Mood:
crushed outTopic: "The Silver Sow Award"(3)
Recently the very last "oldies" radio station in Greater Atlanta converted to Hispanic broadcasting. Frodo is quite upset, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Immigration Bills, illegal aliens, or Lou Dobbs. Frodo is upset because Venus Flytrap, Dr. Johnny Fever, Kasey Kasem, Dick Clark, Joey Reynolds, John R, Gary McKee, and the others are no more. There are not enough listeners to combat the talk radios, and the revitalized "Hambone" of the would-be gangsters who have stolen summer nights and the back seats of Chevy convertibles.
When Frodo was a halfling, he received a crystal radio set which he rigged up under his bed, so that he could crawl under the covers and listen to "Folk Music" being broadcast by WLS in Chicago. The name of Pete Seeger and flowers gone to graveyards every one became a part of what Frodo was to become.
A transistor radio followed and Frodo learned to move and do like this with Elvis and the incomparable Buddy Holly. Frodo could shuffle his feet and dance with anyone who passed him on the street, and how all kinds of people laughed, and danced with Frodo.
Frodo and the Fellowship would cram into motor cars, old and new, and sing love songs to girls who never knew that they existed. The Fleetwoods would call him Mr. Blue, but the Beach Boys gave him hope of beaches and waves. They would drive downtown, and look for some place that never closed.
Frodo had many long-range nights alone in his motor car, when only the magic of Nashville or New Orleans would guide him through the darkened landscape of Mississippi or Tennessee. WKBW, WLAC, WSB, WOWO, were sowewhere on the dial as he slipped from one 50,000 WATT'er to another while dreaming of one who waited on the other end of that voyage.
The demise of "WKRP in Cincinnati" on TV signaled the beginning of the end. Soon the morning shows on radio converted to easy listening, or country, or blather. Saturday nights were the last remaining outpost for the "Top 40" from the Summer of 1967, but now even they have fallen prey to the download to something vaguely resembling a tape recorder.
Johnny Fever said it best of all; "Booger."
Posted by loveysdaddyga
at 9:00 PM EDT
