974 had many hits that we still play today.  You Aint Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman-Turner Overdrive,  I Can Help-Billy Swan,  and When Will I See You Again- Three Degrees could be heard up and down the dial in November of 1974.  We will remember that time with music and trivia during this Saturday nights Those Were The Days radio program.  I hope you will tune in 100.9 and join the party like all of the cool kids!

Phil

One of the first recording artists that I had a chance to interview on the program was Bobby Vee.  Over the years he joined us a few times by phone.  He performed in Richland Center in 2006 with the Crickets and Tommy Roe.  Those that were there that night saw rock and roll history.  Bobby announced in 2012 that he was in the early stages of Alzheimers disease and he passed away on Monday of this week. Bobby was always a great interview for me on Those Were The Days.  He could talk first hand about other artists such as Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney.  The Beatles recorded 'Take Good Care Of My Baby'.  A young Bob Dylan played in Bobby Vee's band back in 1959.  Elvis told him that he had a couple of Bobby Vee records on his jukebox. He never forgot us here in the Badger State.     A few of his records were first given a boost with airplay in Wisconsin including his 1967 hit 'Come Back When Your Grow Up'.  We will remember Bobby Vee during our Those Were The Days get together Saturday night.  I will be in the studio to take your old time rock and roll requests.  We will play a few of our favorite Halloween records on this weekends show.  Join me between 6 pm and Midnight on WRCO FM 100.9 for Those Were The Days Saturday night.

Phil

On Those Were The Days Saturday night we will play a few rock & roll history highlights.  WRCO FM 100.9 will also feature W.I.A.A. Regional championship volleyball with the first serve scheduled for 7:00 pm.  Following high school sports we will be taking your rock and roll requests until Midnight.  We will highlight some of my favorite hits from the late 1970's during that time.  Join me Saturday night for the best of the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties. 

Thanks for all of the good comments about our program last week leading up to our 30th anniversary show.  The show went great!  Thanks to good listeners Jeff and Mary Peper for bringing a beautiful and tasty cake.  My beautiful wife June brought me an anniversary apple crisp which was also delightful.  I look forward to this Saturday night when we begin our next 30 years!

Phil

It seems like maybe ten years have gone by since I first played an old record on a new radio program called 'Those Were The Days'.  The first official Saturday night program aired on October 11, 1986.  Where does the time go?  This program has been such a blast through the years.  Each week it seems I am talking to a first time caller and there are listeners who were listening that first night.  It is my hope and goal that we are able to keep it going for a few more years!  Thanks to you for listening and to Ron and Beth Fruit for giving me a great place to work and the opportunity to play from my record collection each Saturday night.  I will be in the building Saturday night to take your requests and play trivia.  A look back at October of 1986 will be among our special features.  We will find out what was hot and happening when Those Were The Days first went on the air.  I was playing some of those songs when they were brand new. Thirty years later they are old enough to be played on Saturday night!  In 1986 the Monkees were playing on MTV and there were many requests for their music. The song Stand By Me by Ben E. King was a Top Forty hit and was an oldie at the same time after the movie of the same name was released.  During the next year Dirty Dancing soundtrack songs were big and Richie Valens tunes from the LaBamba soundtrack were hot.  There have been many trends through the years that have been fun to be a part of.  We have made the transition from records, cassettes, and radio station carts to cds and computers.  It has been an amazing thirty years.  We still have at least 21 or more years to go to break Ray Schroeder's Rem. With Ray record for the number of years on WRCO.

Phil

It was the second half of 1976.  A young record album buyer was having a tough time buying all of the albums he wanted on a $2.00 a week allowance.  It would take me a month to save up to buy one and if I wanted a Mallow Cup at Gus's Service Station I couldn't afford the album.  Between August and December of 1976, there were many record albums released that still are highly regarded today.  This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9, we will play a few of those vinyl memories during Those Were The Days. Here is a list of some of my favorite second half of 1976 record albums.

Boston- Boston, Songs In The Key Of Life-Stevie Wonder,  Crystal Ball-Styx, Night Moves-Bob Seger, Leftoverture-Kansas, Tom Petty's debut, Rock And Roll Over-Kiss, 33 1/3-George Harrison,  The Pretender-Jackson Browne, Hotel California-Eagles, A Day At The Races-Queen, and Wings Over America-Wings.    Hear some tracks from these albums during this weekends rock and roll revival.  You can ask that a pop radio hit from the fifties through the eighties be played between six and Midnight Saturday night.  I will be in the studio to take your requests.  We will play trivia and you can impress your friends.  I hope to hear from you Saturday night.

Phil

As the air got cooler and homecoming was in the air, a young freshman center/nose guard stood on the Ithaca sidelines cheering on the older members of the football team.  Through my high school sports career I often was busy thinking about the record hop after the game.  There were great tunes running through my head during the Fall of 1978. Music from Bob Seger, Boston, Cheap Trick, Earth-Wind-and Fire, and much more.  I will get the chance to play them on the radio for you this Saturday night during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.  The hotline will be open for you to request a song.  You can take on a trivia challenge during our six hour rock and roll show.  We will have a great time on Saturday night.

Phil Nee

Class Of '82

I will be in the studio to take your phone calls and trivia will be back this Saturday night on FM 100.9!  After taking the lovely June out on a date last Saturday, it will be time to get back to work this Saturday during Those Were The Days.  The best of the fifties through the eighties will return to the airwaves and this weekend we will play a few highlights from the Fall of 1966.  It may be the best year ever for pop culture fans.  Highlights included:  Batman, The Green Hornet,  Star Trek, and The Monkees.  New music on the radio during the Fall of 1966 was awesome.  Top songs included:  Cherish-The Association, Sunshine Superman-Donovan, Bus Stop-The Hollies, 96 Tears-Question Mark & The Mysterians, Cherry, Cherry-Neil Diamond, and Psychotic Reaction-Count Five.  Although I was just a Wee Nee, I remember sitting at the breakfast table enjoying my Cap'n Crunch before Captain Kangaroo.   Later I would play with my 'Fighting Yank' action figure (my parents went for the cheaper version of G.I. Joe).  Mom might force me to wash my hair with Prell before I crawled into bed and listened to all of the awesome songs on the radio before drifting off to sleep.   It will be a blast to join you during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 this Saturday night and remember the magical year of 1966.

Phil

This week I will be reaching into the archive of cassette and reel to reel tapes and playing back segments of some of my favorite celebrity phone guests from thirty years of Those Were The Days.  My first interview guest was way back in 1987 when Nigel Olsson (Elton John's drummer) joined me by telephone.  Bobby Vinton and Tommy James were also big name guests during those early days. Dick Clark, Nancy Sinatra, Steve Allen, Hal Lindon, Tony Orlando, and a cast of hundreds have graced our airwaves since 1986. This week I will flash back to a few of my favorites.  I will also choose my favorite of all time!  In addition to the special guests, I will feature a few of my faves from the Fall of 1979.  It was a great time for music as number fifty, Phil Nee, was a mighty center and nose guard for the Ithaca Bulldogs.  You will hear some awesome music and fun if you choose to turn on FM 100.9 on Saturday night.  I will not be in the studio to take your requests this time.  Join me for an open line again on Saturday night September 24th.

Phil

The music of the Monkees still plays on the radio, television, and movies after all of these years.  On September 12th it will be exactly fifty years since the first episode of the Monkees played on network television!  Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 Saturday night will highlight some of the  pre-fab fours best music.  They had many great writers working for Don Kirshner and the group.  That translated into great radio hits and album cuts.  When Those Were The Days debuted on WRCO in the Fall of 1986, the Monkees were a hot act again because of MTV playing the show on a regular basis.  It put them back on the charts with the song 'That Was Than, This Is Now'. We would get many Monkees requests each Saturday night back than from younger listeners.  I will spin some of my favorite Monkees cuts this weekend and you can check in with your requests for any group or artist that you would like to hear from the fifties through the eighties.  Thanks for listening all of these years!

Phil

During your time celebrating the last long weekend of Summer, I hope you will tune in for some of the best pop radio songs of all time.  On WRCO FM 100.9 Saturday night, I will be in the studio to take your requests.  We will celebrate the working person with specially selected songs on Those Were The Days such as:  Working For The Weekend-Loverboy,  Chain Gang-Sam Cooke, Blue Collar Man-Styx, Taking Care Of Business-B.T.O., Working Man-Rush, Working For A Living-Huey Lewis, Big Boss Man-Elvis, Working In A Coal Mine-Lee Dorsey,  Lovely Rita-The Beatles, Nine To Five-Dolly Parton.  If you can think of more working songs or songs about the working folks, please give a call or drop me a line this week This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Phil Nee

It will be great to be back in the studio with the chance to spin the best of the fifties through the eighties on Saturday nights Those Were The Days radio show.  I hope you enjoyed the Elvis tribute and the other special features last weekend.   This week I will be taking your requests and first time guest Billy J. Kramer will give his memories of the first wave of the British Invasion.  Thanks to our forgottenhits.com friend Kent Kotal for helping to line this up.  Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas had a handful of hits including songs that were hand delivered by the Beatles.  They shared the same manager, Brian Epstein,  and producer, George Martin.  My favorite song by Billy is 'From A Window'.  Hear about his humble beginnings in Liverpool and recent appearances at Beatles festivals. 

While Those Were The Days was playing on Memorex last weekend, I took Ms. June to see Felix Cavaliere's Rascals.  It was a great concert and I am still humming Good Lovin', People Got To Be Free,  Groovin', I've Been Lonley Too Long', and several others.  What a great performance!  June was the youngest and prettiest there (other than me...hee hee..)  We will get the little records out of there sleeping bags on Saturday during Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9.

Phil