A long time ago, I began the first permanent rock show on WKPT-AM. John Dotson had “Sounds of Summer” the previous year, but it ended when he went back to school or left town or something. It was a good show and broke the Easy Listening hold on that staid, NBC-affiliated station. So, I swooped in the next year, ditched “Teenage Terrace”, (which I had been on when I was in high school, from 5:00 to 6:00 pm, as I recall, with Marty running the board and we students, when we showed up, sitting at the table in the news studio) and had the 6:00 pm to midnight slot all to myself as “The Midnight Sun”.
Since this was before 8-track tapes in cars became widely available, I was a success, as it were, with the kids cruising Broad Street. Then, the tapes came and I eventually moved into the afternoon Drive Time slot. The fact that, for the most part, I had to buy my own records for the show and management had the nerve to put out something like this cloth sticker: “Like it is”, my ass. The phrase was a joke by this time.
The ellipse is 4″ on the horizontal axis and 2-1/2″ on the vertical.
Ah, Sounds of the Summer ’68 it was. I still have one 7.5″ reel… That would be approaching 50 years ago…
And forever and always, thank you for your help in fashioning the end piece for the show…and the name “Midnight Sun”.
Bob,
Could you give a history and synopsis of “A New Day.”
That would really be up to Carl Swann, Jr. He and Chip McNeer strove mightily against a tide of company ignorance of the AOR music format. Even a delegation of students from Dobyns-Bennett failed to convince the station General Manager to keep the show on the air. They were more or less politely asked to leave.