My brother Pat is 15 months younger than me, we were brought up almost like a set of twins in some respects. Every year we got the same thing for Christmas, the same toys and clothes, BB guns one year, three speed bicycles another, then as we turned into teenagers things changed somewhat. I think it was because we were older and our presents were more costly, whatever the reason somewhere about 1960 we got one gift to share between us.
One year it was a Philco AM radio (FM was a few years down the road). There were more stations available than TV channels, the issue was what do we listen to, we were teenagers so it was a no-brainer that we would listen to the rock music of the day - Elvis and The Beatles, Beach Boys, Mamas and Pappas as well as a long list of artist. Although there were a bunch of stations to choose from not all played the music we liked, then there was the problem of reception.
Most local stations came in fine during the day and even stronger at night. The competition from stations further away was fierce at night because stations from great distances would come in strong at night, WLS in Chicago, Illinois was one in particular. The reason was that the AM band wave reacted differently during the day than at night, at night the wave was bounced off of the ionosphere and could be heard from hundreds of miles away or more, during the day the wave was closer to the ground level and increased interference. A lot of smaller stations shut down at night for a variety of reasons.
At the time in Nashville WSM generated 50,000 watts of power and could be heard just about anywhere within a thousand miles but they played country music and at that time there were few teenagers into country music. Other prominent stations like WLS, some 800 miles to the north and WLAC in Nashville, played rock and roll, they also had 50,000 watts of power. All three stations were on the air 24 / 7.
Each station had at least one thing that made them stand out from the others. WSM in addition to playing country music also broadcast the Grand Old Opry every Saturday night with the voice of the opry Ralph Emery as the MC. WLAC had as it's main sponsor a place known as Ernie's Record Mart, there claim to fame was that they had the latest and greatest records available for purchase, they probably had a copy of every record ever made. Ernie died in 1977 and as I remember the store closed not long after. WLS had a DJ like no other of the time and they had the best nighttime rock and roll line up.
We did have a TV in the house but it belonged to the family, it was 19 inches and black and white with three channels and they would only broadcast from about 6:30 am till midnight. We kids would watch cartoons in the morning and some shows in the afternoon but family viewing was more often controlled by mom and dad, they liked to watch Ed Sullivans variety show, Lawernce welk, and Gunsmoke. But by 1960 Pat and I were more into the rock and roll or folk music which at times would drive mom and dad bonkers.
In the early 70's I had a job as a debt collector for a bank in Nashville, it required me to travel a good portion of the state. As I drove through the countryside, I always had the radio on, I liked WSM in the afternoon because they had Paul Harvey and his "Rest of the Story" and Ralph Emory had a show. WLAC played rock and roll but even at night I would sometimes have problems with reception but WLS could be heard all over the south after dark. I spent a lot of time behind the wheel singing along to the radio.
Today we have SIRUS, I Tunes and any song you want to hear can be found on Google or other places on the internet but somehow it's just not the same, there's no mixture, no top 40 just a stream of music.
I haven't heard WLS in many years now, haven't listened to WLAC or WSM since leaving Tennessee back in 1978, since Linda passed away I don't listen to as much music. I still like the music of my youth but it's almost impossible to find on the radio anymore so my interest has turned to country music when I listen to the radio.
The radio stations are still on the air though the DJs have long ago passed on, few of the artist are still with us, those that are don't perform much anymore. The music will always be with me be it country or rock and roll, it's a bygone era that for me is slowly turning to a fading memory.
PS, while researching specifics for this story, I found that my memory obviously doesn't always relate to the way things actually were. This has happened on more than a few occasions, I realized some time back that it's true that the memory is the first thing to go and for that reason I turn to google more and more. Part of the problem is due to age, I'm 76 now, part of it is that the memories of a small boy contain pictures of things that were not as big as the reality of the time. Then there is the problem that I just can't remember every little detail that happened over 65 years ago. There is no need for concern though as I can guarantee the events of my stories actually happened, if anything there may be some omittance of details which I have, at times, gone back and added to the story whenever I remembered them days or even weeks later.
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