How Many Nights...

...did we sit up, listening to wonderful programming, with nothing but the dial light of the radio on?  So many stations "up and down the dial"...but, to lots of us, there were few like KAAY.  Some of the greatest hits came from this station, some of the most fun deejays, lots of good memories.  And how many times did your Momma holler down the hall or up the stairs, "You'd better NOT be listening to that radio!  You've got school tomorrow!" (I wonder how many times she & dad may have secretly listened to something when they were growing up?)

Something about the night...and crazy, wild music that emanated from the radio from that program called Beaker Street.  Many of us had never heard anything like it, especially the spooky background behind that deejay!  Then there was Beaker Theater...and I listened with my head underneath the covers, but with my forehead at the edge of the bed, touching the table so I could hear the radio at it's lowest volume.  I was scared, but at the same time, fascinated!  What times, growing up!

When I was a teenager and driving, I tried to make my trips longer at night, especially when I got off from work at 11PM, so I could listen longer.  Living on a farm, I had to draw the line somewhere, since 5AM came early and attending school, participating in sports and working took a lot of energy and time.  Listening to the radio, and KAAY in particular, was my release.  But on summer nights when I was out of school, I would cruise....

Later in life, a local radio station hereabouts started playing old radio shows on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.  They dropped it, another tried it.  Still fun, but nothing like Beaker Theater.  I'd give almost anything to relive those young days.  Just these little snippets we're enjoying here are simply gold.  Thank you to all who contribute here...every aircheck, every story is a little ray of sunshine in our lives!

Radio has been a large part of many of our lives...mine, especially.  I wish I knew where that old green Zenith tube table radio was...its long gone now.  I obtained the one above when my wife's grandmother passed away and added it to my collection.  However, it is from approximately an era when KAAY was still "large" in the Top 40 market.

Bud S. (staceys4@hotmail.com)