WRCO Blog

The Summer of 1977 was a good time for pop music.  That era gets overlooked because of disco and soft love ballads.  In between those songs were some instant classics including:  Dreams-Fleetwood Mac,  Life In The Fast Lane-Eagles,  Couldn't Get It Right-Climax Blues Band,  Jet Airliner-Steve Miller Band, and Sir Duke-Stevie Wonder.

In the good old Summer time of 1977  I was unloading hay making a quarter a load and counting my money until I could buy the new Foreigner album.  My mother often told me to stop spending money on those records. "They wont mean anything to you in a year or two"!  While mom was right about most things including asparagus, she was wrong about my love of vinyl.  I still buy it and play it today.  Some of those old records have been converted to digital and they still get a spin during our Saturday night radio show.  Join me for Those Were The Days this Saturday night.  I will be digging up the hits from the fifties through the eighties between 6 pm and Midnight.  Please join the party and request a song or play along with the six trivia questions during the six hour show on FM 100.9.  

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9, we will ride through the galaxy with some of the great songs from the Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 Soundtrack.  The first Guardians soundtrack blew me away with its use of great music from our Those Were The Days era.  It is rare these days to go the theater and know every song that plays during a movie.  When I went to Galaxy 2 last month I was even more impressed.   Here is a list of the songs in the latest movie...
1. "Mr. Blue Sky" Electric Light Orchestra
2. "Fox on the Run" Sweet
3. "Lake Shore Drive" Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah
4. "The Chain" Fleetwood Mac
5. "Bring It On Home to Me" Sam Cooke
6. "Southern Nights" Glen Campbell
7. "My Sweet Lord" George Harrison
8. "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" Looking Glass
9. "Come a Little Bit Closer" Jay and the Americans
10. "Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang" Silver
11. "Surrender" Cheap Trick
12. "Father and Son" Cat Stevens
13. "Flash Light" Parliament
14. "Guardians Inferno" The Sneepers featuring David Hasselhoff

It was hard to believe that the song Lake Shore Drive (track 3 above) was used in a big budget movie.  For a while in my life I thought I was the only one that remembered that tune.  It was played a few times on the radio when I was a wee Nee mostly in the Chicago market.  When I started the show back in 1986  I could not find a copy of it.  A fellow I knew from Illinois taped it on a cassette and sent it to me.  Eventually in my record digging I found a copy of the album and eventually a cd was released.  That song never fails to get a response when I play it on the radio.  It never charted and never made any money for Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 writer and director James Gunn is originally from the Chicago area.  He reportedly remembered that song from his youth and looked for it.  Skip Haynes is the only surviving member of the group and is finally getting recognized after 45 plus years!  We will feature other Guardians classics along with your requests from the fifties through the eighties Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9.  We will have more stuff to give away when we play trivia.  Join our Those Were The Days family during your Saturday night between 6 pm and Midnight.

Phil

Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 Saturday night will throw a birthday bash for Sgt. Pepper.  The classic Beatles album was released in the U.S. on June 2nd of 1967.  This weekend I will be spinning tracks from that set.  Though no singles were ever released from Pepper, it got much airplay.  It was the first album to have the song lyrics printed on the back cover.  I had the stereo copy and if you turned the balance on your record player to the left or right channel, you could only hear the music.  It was fun to sing 'When I'm '64' and imagine I was Paul McCartney.  I have always been a fan of the lesser played tracks.  'Lovely Rita' and 'Getting Better' are two of my favorites.  The Sgt. Pepper's reprise featuring Ringo's drum solo is one of the groups most rocking tracks.    The album has perhaps the best last song on side two ever with 'A Day In The Life'. The album means a lot to me but it is not my favorite Beatles album.  That distinction probably goes to either 'Introducing The Beatles' or 'Abbey Road'.  It is hard to deny the significance of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, though.  It kicked off the Summer Of Love in 1967 and the music and the cover influenced and inspired many artists over the last fifty years.  

I will be back in the studio to talk with you live this Saturday night June third.  We will be taking your requests and featuring the music of the fifties through the eighties on WRCO FM 100.9 between six and midnight.   

Phil

This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 our Those Were The Days show will spotlight radio songs that had a huge impact on the men and women that served our nation in Vietnam.  Our study guide will be the great book 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place' by Doug Bradley and Craig Werner.   Hear a Top Twenty countdown of Vietnam era songs according to a survey done by the authors.  They polled veterans about their songs while in the service during that time.  Saturday night we will play some of the most frequently mentioned songs.  Our special in studio  guest will be local artist Jim Walktendonk.  He served as an army dog handler in 1970-71 with the 212th Military Police Unit at Long Binh and the 595th MPS at Cam Ranh Bay.  He and his guitar in Vietnam helped ease the pain of many soldiers.  He continues to write and perform today and paints amazing art.  Jim will recall songs he remembers hearing during his tour.  It will be a special tribute during this Memorial Day weekend.  We will play more of your favorites during the second half of Those Were The Days and a few two hit wonders!  I will not be taking your requests this week.  That feature will return next Saturday night.    Please be safe this weekend. 

Phil

The old farm truck was not my ride of choice, however, it was better than walking or riding my bike.   It would often have a half load of something in its bed that I would have to unload before I left the farm lane.  It did have a good radio.  I remember hearing many songs during the Spring and Summer of 1980 while I was hauling seed corn to the fields or pulling loads of hay.  At night that truck was my link to the night life of rural Richland Center.  My girl friend would have to move a log chain, clevis, a small paper sack full of washers, and a gear off the corn planter, if she wanted to slide close to me on the bench seat. There was a romantic glow coming from the fly specked dash board as the hot tunes of 1980 provided the soundtrack for a hot date!         This week on Those Were The Days we will travel down the gravel road with hits including:  Call Me-Blondie,  Funkytown-Lipps Inc., Cars-Gary Numan,  Brass In Pocket-Pretenders,  We Live For Love-Pat Benatar,  You May Be Right-Billy Joel,  and Lost In Love-Air Supply.  Listen to Those Were The Days on WRCO FM 100.9 and you could be the lucky winner of a great prize when we play trivia.  Request a song from the fifties through the eighties between 6 and midnight Saturday night.

Phil

This Saturday night (May 13th) we will feature some of our favorite car songs on WRCO FM 100.9.  There are so many songs that pay tribute to awesome four wheel vehicles including:  409/Little Duece Coupe/ Shut Down/Fun Fun Fun-Beach Boys,  Hot Rod Lincoln-Comander Cody,  Mustang Sally-Wilson Pickett,  Cadillac Ranch-Bruce Springsteen,  Little Red Corvette-Prince,  Hey Little Cobra-Rip Chords, GTO-Ronnie & The Daytonas,  and Beep Beep by the Playmates.  That is just a sample of what is a log list of automobile songs.  If you include any song about transportation, your playlist would fill more than six hours of the Saturday night program.  The idea for a car songs show came from one of our most loyal listeners.  Thank you Sarge!  If anyone has an idea about a future theme, just drop us a line through this blog, email me or call me on Saturday night.  I think we have some really good shows coming up during the Spring and Summer on Those Were The Days.  Between six and Midnight Saturday night I will be in the studio taking your phone call requests and asking you fun trivia questions.  The weather is supposed to be outstanding.  Perhaps a few more of our camp fire listeners will report to us during Those Were The Days when we feature the best of the fifties through the eighties pop radio memories.

Phil

Hey Rock n' Rollers!   This Saturday night on Those Were The Days we will pull out some old records from 1983.  That Spring I was graduating from Trans American School Of Broadcasting (Madison Media Institute now) in Wausau.  Of those that completed the program, there are only a few that have stuck it out in the media business.  Many have gone on to much more success with higher paying better benefit jobs with fewer hours.  They got serious with their lives and made good choices for their families.  Those of us that truly love radio would not trade places with those that chose other paths.  I still feel like I am living the dream.  In 1983 my old buddy, Marty Richards, and me were spinning records at bars and high school dances for a few dollars.  Just enough money to go buy a few more records at the Music Shop in Richland Center each week.  This Saturday night on WRCO FM 100.9 you may hear a few of those records that have been converted to digital.  The Spring of 1983 had many great songs that we still enjoy today.  Artists that were having hits included: Prince, Bob Seger,  Dexy's Midnight Runners,  After The Fire,  Michael Jackson,  Journey,  and the Greg Kihn Band.  I will be in the studio so that you can request a song from the fifties through the eighties.  Last weekend we heard from more new friends.  The circle around Richland Center is getting bigger all of the time.  Calls from Mount Hope,  Oakdale (near Tomah),  North Freedom,  and Viroqua were among the places we heard from.  Don't be afraid to give us a call during Those Were The Days Saturday night (608)  647-4155.

Phil   T.A.B.  Class Of 1983

This Saturday night WRCO FM 100.9 will be the place to be as we travel back to 1971.  We will play for you some of the hot hits from that Spring during our six hour Those Were The Days show.  During that year I was trying to do as many chores on the farm as possible.  Barn scraping was my best skill.  I would save up sixty-nine cents and take the money to Saffell's music store and the Dime Store to buy new forty-five records from Three Dog Night,  Partridge Family,  Cat Stevens,  Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the Jackson Five.  I will play some of those songs on the radio this Saturday night!  There was controversy on the school bus in 1971.  Half of the students thought the title of the new song by Lobo was....'Me & You And A Dog Named Blue' ,  the rest of us could not convince them that the dogs name was Boo.  There are probably some adults walking around today that still think the mutt was called Blue.  That reminds me of the 1965 McCoys' hit 'Hang On Sloopy'.  If I had a dime for everytime a caller has asked  for 'Hang On Snoopy', I would have bought more forty-five records by now! 

I hope you will join the party and dedicate a song this Saturday night during the best of the fifties through the eighties Those Were The Days radio show on WRCO FM 100.9.  I will be asking one trivia question per hour and perhaps you can win and amaze your friends.

Phil 

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