Consistently one of the best shows we've seen each year, Burton brings it every time. If you haven’t seen him live lately, do yourself a favor and grab tickets to this show. (We told you the other day that there’s more talk of a Bachman-Cummings reunion tour for next year … and, hopefully, they’ll finally film that next Soundstage special … but THIS show is guaranteed, so I say bet on the sure thing … because it’s ALSO guaranteed to bring you an awesome night of music.)
https://www.dailyherald.com/insights/20190712/ron-onesti-guess-who-is-going-to-rock-the-arcada
>>>I have to admit that I was a little bit surprised to wake up to “Living In The Past” by Jethro Tull playing on Me-TV-FM this morning! (At first I thought maybe I had it tuned to The Drive … but this was my clock radio, which has never deviated from Me-TV-FM since the day they began broadcasting … so that couldn’t be the case!) I guess it just wasn’t what I would typically expect to hear them play on their soft-rock oldies format. Don’t get me wrong … I thought it was GREAT to hear this … and, once again, this type of variety, on the station. (To prove THAT point, they followed it up with the Leif Garrett version of “Runaround Sue”!!! Those two songs and artists are about as “opposite ends of the spectrum” as you can get!) Which is exactly what I LOVE about the station … you just never really know what you’re going to hear … and it’s those types of surprises that keep you tuned in. Who would have EVER dreamed 45 years ago that we’d be hearing Jethro Tull on the soft rock stations? And yet they fit … right along side their airplay on the classic rock stations (although classic rock seems to favor their album tracks “Aqualung” and “Locomotive Breath” more than their two Top 40 Hits, “Living In The Past,” #11, 1972, and “Bungle In The Jungle,” #10, 1974. (“Living In The Past” first “bubbled under” in 1969, but I guess radio and listeners just weren’t ready yet for this new “art rock” sound. (kk)
Kent,
That’s Me, living in the past. That’s what we’re all about!
(In that respect, I guess it's really kind of BOTH of our unofficial theme song!) kk
Enjoyed the surprise opening to your Friday Flash today. Glad we can still startle you (in a good way!) every now and then. “Living in the Past” has been part of the library at MeTVFM since the beginning. It’s not a major track for us — it’s more like a little spice we sprinkle in just to catch people’s attention every now and then. “Bungle in the Jungle” serves the same purpose for us. You’ll hear it come around every now and then. And I smiled when you made reference to Leif Garrett’s “Runaround Sue” being the very next song in the sequence.
The thinking behind the MeTVFM format when it was first conceptualized by Neal Sabin in 2015 was to remind listeners of how diverse the Top 40 playlist was back in the days of the transistor radio. It was a characteristic of Top 40 we all definitely took for granted back in the day. In fact, you allude to it just about every time you post a playlist or station survey from 40-50 years ago. Take, for example, the WLS survey of April 27, 1974, which I selected completely at random. The top twenty includes: a rock jam (“Bennie and the Jets”), a hymn (!) (“The Lord’s Prayer”), two instrumentals (“Tubular Bells” and “The Entertainer”), a song sung in a foreign language (“Eres Tu (Touch the Wind)),” one of the earliest disco tunes (“T.S.O.P.”), a country crossover artist (Jim Stafford) and a singer-songwriter ballad (“I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song”). Go down a few more notches, and you’ll find a novelty song (“The Streak”). Now THAT’S true variety.
Stations don’t build a library that way anymore. Today, every format is highly specialized and, as a consequence, segregationist; every playlist is narrowly defined, reflecting only a single genre, in most cases. On the contrary, Neal set up MeTVFM as a throwback to a time when you could hear multiple genres, not just within the same hour but often within the same set, on your favorite station.
Sometimes it’s worlds colliding, we realize. But Neal wanted to throw out the programming principle that’s taken over the industry the past 30 years, the one where you’re supposed to play it safe within your own musical niche. It’s probably the biggest rule that he’s broken in creating MeTVFM.
Have a good weekend.
Rick
Rick O’Dell
Program Director
MeTVFM
And for me, that’s the greatest appeal … we’ve covered this topic many times in the past … the VARIETY that was Top 40 Radio exposed us to all different genres of music … spinning your analogy a step further by adding the sounds of The British Invasion and Motown and Memphis soul … soft rock, hard rock, psychedelia, surf music, cross-over country artists like Glen Campbell and Roger Miller who regularly made the pop charts, right alongside heavier acts like The Rolling Stones, Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Vanilla Fudge.
Today’s music is programmed to one specific genre … and, as a result, it often sounds like one continuous tone, every song blending right into each other to the point that you sometimes can’t tell where one song stops and another song starts. (This is especially true if you’re not familiar with the bulk of the music … I can’t tell you how many time I’ve asked one of my daughters “Is this still the same song???” over the years!)
We’ve campaigned for more variety since Day One … and Me-TV-FM offers more than most. (We’re also very fond of Rewound Radio, who’ll play more of the rockin’ tunes that were popular during this era that Me avoids, and WCFLChicago.com, who plays just about anything and everything. You can be listening to Elton John one moment, Aerosmith’s “Big Ten Inch” the next and then a track off the latest Adele album!)
I’ve given up on the concept of trying to program everything … or only concentrating on the hits as they charted at the time, simply because it was a big hit THEN … because a LOT of this music doesn’t hold up as well as much of the others. Right now, my main focus is "Does it SOUND good coming out of your radio?" I love it when Me’ll play an hour of strong material … you don’t want to turn it off … but too often that hour is interrupted by a song or two that break the momentum. It just doesn’t SOUND right … and this has been the most consistent complaint I’ve heard about the station. Yes, it’s cool to feature some of these ‘70’s album tracks now and then … but stick to the tracks that actually drew airplay and attention at the time … there’s just TOO many times where I find myself muttering out loud, “That’s timeless and memorable??? To WHO?!?!?” Because I’m guessing that even that artist’s MOTHER doesn’t want to hear that track again!!! (Just keepin’ it real!!!) kk
And, speaking of The Rolling Stones, they had to cancel their date in New Orleans again due to hurricane warnings!!! (Man, how does ANYBODY live down there?!?!)
>>>I have to admit that I was a little bit surprised to wake up to “Living In The Past” by Jethro Tull playing on Me-TV-FM this morning! (At first I thought maybe I had it tuned to The Drive … but this was my clock radio, which has never deviated from Me-TV-FM since the day they began broadcasting … so that couldn’t be the case!) I guess it just wasn’t what I would typically expect to hear them play on their soft-rock oldies format. Don’t get me wrong … I thought it was GREAT to hear this … and, once again, this type of variety, on the station. (To prove THAT point, they followed it up with the Leif Garrett version of “Runaround Sue”!!! Those two songs and artists are about as “opposite ends of the spectrum” as you can get!) Which is exactly what I LOVE about the station … you just never really know what you’re going to hear … and it’s those types of surprises that keep you tuned in. Who would have EVER dreamed 45 years ago that we’d be hearing Jethro Tull on the soft rock stations? And yet they fit … right along side their airplay on the classic rock stations (although classic rock seems to favor their album tracks “Aqualung” and “Locomotive Breath” more than their two Top 40 Hits, “Living In The Past,” #11, 1972, and “Bungle In The Jungle,” #10, 1974. (“Living In The Past” first “bubbled under” in 1969, but I guess radio and listeners just weren’t ready yet for this new “art rock” sound. (kk)
Kent,
That’s Me, living in the past. That’s what we’re all about!
(In that respect, I guess it's really kind of BOTH of our unofficial theme song!) kk
Enjoyed the surprise opening to your Friday Flash today. Glad we can still startle you (in a good way!) every now and then. “Living in the Past” has been part of the library at MeTVFM since the beginning. It’s not a major track for us — it’s more like a little spice we sprinkle in just to catch people’s attention every now and then. “Bungle in the Jungle” serves the same purpose for us. You’ll hear it come around every now and then. And I smiled when you made reference to Leif Garrett’s “Runaround Sue” being the very next song in the sequence.
The thinking behind the MeTVFM format when it was first conceptualized by Neal Sabin in 2015 was to remind listeners of how diverse the Top 40 playlist was back in the days of the transistor radio. It was a characteristic of Top 40 we all definitely took for granted back in the day. In fact, you allude to it just about every time you post a playlist or station survey from 40-50 years ago. Take, for example, the WLS survey of April 27, 1974, which I selected completely at random. The top twenty includes: a rock jam (“Bennie and the Jets”), a hymn (!) (“The Lord’s Prayer”), two instrumentals (“Tubular Bells” and “The Entertainer”), a song sung in a foreign language (“Eres Tu (Touch the Wind)),” one of the earliest disco tunes (“T.S.O.P.”), a country crossover artist (Jim Stafford) and a singer-songwriter ballad (“I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song”). Go down a few more notches, and you’ll find a novelty song (“The Streak”). Now THAT’S true variety.
Stations don’t build a library that way anymore. Today, every format is highly specialized and, as a consequence, segregationist; every playlist is narrowly defined, reflecting only a single genre, in most cases. On the contrary, Neal set up MeTVFM as a throwback to a time when you could hear multiple genres, not just within the same hour but often within the same set, on your favorite station.
Sometimes it’s worlds colliding, we realize. But Neal wanted to throw out the programming principle that’s taken over the industry the past 30 years, the one where you’re supposed to play it safe within your own musical niche. It’s probably the biggest rule that he’s broken in creating MeTVFM.
Have a good weekend.
Rick
Rick O’Dell
Program Director
MeTVFM
And for me, that’s the greatest appeal … we’ve covered this topic many times in the past … the VARIETY that was Top 40 Radio exposed us to all different genres of music … spinning your analogy a step further by adding the sounds of The British Invasion and Motown and Memphis soul … soft rock, hard rock, psychedelia, surf music, cross-over country artists like Glen Campbell and Roger Miller who regularly made the pop charts, right alongside heavier acts like The Rolling Stones, Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Vanilla Fudge.
Today’s music is programmed to one specific genre … and, as a result, it often sounds like one continuous tone, every song blending right into each other to the point that you sometimes can’t tell where one song stops and another song starts. (This is especially true if you’re not familiar with the bulk of the music … I can’t tell you how many time I’ve asked one of my daughters “Is this still the same song???” over the years!)
We’ve campaigned for more variety since Day One … and Me-TV-FM offers more than most. (We’re also very fond of Rewound Radio, who’ll play more of the rockin’ tunes that were popular during this era that Me avoids, and WCFLChicago.com, who plays just about anything and everything. You can be listening to Elton John one moment, Aerosmith’s “Big Ten Inch” the next and then a track off the latest Adele album!)
I’ve given up on the concept of trying to program everything … or only concentrating on the hits as they charted at the time, simply because it was a big hit THEN … because a LOT of this music doesn’t hold up as well as much of the others. Right now, my main focus is "Does it SOUND good coming out of your radio?" I love it when Me’ll play an hour of strong material … you don’t want to turn it off … but too often that hour is interrupted by a song or two that break the momentum. It just doesn’t SOUND right … and this has been the most consistent complaint I’ve heard about the station. Yes, it’s cool to feature some of these ‘70’s album tracks now and then … but stick to the tracks that actually drew airplay and attention at the time … there’s just TOO many times where I find myself muttering out loud, “That’s timeless and memorable??? To WHO?!?!?” Because I’m guessing that even that artist’s MOTHER doesn’t want to hear that track again!!! (Just keepin’ it real!!!) kk
And, speaking of The Rolling Stones, they had to cancel their date in New Orleans again due to hurricane warnings!!! (Man, how does ANYBODY live down there?!?!)
But our FH Buddy Mike Baker will be saluting The Stones on Friday, July 26th (Mick Jagger’s Birthday!) when he airs a two-hour History Of Rock And Roll special featuring The Rolling Stones in the ‘60’s, followed by The Rolling Stones in the ‘70’s.
More information is below …
Join WLTL on Friday, July 26, 2019, from 12 pm – 2 pm CT for two hours of The Rolling Stones.
On Mick Jagger’s birthday, WLTL will present two chapters from The History Of Rock And Roll.
Chapter One will feature The Rolling Stones in the '60s and Chapter Two will feature The Rolling Stones in the ‘70s.
Celebrate Mick Jagger’s birthday … Friday, July 26, 2019, from 12 pm – 2 pm CT on 88.1 FM WLTL.
WLTL streams at: http://www.wltl.net/listen1.html
Also, the WLTL free app is available for your smart device - Apple’s App Store, Google Play and the Windows Phone Store. Plus, the RadioFX app, Alexa and more.
And, coming in August, WLTL celebrates a 50th anniversary weekend!
Mike Baker And The Forgotten 45s
More information is below …
Join WLTL on Friday, July 26, 2019, from 12 pm – 2 pm CT for two hours of The Rolling Stones.
On Mick Jagger’s birthday, WLTL will present two chapters from The History Of Rock And Roll.
Chapter One will feature The Rolling Stones in the '60s and Chapter Two will feature The Rolling Stones in the ‘70s.
Celebrate Mick Jagger’s birthday … Friday, July 26, 2019, from 12 pm – 2 pm CT on 88.1 FM WLTL.
WLTL streams at: http://www.wltl.net/listen1.html
Also, the WLTL free app is available for your smart device - Apple’s App Store, Google Play and the Windows Phone Store. Plus, the RadioFX app, Alexa and more.
And, coming in August, WLTL celebrates a 50th anniversary weekend!
Mike Baker And The Forgotten 45s
BALLOT #6 RESULTS:
I can't believe how much fun this is!
Rimjberger
Votes were actually down for Ballot #6. (Don’t give up on me yet, guys … we’ve got LOTS more great music to choose from is coming your way!) That being said, while we were tabulating the votes for Ballot #8, we officially passed the 740,000 mark ... so thank you all for one hell of a turn-out!
Still, we had some heavy hitters and a few more surprises …
TOP TEN VOTE-GETTERS:
I can't believe how much fun this is!
Rimjberger
Votes were actually down for Ballot #6. (Don’t give up on me yet, guys … we’ve got LOTS more great music to choose from is coming your way!) That being said, while we were tabulating the votes for Ballot #8, we officially passed the 740,000 mark ... so thank you all for one hell of a turn-out!
Still, we had some heavy hitters and a few more surprises …
TOP TEN VOTE-GETTERS:
# 1 – Cinnamon Girl – Neil Young (I never saw this one coming ... a GREAT track that I've always loved ... even used to sing it myself back in the day ... and an FM Classic Rock staple for as long as the genre has existed ... but I never expected this one to come in at #1 on the daily ballot)
# 2 – Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles (An early Beatles favorite that still sounds fresh and exciting today)
# 3 – Changes – David Bowie (Based on the Ballot #6 options, I figured this one to come up on top ... or "Can't Find My Way Home" by Blind Faith, which you'll find below at #7. Again, we're at the mercy of the alphabetical choices provided on a daily basis ... but Classic Rock staples like Bad Company's "Can't Get Enough," Marshall Tucker's "Can't You See," ELO's "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" and "Carry On Wayward Son" didn't even make The Top Ten! You won't find "China Grove," "Centerfold" or "Caught Up In You" up here either ... which makes for some REAL surprises within the top ten finishers)
# 4 – Can’t Find The Time – Orpheus (Always a list favorite, this one has scored quite a few points in our Classic Roll Poll, too ... 167 so far to be exact!)
# 5 – Catch Us If You Can – Dave Clark Five (We saw "Because" make the list on Ballot #3 ... and now here's the other ranking DC5 tune, coming in at #5 on our Ballot #6 list)
# 6 – Can’t Help Falling In Love – Elvis Presley (Elvis making his presence known again, this time with one of his greatest ballads ... the people have spoken ... they want to hear a little bit of The King sprinkled into your classic rock programming ... and it makes sense ... this is where it all started ... why not acknowledge it? Without Elvis, there are no Beatles ... without The Beatles, pushing the limits of what was acceptable in pop music, classic rock might not exist.)
# 7 – Can’t Find My Way Home – Blind Faith (There it is ... my all-time favorite from this list)
# 8 – Caroline No – Beach Boys (Didn't think I'd see this one on the list at all, much less in the top ten!)
# 9 – Chuck E’s In Love – Rickie Lee Jones (Another cross-over hit that fits multiple formats ... and, quite honestly, this song sounds good EVERY time it comes on)
#10 – Carrie Anne - Hollies (It took awhile for The Hollies to be recognized by The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ... but they put together an incredible catalog of music over the years ... watch for a number of their tunes to make the final TOP 3333 MOST ESSENTIAL CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS OF ALL TIME list)
OTHER SURPRISES:
Classical Gas – Mason Williams (wow!)
Classical Gas – Mason Williams (wow!)
Celebrate – Three Dog Night (several Three Dog Night titles have been nominated)
Clap For The Wolfman – Guess Who (a nice showing for this track ... more of a novelty tune than a classic rock track ... but the fans seem to love it)
Centerfield – John Fogerty
Carefree Highway – Gordon Lightfoot (another one that surprised me ... Top Soft Rock Tracks, maybe ... but CLASSIC Rock? Yet you guys voted for it so here it is!)
Captain Jack by Billy Joel (an early, lesser known Billy Joel that scored very well in the Ballot #6 voting)
Cathy’s Clown by The Everly Brothers (another real surprise)
Cherry Bomb – The Runaways (I'm curious to see where this one ranks when the final list is published)
Chevy Van by Sammy Johns
Chestnut Mare – The Byrds (Lots of votes for this Byrds album track)
Charity Ball – Fanny (I campaigned hard for this one ... nice to see some of you responding)
Christine Sixteen – Kiss
I guess I have a thing for "dirty" songs. Nottalotta stuff in my top ten songs that classic rock radio is gonna play anytime soon. Actually, I prefer Do Ya by the Move, but ELO works. WTF, on the 40th anniversary of Disco Demolition, no Do You Think I'm Disco, by Steve Dahl? Good job by my fellow FHers for selecting Did You See Her Eyes.
Jack
We’re going to see Jeff Lynne again in a couple of weeks … can’t wait. Disco Demolition even made the pages of Rolling Stone on the 40th Anniversary! (Actually, I always hated BOTH of those “Do Ya Think I’m …” songs!)
And I’ll never forget all the hype going on at the time about Illusion being “the next Beatles” … maybe even BIGGER than The Beatles. Meanwhile, their only Top 40 Hit, “Did You See Her Eyes,” peaked at #24 in Record World. (It did a little better here in Chicago where it peaked at #10 on WLS.)
I guess I have a thing for "dirty" songs. Nottalotta stuff in my top ten songs that classic rock radio is gonna play anytime soon. Actually, I prefer Do Ya by the Move, but ELO works. WTF, on the 40th anniversary of Disco Demolition, no Do You Think I'm Disco, by Steve Dahl? Good job by my fellow FHers for selecting Did You See Her Eyes.
Jack
We’re going to see Jeff Lynne again in a couple of weeks … can’t wait. Disco Demolition even made the pages of Rolling Stone on the 40th Anniversary! (Actually, I always hated BOTH of those “Do Ya Think I’m …” songs!)
And I’ll never forget all the hype going on at the time about Illusion being “the next Beatles” … maybe even BIGGER than The Beatles. Meanwhile, their only Top 40 Hit, “Did You See Her Eyes,” peaked at #24 in Record World. (It did a little better here in Chicago where it peaked at #10 on WLS.)
