I was driving the other day listening the Mountain and realized Blake Rogers was gone, missing in action, no word from him neither hide nor hair, where had he gone? Bored, I turn the radio off and listen to the sounds of the city. Later I got home and went to my facebook and saw the Blake had been “let go of” from the morning show. No warning, no explanation on the radio just let go. I felt sad really because I liked the team work of the morning show but do not care for just listening to one person all morning long. I realized it was time to change up a start listening to a variety of stations when I am driving to avoid boredom, and this got me thinking.(Gesh here we go)

 As a kid, and mind you a “young kid”, I listened to the top forty. If we wanted to listen to rock and roll, that is what our parents let us listen to. So the radio station in my day was KTKT. It was an AM station that played top forty pop such as The Beatles (Of course!) Jackson Five, Chicago, Bread, Four Tops, Guess Who, Fifth Dimension, Spiral Staircase, Sly and the Family Stone , Tommy James & the Shondells, CCR, B.J. Thomas, and The Rolling Stones.

 This was our offerings for AM radio. It wasn’t bad, and as a kid I thought it sure did beat country music and elevator music. The radio station sure became a child’s friend. It played the music and created loads of entertainment. At night I would lay in bed with the radio under my pillow listening to the DJ as if they were talking to me personally. I had their bumper stickers, and picked up their weekly charts at the five and dime. I was a real KTKT fan at the time because that is what I knew.

 As the introduction to FM came of course I abandoned KTKT AM to start listening to other stations such as KLPX and KWFM to become “musically mature” whatever that meant. I think in my day, musical maturity meant FM. However that radio station KTKT, where I won prizes often by being the 9^th caller are the things that made memories for me as a radio listener.

 I tracked down some of the DJ’s of the early days and radio stations (that played rock or pop) and thought I would share them with you. I would love to hear what DJ’s you remembered and the memories that went with it. 

• Ed Alexander- KHYT, KWFM, KTKK, KHOS
• Jim Brady – KWFM, KLPX
• Frank Casanova – KIKX, KTKT
• Bob Cooke – KWFM
• Gary Craig – KIKX, KAIR
• John “Mack” Flanagan – KTKT
• Dan Gates-KTKT, KIKX, KWFM, KAIR
• Tom Lang- KIKX, KTKT, KWFM
• Bryan Miller- KTKX, KWFM, KLPX
• Patrick (Kidd) O’Shea – KWFM
• Johnny Rabbitt – KTKT
• Mike Rapp – KLPX
• Jim Ray – KWFM, KLPX
• Phil Richardson – KTKT
• Bobby Rivers – KRQ
• Chris Ryan – KWFM, KTKT
• Margie Rye – KLPX, KWFM
• Bob Scholz – KHYT
• John C. Scott – KHYT, KTKT
• Lee Smith – KTKT
• Gene Thayer – KTKT, KIKX, KWFM

A radio from 1976

I was walking in the park this morning and saw a few teenagers that looked to be high school seniors wandering around with their ipods in one ear and chatting back and forth to each other. I could barely understand what they were saying, but it was clear that they were ditching school and having a great time. As I walked further along, there were more teenagers, ditching, jamming to tunes, and enjoying the mid-morning sun. Across the way there was even a few more teens playing guitar, and this got me thinking. (Here I am thinking again good grief!)

 I graduated high school here in 1976. Back then, we had a thing called senior ditch day. I am unsure if schools still do this; after all I graduated 33 years ago, and I am sure some traditions have changed. However, senior ditch day was a big deal. It was when the seniors all at once, ditched. I ditched though more than just senior ditch day. I actually ditched and went to the same park I walked in this morning, Reid Park. My friends and I would wander around, listening to, playing, or laughing at music with a dozen bagels and an ice cooler filled with soda. The world was ours for a day.

 Some of the songs we listened to on the radio in 1976 were Love Hurts, by Nazareth, Evil Woman by ELO, Play that Funky Music, by Wild Cherry, Over My Head, by Fleetwood Mac, You’re My Best Friend, by Queen, Dream Weaver, by Gary Wright, Lowdown, by Boz Scaggs, Rhiannon, by Fleetwood Mac, Tracks of My Tears, by Linda Ronstadt, and Tonight’s the Night, by Rod Stewart.

 The songs we played on guitar that year included, Beth, by Kiss, Show Me the Way, by Peter Frampton, The Reaper, by Blue Oyster Cult, The Boys Are Back in Town, by Thin Lizzy, Dream On, by Aerosmith, Slow Ride, by Foghat, Magic Man, by Heart, and Squeeze Box, and Take the Money and Run, by The Steve Miller Band.

 What I listened to and what I played were two different things. But nothing, and I mean nothing, beat the songs we used to sit a snicker at. Those included Shake Your Booty, by KC & the Sunshine Band, Afternoon Delight, by Starland Vocal Band, Mamma Mia, by Abba, Saturday Night, by Bay City Rollers, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, by Neil Sedaka, I’d Really Love to See You Tonight, by England Dan & John Ford Coley, and I Write the Songs, by Barry Manilow.

 Seeing those teenagers today really took me back to a time when we defined ourselves through the music we listened to. Today, of course I listen to a much more diverse range of music from rock and roll, to alternative rock, to acoustic rock, to jazz. Nope, I do not do rap or pop music, but what I realized is some things never change, they may get broader, they may expand, but I think we still define ourselves through the music we listen to.

 What were you listening to when you graduated? Better yet, what were you laughing at when you graduated? Even better, how did you define yourself through music? Would love to hear from you!

I was driving on Wilmot, near Broadway, the other day and saw a new, bland, beige-colored, generic hotel standing where my favorite theater once stood. I remember the lines that once surrounded the old Buena Vista like a people blanket, and it got me thinking (here we go yet again).

The Buena Vista Theater was what I called a landmark in my life. It was the place to go as a child and see great movies for cheap. The theater was large. You know the kind where you could run out of breath by the time you ran up and down the red carpet a few times. It was big inside. Not like the cram ‘em and jam ‘em theaters now.

In fact, the Buena Vista Theatre opened in 1967. What a year to open! Cool Hand Luke, The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, The Dirty Dozen were some of the top movies at the time. I recall going to see Jungle Book the first year it opened. Back then you got a bang for your buck because you normally got a double feature or at least a bit of cartoons in the beginning.

On Saturdays, my mother used to give me and my sister or my cousin a couple bucks, drop us off in the front of the theater with a bagful of candy and come and get us three hours later. Those Saturdays were what childhood memories were made of. Tummy aches, hyper on candy, and exhausted from running around all day in the theater, but gosh darn it we had fun.

Sometimes the lines wrapped around the building on Friday and Saturday nights. The expansion of the Buena Vista to a twin theater took place in 1972, when a second auditorium seating 554 was added. In those days that was a lot of people in a single theater. It also meant more lines. We didn’t mind; it was a convenient place to go grab a flick.

I went to the Buena Vista on many of my dates between the years 1976-1978. I remember seeing A Star is Born on a date and thought it was so cool that parts of this movie was filmed in Az. I had a mini-crush on Robby Benson after I saw Ode to Billy Joe and had to crap scared out of me watching the Omen. Of course, one of my first highs happened in that theater when I watched The Song Remains the Same, all in 1976.

Sadly, the Buena Vista closed in late 1997 or early 1998. Driving by it became a painful memory because it started looking so old and dingy. It still stood though and with that I always felt that my childhood memories were still stored in that old building.

Driving past it this week, I told my spouse, “That hotel is built on sacred grounds.” To me it is, but what I realized is you can put up all the ugly hotels you want, my memories are kept safe right here in my heart and in my mind.

What’s your favorite memory of this theater?