Rock This Town

When I was a kid, the meaning of New Year’s Eve evolved over time. At first, it was simply my father’s birthday. Then, it became a football night, prelude to the even bigger football day of January 1. Then came 1970, when I discovered the New Year’s Eve countdown on the radio.
I grew up [...]

The Countdown

I was a sports fan–the kind of kid who kept statistics while watching games on TV–before I was a music and radio fan. So once I discovered music and radio, it was only natural that I would become a chart freak. A record chart is like the weekly baseball stat sheet I used to pore [...]

Christmas Wonders

On Christmas Eve, The Mrs. and I were in a small town in Michigan, celebrating with her brother and his family. As night fell, I took charge of the music in the family room and tried to find a radio station to provide background for dinner and the gift exchange. Now, I had in mind [...]

The Gift

A few months ago, I put up a post here called “Why Time Begins in September,” in which I briefly explained how I was first seduced by radio and the music on it. But that is not the whole story. The next chapter, just as important, happened three months later. In 1995, I wrote a [...]

Christmas Tree Toppers

One of the major traditions of British pop music is the annual national guessing game over what will be the Number One single on Christmas Day. British bookies even take bets on it–but not this year, because it’s been a foregone conclusion for months (officially confirmed this week) that Band Aid 20’s new version of [...]

Top 5: Betcha Wonder How I Knew

All-time marks for chart dominance by a single record company don’t mean what they used to, now that two major conglomerates control most of the music released in the United States. Not so back in the day. And so it was that beginning this week in 1968, Motown accomplished the greatest feat of chart domination [...]