2 weeks Ago
Just like Kathy’s Mailbag, I get questions and lots of comments about previous columns. But first, a quiz question. If you didn’t catch our morning show this week on WHMS 97.
5-FM, I stumbled across a unique take on No. 1 songs. After writing close to 9,000 different questions through the years, some days it does get challenging.
Artists that go to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 that replace a blood relative at the top of the chart — name the first male singer, female singer and group that each went to No. 1 and replaced a blood relative at the top spot.
Answers at the end of the column. Our Larry Lujack column is still generating comments. Frank Koebel wrote: “Believe it or not, but Larry Lujack also came to Tuscola in 1968-69.
There was a place in Tuscola called The Wick. High school area kids would go there on Saturday nights to dance or just hang out. Sometimes there was a band, but usually somebody just played records.
Anyway, this particular time Larry Lujack came in a stretch limo and walked into the place with a girl on each arm. I believe that he might have had a cocktail or two. It was a pretty big deal.
” I asked Gary Brinkley, who grew up in Tuscola, about The Wick. It was held in the Tuscola Community Building from the late 1950s through the ’60s and was run by a woman named Gloria. Gary’s mom took tickets, and his dad worked security.
One Saturday night, The Buckinghams from Chicago headlined The Wick. The band showed up with no instruments, assuming they were in Tuscola to just sign autographs. Gloria advised them they were contracted to perform.
Fortunately, a couple of bands in town supplied The Buckinghams with instruments and they hit the stage. (Buckinghams music trivia: they sold more 45s in 1967 throughout the U.S.
than The Beatles). Mike Cornwall reminded me that during the Vietnam War reel-to-reel tapes of American Top 40 radio stations like WLS with Lujack were worth gold — a refreshing break from Armed Forces Radio. Jeff Stapleton, Randy King and 20 others reached out about the music features K-104 presented.
Many credited the collection of air personalities we had for their love, even today, of a wide variety of music. “The Feature Album” at 10 p.m.
was frequently mentioned. That was a controversial programming element. Stations across the country did this feature.
Most major record companies despised it. Many companies refused to send us copies of new music. My opinion: if you must go buy a copy of an album, I will.
For many years, listener research indicated this was a strong feature. Delivering on listener expectations superseded any freebies from record companies. The other music feature that record companies did not like was how we handled hot brand-new albums.
The first couple days after release we would play a different cut from the album almost every hour. Once again, this is something our listeners overwhelmingly viewed as a positive K-104 attribute. Promotionally over the years, because of our programming policy of listeners first, we missed out on giving away free records, T-shirts and occasional concert tickets supplied by record companies.
Our listeners were constantly treated to a higher level of promotional activity thanks to our general manager. Jeff Balding was a master at client negotiations. One example was our relationship with Ozark Air Lines.
At one time, Ozark flew out of Champaign to Washington, D.C., New York and Denver, in addition to St.
Louis and Chicago. We were able to offer trips to Busch Gardens in Florida, ski trips to Colorado, plus a promotion where we gave away pairs of tickets to all 61 cities in the Ozark system. I appreciate your response and look forward to your topic ideas.
Answer: Andy Gibb’s “Love is Thicker Than Water” overtook the Bee Gees “Stayin Alive”; “How Will I Know” from Whitney Houston replaced Dionne Warwick’s “That’s What Friends Are For”; and the Bee Gees “Night Fever” kicked Gibb’s “Love is Thicker Than Water” off the top spot..
