This weekend on Those Were the Days – Dining on the Hits of ’89

Our Those Were the Days radio show is approaching it’s official 40th birthday later this year in October. When the show first started in 1986, we played songs from the fifties, sixties, and early seventies. This week on the program our featured year will be 1989. Tunes that were not even invented when T.W.T.D. first hit the airwaves. I was on the radio from 8 am until 2 pm during that era and of course there were high school games to cover later in the day. WRCO was transitioning to newer technology. My last shift that featured all vinyl records happened in 1989. The station went with a music service that was delivered on reel-to-reel tapes. It was the last days of a program that dated back to the early days of the station. Music For Dining was heard each night between six and seven. This was supposed to feature easy listening songs for people to enjoy while they were having their evening meal. You could play popular songs, but they had to be the instrumental versions performed by the Living Strings, Lenny Dee, Bert Kaempfert, and the Magic Organ. This was the typical shift for newcomers to the staff. One of my first gigs on the air in 1986 was playing the syrupy hour of tunes and I was so afraid that I would lose whatever coolness that I thought I had. Behind the scenes the WRCO staff referred to the hour as ‘Music for Dying’! Otherwise during the mornings WRCO played country, during the day it was a ‘best blend’ of country, soft rock, and oldies, at night we had elevator music for an hour, and at seven it was a trainwreck segue into Top Forty music for the youngsters. This was actually a plan that many local stations followed back in the day. They played for the audiences that they assumed were listening during the different day parts.

This Saturday night during Those Were the Days, I will spin some of the hot songs from the spring of 1989. Some of the hot ones were She Drives Me Crazy-Fine Young Cannibals, Rock On-Michael Damian, Iko Iko-Belle Stars, The Look-Roxette, Stand-R.E.M., You Got It-Roy Orbison, Electric Youth-Debbie Gibson, and Funky Cold Medina-Tone Loc. The Michael Damian song brings back great memories. He was a brilliant promoter. He would call radio stations and just talk which helped sell his music (real name Michael Wier by the way). I was lucky enough to be on the phone tree. He would call while he was bored on the set of the soap opera ‘The Young and the Restless’ and I would put him on the air. He even sent me an autographed script. The shows were taped a few weeks in advance, so I was able to watch that episode and follow along and determine which actors were adlibbing! The other artist I connected with in that era was Debbie Gibson. She even did a couple of little skits with me (I may have to dig those out and play them this week). I actually made her laugh loudly when she read the ridiculous script I wrote for her. Both Michael and Debbie are very down-to-earth people, and it made WRCO feel like we were big time in a town of 5,000.

I promise you more stories and reminisces during this week’s Those Were the Days radio show. You will hear the best of the fifties through the mid-nineties, trivia, and requests. You will not hear the Living Strings versions either! Hopefully you will be able to dine.

Philip