JULY WAS GREAT IN '88

One of the advantages of being born in July is that it's summer...at least in the northern hemisphere. The July's have piled up thick and strong, now, and each has its special place in my memory. Coming across an ancient TV commercial on YouTube can take me back to being a 7 year-old, in 1966. Affairs of the heart, and the occasional flare of youthfulness can conjure up 1976. It's when the month is unusually mild, as this one has been, that I recall July 1988.

Something as simple as a sea breeze can do it. For a few reflective seconds, I'm 29, leaving San Diego as if with a knapsack on a stick. Fleeing the repressive formatics, inane lack of leadership, and the hideous overnight shift at what was then Y-95-FM. I landed in Oxnard, at Top 40,
Q-105. One of the questions I was asked when interviewing for the night job was, "Why in the world are you leaving San Diego to come here?"

The question was valid. San Diego was beautiful, its beaches breath-taking, a small town/big city. I had left the nation's 18th largest radio market for number 88, or something lower on the list. It took an entire weekend to make my decision to go. I'd be leaving friends, a nice apartment in a great neighborhood, with reasonable rent, and I wouldn't be paid any more...in fact, for the first few weeks, it would be less.

I left to get off the overnight shift, yes, but also to play the hits, and bring my natural humor to the air. The suffocating atmosphere at KWLT (which became KKYY, Y-95) was more than I could bear. Along with production man John Nixon (who's reading this, I'm sure), more fun was had in the halls, and the studio making amusing spots than any time spent on air with the listening public. Adult Contemporary radio, as its called, makes money, but it's wall paper. Background noise. It stifles talented people. And it's no place for someone as young a 29 as I was.

When I got to Q-105, regardless of the dilapidated shack we broadcast from, and the fact the place was permeated with the scent of the cow, pig and chicken manure used to fertilize the surrounding strawberry fields, I was ecstatic. To be able to display my innate enthusiasm, to embrace the vibrancy and freshness of Top 40 music, and to crack wise over the air...at will? A hefty burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

The 70 degree summer temperatures and soft Oxnard breeze immediately brings back the positive vibe, and the energy of July 1988--and the music. Whether it can be considered good music or not, only a musicologist can say. I can't be critical about it. It reminds me of feeling free on the air for the first time, even though a review of recordings from that summer reveal a jock trying desperately to break free of the repression that was lingering in his head. I was horrible. But I felt good!

These are some of the song titles you'll never hear, you'll never see on a list of 1988's major hits, but they are songs that immediately bring forth the rush of excitement I felt playing them for the first time, that summer:

Rush Hour - Jane Weidlin
Summer Girls - Dino
Spring Love - Stevie B.
Simply Irresistible - Robert Palmer
Another Part of Me - Michael Jackson
Jackie - Blue Zone
The Twist - The Fat Boys, with Chubby Checker
Shake Your Thang - Salt and Pepper
Parents Just Don't Understand - D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince

The latter was number one on the Top 8 at 8 (brought to you by Saturday's Fashion store in The Oaks Mall) the night my U-Haul rental rolled into Port Hueneme, where I'd live for two years.

The pay would improve a little, my talent would develop, especially by summer, 1989, and I would never leave Ventura County (although I miss the sea breeze). All that mattered in July of 1988, was that, after 7 years being suppressed in both San Diego, and earlier in Public Radio, I was playing the hits...being young, and ready to burst with enthusiasm for what I was doing. I flush with moments of that feeling when a zephyr brings back a song--I'd love to feel that all the time, just once more in my career.

PUSHING BUTTONS THROUGH THE YEARS


While I'm thinking about all this, I'm reminded that I hardly listen to music at all while I'm in the car. Call it maturing, call it getting older, call it not associating positive memories with what I'm hearing. I think we can all, however, recall what the buttons on our car radios were set to as life rolled along. I certainly do.

On the buttons of my first car in 1977, equipped with a factory, Philco, AM radio, I punched up, from left to right, KABC (Dodger games) KRLA (I could never resist the oldies..and in '77 they had a current play list. It was Art Laboe, Johnny Hayes, the music, and that's it), KTNQ, The new Ten-Q (new home of the Real Don Steele, but they sped their music up 3 to 4 percent...sounded like the Chipmunks sang every song), KHJ (coming to the end of it's long run as THE Top 40 station in L.A.), KGFJ (the heritage "soul" station), and 1580, KDAY (the preeminent "soul" station). If you didn't have FM in your ride, you missed KMET, K-EARTH, KLOS, KUTE, the new "Disco" station, and jazz on KKGO.

Flash ahead ten years, as I settled in at Q-105, and my '83 Corolla has six AM and three FM buttons. On the AM: KMPC (not for the big band music, but for the remarkable, funny sports reporter Jim Healy, who's daily 5:30pm, 30 minute, drop-in filled shows could not be missed); KABC (Dodgers, as always), and KNX for news. FM: K-EARTH (who knew I'd wind up working there, someday?), Q-105 (where I worked, then) and KIIS (the leading Top 40 in the '80's).

The state or radio and car radios themselves have changed. Not having Sirius/XM, my six AM presets, today, are occupied by sports talk--710 KSPN, 1090 out of San Diego, KNX for news, KFWB, for my friend Maggie McKay (Phil Hulett's on too early for me to catch while driving) and KABC (Dodgers...back home again, although surrounded by some fairly hostile right-wing hosts, and weekend infomercials). I have 18 FM presets I used for no more than four stations: The Sound, KLOS, KIIS, and K-Earth, though I rarely listen when I'm not in the building.

Enjoy the summer, enjoy listening to what you dig, whether the radio delivers it or not. And if you surf the net for what radio used to offer, enjoy my friend Kevin Poore's "Nights at The Sound Table" Wednesday nights at 7:30, PDT, at www.ustream.com. A panel determine what music sucks and what doesn't. It's a lot of fun.