Micah 6:8
Matthew 26-27
Yes, your life matters.
We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?
The other day I heard a couple of the hosts on WJR-AM (that's 760AM in Detroit) talking about all the great folks with whom they had worked over the years and it made me think about the great programming I've heard on that station as long as I can remember.
One early memory (before 1965, based on the house in which the conversation took place) was of my wondering how Mom could tell which guy was on the radio - they all sounded the same to me then. I don't remember her reply, it was probably something as simple as, "listen long enough and you know their voices." That lack of recognition of voices is very much not the case now, so I'm thinking it was really an early instance of my gift for not being able to connect a name with a person (whether by sight or sound). I'm really good at that.
At any rate, I started trying to make a list in my head of programs and hosts I remember on WJR so I thought I'd share what I could produce here. (That's content generation for those of you who wonder how blog posts are created.)
- Karl Haas, Adventures in Good Music
- Mike Whorf, Kaleidoscope
- Gene Elsey, Music for Moderns
- JP McCarthy, the Morning Music Hall (that name didn't stick forever, now was it terribly accurate most of the time)
- Jimmy Launce, I think his show was just called the Jimmy Launce Show
- JP again with Focus
- Ted Strasser, Patterns in Music
- Jay Roberts, Night Flight 760
- Foster Braun, the Internet Advisor
- Gerry Whitman, Whitman's Sampler
- Bob Hines, whatever his overnight show was called (The jingle was "Spend the night with Bob Hines, on WJR." maybe that was the name of the show.)
I'm sure I'm missing a bunch more like Bud Guest, but I only remember of him, not actually listening to him. Still, that's quite a list of great radio hosts and programs for one station that wasn't syndicating their stuff across the country.
That list is just people I remember from WJR - it doesn't even take into account all the great shows that actually were syndicated nationally out of Detroit back in the golden era of radio - things like the Lone Ranger - nor the other great stations here in the Motor City (WABX, WRIF, WQRS, the list goes on and on).
Yes, we've been very fortunate here in Detroit.
Radio is awesome.
Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.
