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That's interesting insight about how we were connected by the radio. True, we were all listening to the same songs and following the same singers and musicians. Of course the previous generation had their musical heroes too but I guess they followed them in the movies or in live performances. WE had our little radios glued to our ears though.
But I bet you're right and that advertisers aimed their products at us through radio.
"Scare" about rock 'n' roll--I read about that. Apparently some stations, mainly in the south? banned some of the songs? It wasn't like that where I lived and I watched Elvis on the Ed Sullivan tv show with my mother. We both kind of went, "meh?" Not impressed. But I was too young to figure out that his wiggling came across as sexy to some people. Really, it was just that the moving to the music was new. Previously, the singers mostly just stood there and sang.
The music did unite our generation though. In high school they taught us that the entire concept of "teenager" was something new. I guess the transistor radio generation was ready for their own music, made for them, played for them, aimed at them. We certainly felt a bit special with our own music and it was kind of fun seeing our parents hate our music so much, lol. (They said it wasn't any good because you couldn't even understand the words.)
Yea, Zoot Suits & Boogie Woogie in the 40s, Swing in the late 30s and bobbed hair & Flappers in the 20s elicited the same reactions from the adults then as Rock 'n Roll did in the 50s. Don't forget Ragtime in the 'teens.
..and keep in mind that Socrates was condemned to death 2500 yrs earlier for corrupting the youth of Athens for his innovative thinking. There is nothing new under the sun.
My grandfather gave me a transistor radio in the early 60s and my mother said I could only listen when homework was done. That didn't happen! I remember Wolfman Jack mainly.
Yea, Zoot Suits & Boogie Woogie in the 40s, Swing in the late 30s and bobbed hair & Flappers in the 20s elicited the same reactions from the adults then as Rock 'n Roll did in the 50s. Don't forget Ragtime in the 'teens.
..and keep in mind that Socrates was condemned to death 2500 yrs earlier for corrupting the youth of Athens for his innovative thinking. There is nothing new under the sun.
Yes, all those things. But with the transistor radio for the first time wild youth could all be tuned in at the same time.
I picked up XERF-AM with Wolfman Jack on a pocket-sized transistor radio when I was stationed in Viet Nam.
Reminds me of the little pocket sized transistor radio I bought while going through Marine Corps infantry training during the Vietnam War. Had it through two years in SE Asia. It was nearly indestructible. Neither heat, humidity or even a near miss mortar attack could destroy it.
Reminds me of the little pocket sized transistor radio I bought while going through Marine Corps infantry training during the Vietnam War. Had it through two years in SE Asia. It was nearly indestructible. Neither heat, humidity or even a near miss mortar attack could destroy it.
Do you remember the movie "1941" where Slim Pickens (I think) was captured and taken aboard the Japanese submarine? The portable radio wouldn't fit through the hatch! So the Japanese sailor looks at it and says, "Must be a way to make it smaller". Funny stuff, for those of us who grew up in post war America.
infantry training during the Vietnam War. Had it through two years in SE Asia. It was nearly indestructible. Neither heat, humidity or even a near miss mortar attack could destroy it.
And I bet if you put a battery in it today, in 2019, outside of maybe a couple weak wax-paper capacitors or a leaky transistor (easily replaced if you're OK with a soldering iron) it'd take off running. A modern Chinese BPC radio would probably have started falling apart by the time you had arrived at base, never mind the front lines. Things really were built to last back then.
Here in western Ky., at night we'd pick up WLS, like everybody, I think, and at times I could get WSB in Atlanta. In the 70s and on, my cousin had a radio sports call in show from Dallas/Ft. Worth on an AM station. My dad would go to the basement, set the radio close to the window and listen to his show. In the 1978 blizzard that shut down the entire state of Kentucky, I had to drive 45 miles to work at a plant that couldn't be shut down. I found a station from Des Moines, Iowa that I listened to all the way to work. The DJ was wondering how bad the snow was in other states. When I got to work, I called him on a company line (it was 3rd shift. Who would see me? lol) and told him all roads in the state were shut down. He couldn't believe it!
In the 1950's and 1960's Denver radio for rock and roll was represented well by KIMN-950. Early in the 1960's a new station came to town-KBTR 710. They had colorful dj's over the years such as George Michaels (AKA King George), Johnny Mitchell, Don West, Hal "Baby' Moore, Jay Mack , Robert W. Morgan (who later became a dj at KHJ in Los Angeles) and an eccentric but popular guy named Pogo Poge, who got his name for hopping on a pogo stick from Denver to Boulder when he first came on the air. Another time he played the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley" 18 times in a row (at that time he was stuck on graveyard shift.)
George Michaels had top rating on his 3-6 p.m. show on KBTR, it was his second radio gig This was in 1965 and 1966. Sports fans should be familiar with him. In the 1990's he hosted a 30 minute tv show on NBC IIRC. It was called the "Goerge Michaels Sports Machine." Great show!
There were several bands over the years who came to Denver free as part of "KIMN Appreciation Day." One I remember well as I went to it--Beach Boys at the Denver Coliseum in August of 1965.
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