You know you’re a radio old-timer if you can remember when stations had enough jocks to field a softball team. In the early 80s, I played for the KDTH Killerwatts (which is the greatest radio-station team name of all time). We were in demand around the small towns of northeast Iowa, frequently invited to play charity games. One fine day we played the Farley, Iowa, fire department. After thrashing us, they invited us to the firehouse, where the firemen had cases of beer stacked to the ceiling. Had there been a fire in Farley that night, there was nobody sober to put it out. Another time, we played in front of several hundred spectators in St. Donatus, Iowa. They introduced each of us over the public-address system individually, then gave us a ride to the pitcher’s mound in a wheelbarrow, where they dumped us out and shot beer into our mouths with a turkey baster.
God, I love sports.
I mention all of this because the survey from WYSL in Buffalo, New York, dated November 19, 1971, features a list of upcoming games for the WYSL Hi Hoopers basketball team. They were planning one game a week that December—against the staff of the student radio station at Grand Island High School (and what a thrill it must have been for those kids, seriously), the faculty at Kenmore East, the Town Boys Club at Riverside, and the alumni at Bishop Fallon. And on the radio, they were playing these:
1. “Precious and Few”/Climax. This Top 40 essential didn’t peak on the Hot 100 until the end of February 1972, and it didn’t get on the air most places until late December or January at the earliest, but WYSL was among the first stations in the country to play the hell out of it. Not the first, however: a station in Honolulu had it in the Top 5 the previous July.
10. “Respect Yourself”/Staple Singers. In which anybody who’s at risk of getting too full of themselves is completely schooled. Check it out live at Wattstax.
11. “Love Is Bigger Than Football”/Sammy Day and the Comic Strip. Here’s a record about which I can find practically nothing. It turns up on eBay occasionally, and on lists of rare bubblegum singles, but that’s it. You can hear a clip of it here, as long as the eBay listing lasts. If you have any information about it, help a brother out.
15. “Hallelujah”/Sweathog. This San Francisco band had a major reputation for about five minutes in ‘71 and ‘72 and is described by Allmusic as “Three Dog Night meets the Allman Brothers Band.”
16. “White Lies, Blue Eyes”/Bullet. The reasons why DJs love certain records are sometimes different from the reasons the audience loves the same records. YouTube DJ Music Mike explains below.
Sounds a little like the Grass Roots to me. (Or a slightly less sweaty Sweathog.) And by the way, I’ve got that K-Tel Music Power album Mike held up.
“Hallelujah”/Sweathog (out of print)
Filed under: Radio Tales, Record Charts, Tracks, YouTube
When I worked at WNAM/Neenah-Menasha, Wisconsin in 1983, I played on the station baksetball team. We played various charity games with one of them at Neenah High School against the jocks from WOSH/Oshkosh. The referees for the game were Eddie Lee Ivery and Freddie Nixon of the Green Bay Packers. What a thrill! I even made a half-court shot just before the halftime buzzer!
I can’t believe it (because it feels like I saw it repeatedly as a child), but I’m drawing a blank on what tv commercial used the Climax song. I know I could look it up in seconds, but I feel like I shouldn’t have to.
“Precious and Few” hawked the Chevy Silverado.
So, did the Killerwatts have cool uniforms, too?
No uniforms, or even Station T-shirts that I remember. However, I remember that our pitcher was a sales rep named Elaine. When she’d get up to pitch we’d all break into a chorus of “Come On Elaine”, to the tune of the then-current “Come On Ilene”.
Good times.