ROCK ON RADIO
Once upon a time, in our electronic past, radio broke the news of the beat across America. Wild nights with Alan Freed playing a crazy crazy sound in the heartland of the nation. Elvis shook, kids screamed, parents growled, the sound pulsed and jumped.
REWIRE YOURSELF
ROCK ON RADIO
by
Richard Robinson
Once upon a time, in our electronic past, radio broke the news of the beat across America. Wild nights with Alan Freed playing a crazy crazy sound in the heartland of the nation. Elvis shook, kids screamed, parents growled, the sound pulsed and jumped.
Without radio it wouldn't have happened the same way. Sure, cheap plastic record's, Elvis's hips up on TV, Leo Fender's electric guitars and amps all helped, but on a day to day basis, beat by beat, it was radio that made the difference. Speed crazed disc jockeys, stuffing dollars in their pockets, playing the sound, playing with the sound. And a generation buying the sound, believing it.
Golden days from the late '40s, through the payola '50s, into the '60s. When AM radio, at home with the first portables, in the car on the dashboard, did it. Clear channel 50,000 watt stations like WABC in New York, WKBW in Buffalo, WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana making it happen from Elvis to the Beatles.