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| Thursday, July 29, 2004 |
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Live from Earth 
| | One of the guys just said that the convention bloggers "could have used an assignment editor" on Monday when the convention started. Somehow tennis came to mind. In tennis you serve and volley. I realized that starting a conversation-worthy topic is like serving into a volley. Is it a coincidence we use "servers?" Just a thought. |
Uh oh. I know too many answers
Fabulous 57
| | When I was a kid, my favorite radio station was WMCA, "Fabulous 57" in New York. WMCA was a pioneering Top 40 station, and something of an underdog. Allan Sniffen explains: |
| | WMCA became one of New York's highest rated radio stations. In 1961, its chief competitors were WINS, WMGM and WABC. It regularly beat WMGM which eventually shifted to a "Beautiful Music" format. In 1965 WINS became an all news station which left just WMCA and WABC in the Top 40 race. It's important to point out that WMCA was only a five thousand watt radio station where WABC was a fifty thousand watt station. As a result, WABC had a much greater reach into the suburbs of New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island. But, WMCA did extremely well in New York City where it had a great signal. It was the number one station in Brooklyn and was also a favorite station in the black neighborhoods of Harlem since it played a wider range of music than WABC. The radio ratings of WABC vs. WMCA have been described as a donut where the center hole of the donut represents the areas where WMCA was the champ and the the outer ring of the donut represents the area where WABC won. |
| | I started listening because my big cousin Ron, who drove a hot red '60 Chevy convertible and had a girlfriend named Barbara Ann (to match the Regents song), told me WMCA was cool. But the main attraction was the music, which was much newer on WMCA than on the competition. Allan again: |
| | WMCA was a top 40 radio station that broke new records. Unlike its chief competitor WABC which refused to play anything that had not yet demonstrated record sales, WMCA would pick its "Sure Shots" and was frequently the first station in New York to play new records. Naturally, this included The Beatles. The level of competition was so great for new Beatles records that WMCA actually had people in London who obtained records for the station before their official release date. But, WMCA's commitment to new records was not just limited to The Beatles. WMCA air personality Ed Baer tells a great story of how he had a friend who worked at the Columbia Record Company pressing plant. Ed was able to get new releases from people like Dion, Bobby Vinton and Steve Lawrence before they were officially distributed and so, WMCA would be the first to play them. |
| | WMCA also pioneered schwag as a fashion statement. Over the years the station gave away thousands of wmca good guy t-shirts, one at a time, to contest winners. I always wanted one of those things, because they were rare and in high demand. |
| | In spite of its signal limitations, WMCA came in well down at Da Shaw, where our family went every summer. I remember walking through the crowds at Mantaloking Beach, listening to Connie Francis sing "Lipstick on Your Collar" through dozens of transistor radios on blankets under umbrellas. |
| | So 57 became a magical number for me, although I could hardly imagine being 57. That was older than my father, even. |
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