93QFM: The Halcyon Daze.

Whoopla Word Cloud

2011-04-29T11:45:00.001-05:00

This word cloud was created by taking all the words in the entire book and turning their use into a graphic depiction of their importance. Clearly, this is a Milwaukee story.

Click on it to get a larger view that isn't fuzzy.

93QFM and 94WKTI 1984 TV Commercials

2010-10-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

Funny the things you find when you finally get around to cleaning out stuff that has been taking up long forgotten spaces in our attics, basements and garages. In this case it was 1980's VHS tapes of fav television shows that David Doornek just had to watch before he could muster the courage to trash 'em. The revelation came when he realized that the shows didn't interest him at all- but the commercials- well they're a kick!

For the following 94WKTI commercial, I seriously considered extorting a lot of money from Gene Mueller to make this disappear but I came to the conclusion there wasn't enough cash in the world to get me to sit on this! Both morning legends (Reitman too but he likely doesn't give a damn) appear to be SINGING! I've watched it about 20 times so far- still not burnt...

Thanks David! Whodathunk?

Bob Reitman Interviews Frank Zappa. WTOS 1968. WZMF 1973.

2010-08-26T08:53:00.001-05:00

Bruce Springsteen isn't the only rocker legendary Milwaukee DJ Bob Reitman feels a kinship with. It's clear when you listen to these two interviews that Frank Zappa is a brother too.

My love for these vintage 60's and 70's audio nuggets comes from their raw "cool." They aren't acting like they're hip- they actually ARE. I also love that the comfy communication rappor results in rich content. It's no accident. When the interviewer is ACTUALLY INTERESTED in their subject, as opposed to drawing attention to themselves, they listen to the answers to the questions they asked actively and thus, the conversation is artist focused and draws out meaningful insights.

WTOS 1968 (9:11)

WZMF 1973 (31:27)

Bob Reitman can be heard HERE.

VERY SPECIAL THANKS to Marty Dempsey for the audio! Marty has two shows on WMSE 91.7 every Tuesday from 3p-6p and Wensday mornings from 3a-6a.

1977 93QFM Composite and Airchecks

2010-07-22T10:41:00.010-05:00

Special thanks to Rick Rotaru for the mp3's from his private COPYRIGHTED collection.

Scott Beddome

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

The 93QFM Hometown Album Project. 1980.

2010-07-14T09:00:00.012-05:00

Former 93QFM Program Director Paul Kelly wrote:

"Milwaukee has always been my home. I've worked in it's music business all my adult life. But the wealth of musical talent this city turns out never ceases to amaze me. The 93QFM HOMETOWN ALBUM PROJECT is only a small sampling of the current crop of musicians alive and well in our city. The surface has been scratched, but it's only the beginning. As long as you keep making music, Milwaukee, 93QFM will keep making hometown album projects."

Two subsequent hometown album projects were created under the auspices of 93QFM. Look for those here in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

Side One

Arroyo "Farewell"

Bad Boy "If You Love Me Tonight"

Bad Habit "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break"

Benny's Basement Band "Spanish Fly"

The Big Tips Band "You Got What it Takes"

Burst "Leavin The Country"

Side Two

Shivers "When I was Younger"

Fred "Winner Takes All"

Your House "Be There"

Traum "Open Doors"

The Bruce Koenig Band "My Money is Funny"

Magewind "Stica"

LP "Give What You Get"

Credits

I've been told there are "cleaner" MP3 copies out there. Contact me if you are willing to share them.

Special thanks to Ken Hartenstein for the cd's and Rob Feutz for the album cover scans!

Scott Beddome

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

The Shags. 1960's Milwaukee Garage Band.

2010-06-25T23:19:00.013-05:00

Special to The Halcyon Daze

by John Sahli

Originally written for The Astor Theatre (.org)

First Set: Party Time

Bands have to start somewhere and so it was in 1964 with Milwaukee art school students Paul and John who would show up at get togethers, Paul with his conga drum and John with his folk-acoustic guitar and pound out a lot of noise. Partygoers egged them on and soon they were joined by George with his stand-up bass, which was tough hauling around the lower East side. One day Paul called John over to his house to show off a full set of drums, which a friend left to his care while doing a tour in the Army. John’s acoustic guitar couldn’t match up to the intensity of Paul’s drum set, so John picked up an old Danelectro electric guitar and amp and began to work out with Paul and his new drums.

Mike, another fellow art student came over and got excited at what Paul and John were doing and wanted to get in on the action. They suggested that Mike go out and get an electric guitar and John could show him a few licks. So the three of them worked out some basic sounds, with Paul laying some lyrics on them. Since George didn’t shine around any more, a bass guitar was still needed and Don, another fellow art student, heard the call and made the scene, trading in his old guitar for a new electric bass guitar. So the stage was now set for fun and play. They jammed and jammed and managed to come up with some tunes of their own, in and among some Rolling Stone's and folk-blues diddies.

They decided they would call themselves “The Shags”. The group donned turtlenecks and boots, played some "art" parties and soon got asked to play weekends at DaQuisto’s, a local bar. As unprepared as they were, they accepted the opportunity, scrambling around for some equipment, including a decent microphone, which they ran through a hi-fi home amplifier for Paul’s vocals. Somehow they got it together and crammed into a small corner of the bar where they cranked out the same handful of tunes over and over. The crowd loved it and Freddie paid them with pizzas after closing time.

Second Set: Real Money

Now the group had made up enough tunes to play four full sets, about 34 tunes in all, and could play a full evening's show with hardly any repeats. The group took on a manager in hope of bigger and better things. One of their first bookings was at a converted bowling alley-basement bar on Locust Street. When the group arrived and began carrying their instruments downstairs, the owner who was mopping the floor met them and asked what they were doing there. “We’re the group that’s booked to play here tonight,” said John. “No long hairs are going to play here,” quipped the owner. So the Shags packed up and left. After seeing some of the group’s success, the relenting owner wanted the Shags back and they soon agreed to play there. For the first week or two, most of the crowd was made up of friends and others who the group got to come there for a good showing. But it wasn’t long before the word of a new, unusual group with a big dance beat got around, that they filled the place on their own merit. Momentum grew and the Shags went on to become the “house band”, packing O’Brad's and getting paid regularly, which they would continue to do for some time.

Third Set: New Horizons

The group decided to record a 45-RPM record and with some sessions at the Dave Kennedy recording studio in Milwaukee, came away with “Dance Woman” and flip side “Cause I Love You” done on the Raynard label in 1965. It was heard on local jukeboxes and got some local radio play.

After awhile, one of the group’s members, John, decided to leave the band and follow a design career. Ray took over for John at lead guitar and also added keyboards to the group. New tunes were included in the sets and in 1967 the group recorded “Stop and Listen” with flip side “Melissa” on Capital Records, which achieved some Psyche-Rock notoriety. "Stop and Listen" was also included on a Pebbles album release which featured selected Wisconsin groups. It was also included on the Acid Dreams Epitaph - 75 Minutes of Green Fuzz album.

The group had to alter its name to the Shag, dropping the “s”, because of a conflict with another recording group called the Shags. Shortly thereafter, Ray left the group for other interests and was replaced by Gordy on lead guitar.

Fourth Set: Moving Time

The group's repertoire began to take on more depth and polish along with costumes, lighting, smoke and drama. They were booked around the state and played at some large rock concerts with marquee groups. In 1968 the group decided to make the big move to California, where much was happening on the music scene. They would have a good chance to get involved with it, and soon they were.

They played on the same billings with some popular groups including The Jefferson Starship and The Who. At the Pacific High recording studios in San Francisco in 1969, the same recording studio that was then recording The Grateful Dead, the Shag recorded an album of their own original tunes. The group eventually disbanded in the early 1970’s and each member followed their own direction. Their 1969 LP release was digitally remastered in 2005 by Gear Fab Records (GF-216) and made available for sale online. Click here.

Cast of characters:

Paul.................. Paul “Green” Greenwald – Drums, flute, keyboard, vocals
John................. John Sahli – Guitar, harmonica, vocals
Mike ................ Michael Lamers – Guitar, percussion, drums, autoharp, vocals
Don.................. Donald Luther – Bass Guitar, percussion, vocals
Ray.................. Raymond McCall – Guitar, keyboard, vocals
Gordy.............. Gordon Elliot – Guitar, harmonica, congas, vocals

Manager...........Paul Pattengale
Bar Owner 1.... Freddie DaQuisto, DaQuisto’s Bar
Bar Owner 2.... Bob Halliday, O’Brad’s Lower Lounge

John Salhi is now an art photographer. See his website HERE. Contact him HERE.

Paul "Green" Greenwald later became "Space Commander Green" on 93QFM. He too pursued an art career. His website.

Thanks John!

Scott Beddome

Bob Reitman 1976 World Record 93QFM Aircheck

2010-06-08T16:51:00.005-05:00

For the benefit of Muscular Dystrophy, in 1976, Bob Reitman set the record for the longest continous radio broadcast from a "capsule" (trailer) just West of Gate 5 in the Grandstand area at The Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis. The broadcast lasted just longer than the previous record of 220 hours and 5 minutes.

This aircheck of the event is a neat little slice of 1976 "album rock" radio life. It begins about an hour before the events' conclusion. In it Reitman intros or outros The Average White Band, Dr. Hook, BTO, Lou Reed, Springsteen (of course), and Gary Wright. He promotes an upcoming auction benefit that will feature fellow DJ "Joe Benson for 3 cents and an old bottle of coke" which he fears is a bit too much to demand and he has a fun interplay with then news/sports person Dick Irwin. Irwin, who describes the once infamous tennis pro Renee Richards as "transexual" gets a funny admonishment from Reitman who concludes that Irwin is a "commie."

A moment captured from the ether and set to tape then MP3 for us to enjoy 34 years later.

Bob Reitman is still on the radio here.

by Scott Beddome

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

Black Sabbath w/Ronnie James Dio Milwaukee Riot 10/9/1980

2010-05-18T21:16:00.014-05:00

With the passing of Ronnie James Dio, I thought I'd look back on Milwaukees' most interesting "Dio Day." The infamous concert riot was never really given the national coverage of other notable similar events (ie Guns and Roses, St. Louis 1991). Nonetheless, listening to a recording of the event- two songs played, then Ronnie James Dio's admonishment of the crowd, a slow surging wave of anger, the nearly tornadic thunder of crashing seats, vile expletive screams and finally multiple police sirens- is absolutely chilling.

The show started late, so the 10,000 plus revelers at the MECCA Arena were primed with a tension that only a good set of hard core metal would settle. Dio's Black Sabbath started off with a wooshy/spacey overature that segued into a rather flat version of "War Pigs" that found some sing along response but lacked energy (as most first concert songs do.) The music flowed nonstop into "Neon Nights" featuring a Tommi Iommi lead guitar solo and garned moderate applause (on a "metal audience" scale). This is the first break and Dio starts with what sounds like an insincere apology,

"I realize you've been waiting a long, long time throughout this entire night... and we're sorry you had to wait soo long but..."

Then he continues by chiding them for their apparent apathy.

"You seem to be enjoying yourselves settling back into your seats so we'll let you know when the movie starts alright?"

He then intros "N.I.B." 15 seconds pass. The drummer nervously pounds the bass drum three solid beats and then gives the loose snare two solid taps. This is the darkened stage moment when somebody tosses a beer bottle onto the stage and hits bassist Geezer Butler in the head.

Butler in a later interview:

"I heard something hit a cymbal. Then I was hit in the head... next I'm covered in blood! I backed out and was taken off stage."

On the recording you hear Ronnie James Dio say,

"Can you give us some lights JT?"

He thanks the lightman and then his tone turns cynically serious.

"We just wanna tell you one thing.. perhaps the LAST thing we'll say. The stage is not a trash can. We don't appreciate things being thrown at us. You've thrown something for the last time and you've hit Geezer on the head and we don't appreciate that either. We wanted to give a lot for ya... but not our blood. If you don't wanna enjoy it then tough shit!"

The crowd lit up when they heard is forceful expletive but, as fast as he had spoken, likely had no idea what the content of his rap was.

Here's that segment (1:34):

Several minutes pass as the crowd continues to give sedated "encore" type of encouragement.

Butler again:

"Our fucking idiot road manager came out and asked the audience if they thought it was 1776 again. Just what you want to say to an American crowd! We hated him anyhow because he was a spy for the management that we were going to fire. He continued to say things until the crowd went absolutely nuts."

Here it is (5:04):

Admidst the chaotic screams and crashing of wooden chairs being stacked in a pile in the center of the arena to the audience's delight, you hear someone say,

"Is there somebody under there?"

It's followed by a loud metal clang that sounds horribly violent and an angry apex of harsh voices. The segment ends with the distant sound of the approaching law enforcement. In all it has an uncontrolled, animalistic tonality that makes you question the cliche tenets about humanity's goodness.

This is not an event Milwaukee OR the members of Black Sabbath should be proud of.

But still, I really wish I had been there.

by V Scott Beddome

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

93QFM: The Halcyon Daze Invades Facebook and Twitter

2010-05-17T23:34:00.008-05:00

We Are Not Alone!

For George Lucas it was "American Graffitti". For our generation it's "The Halcyon Daze." Much like Lucas' classic coming of age period piece, The Halcyon Daze blog paints a nostalgic portrait of the rock and roll culture twenty years hence.

For the past four years we have been telling our stories. For the most part, it's been pretty much one way- out of our heads, onto the pages and into the ether.

With the creation of The Halcyon Daze Facebook fan site, we're inviting the 150,000 plus visitors who've read more than 800,000 pages to join in the fun.

You are cordially invited to share your photos, links and memories with all the previously invisible Halcyon Daze readers.

Rock On Milwaukee!

Scott "The Kid" Beddome

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

Find us on Twitter @93qfm or click HERE.

The Who Farewell Tour. Live. Milwaukee. 1982.

2010-04-22T17:35:00.016-05:00

From a super secret source comes this bootleg of the legendary December 7th, 1982 "ledge" show. It's an audience recording and it sounds like it. There are almost more screams and applause than music. There's also a near constant sing along (particularly on "Long Live Rock"). But for those who were there it will be a compelling and goosebumpy listen. Headphones are strongly recommended. ("Eminence Front" is cleanest and less noisy of the lot).

I've listened for between song banter that specifically references Milwaukee but can't make any out. You do hear Roger say, "We made it!" at the end of "Can't Explain." That's poignant because the band was stuck on the tarmac in the St. Louis fog for hours that day and the boredom of it all resulted in Daltrey and Townsend getting in a brawl on the plane. Daltrey says something after that that's unintelligible- cockney. You also hear Pete Townsend razz the audience at the end of "It's Hard" saying, "Stand up, sit down, stand up, spin around!". I do know that the intensity and near constant frenzy are tell tale Milwaukee signs from a tour that was panned by critics as uninspired, lackluster and chaotic.

For a band that had lost it's way, this last minute addition to the "Farewell Tour" was a reminder of what they HAD been and, in this moment, still were. For those of us 13,000 lucky souls who were there, it was the best concert the City of Milwaukee EVER saw. Or, for that matter, EVER WILL SEE!

Enjoy!

Love_Reign_Oer_Me.mp3

Long_Live_Rock.mp3

Wont_Get_Fooled_Again.mp3

Encore

Naked_Eye.mp3

Squeeze_Box.mp3

Twist_and_Shout.mp3

Read WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever on this blog or read the "book only" version on Wordpress here.

Thanks Skip!

WZMF Staff Photo

2010-04-06T17:05:00.005-05:00

This photo comes to Halcyon Daze via Duane Dudek via Bill Bruckner.

Back Row Standing is (from left): Gordy Swinehart, Tom Kohl, John Houghton, Jay El, Duane Dudek, Bob Reitman.

Second Row Standing is: Joni Wick, Mike (Rock) Millot, Valerie Knight, Kevin Broege , Ron Amann (w/dog).

Seated Front: Ed??? , Jenny Sedgewick, Bill Bruckner, Mike Ignatiev.

E mail me at scottbeddome@yahoo.com if you remember Ed's last name.

Thanks to Steve Amann for filling in a couple names!

Thanks Duane!

About Halcyon Daze

2009-08-19T06:12:00.000-05:00

The progressive rock/hippie days were over. The early eighties were a bigger and harder rockin personification of Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll. A time when the new music was energetic and fresh, cocaine was clean and sweet and unprotected sex was still OK. It was a great time to be a young kid on a rock radio station. (That's me in the photo, Scott "The Kid", in the studios of Milwaukees 93QFM in 1986, in the midst of an interview with Graham Nash about a week after the US Festival Reunion of CSN&Y.)

For years I've told stories of the experience to my kids, friends and co-workers to the point where, whenever I would start in on one, they would say, "Here we go, it's another one of Scott's Stories."

No doubt they are "gently embellished." But now, as they come to mind, I have a place to put them.

Scott

Also check out the Audio Archive and the Photo Archive (Click on the sidebar). Be sure to just send a quick note of encouragement or place a comment so folks will know you appreciate their efforts.

Submit photos, stories, say "Hi" or inquire about sponsorship:

scottbeddome@yahoo.com.

WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever.

2009-08-09T15:07:00.001-05:00

Read the entire book here.

Much to the consternation of the critics, the death of freeform fm radio heralded the beginning of the biggest rock radio wave ever. The self enveloped, verbose dj’s of the past were finally muzzled and the wimpy and whiney 70’s “pranksters” music was culled out and replaced with only that which kicked ass. It was the early 80’s and the next generation had taken over with a vengeance.

In 1982, set against that backdrop, the Woodstock descended, legendary rock band The Who announced that they were about to embark on what would be called their “Farewell Tour.” As was the case for most mega bands of the period, The Who were going to pass over the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in favor of Chicago and Minneapolis. Milwaukee lacked a large enough venue and had long been considered a sister city to Chicago. Thus, the basic economics and mere proximity relegated the city to second class status.

In what has since come to be considered an urban legend, a true hearted DJ named Tim The Rock N Roll Animal decided he was not going to stand for it anymore. As he stepped out onto the 21st story ledge of his tiny independently owned rock radio station’s downtown penthouse, he vowed to stay out there in the cold Wisconsin fall elements until The Who would promise to add Milwaukee to it’s already planned and started American tour.

WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever by V Scott Beddome is the true story of how that now mythical event came to be. It's a true Milwaukee tale about a time and place so abstract in comparison to today it almost seems like fantasy. From the inner workings of rock radio wars to the "cocaine culture" to the burgeoning early 80's new music scene, it all comes together in this FM meets Almost Famous meets Boogie Nights meets Blow non-fiction narrative.

Special thanks to all who helped!

E mail your comments and consider a donation (click right) of an amount you feel is worthy.

Scott Beddome

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

Above cover photo by Hank Grebe. Great work Hank!

93QFM Found Photos

2009-07-06T15:50:00.017-05:00

Jim Rodeo, Jim Bullock (who was promoting "Too Close for Comfort"),
Patti Genko, Keith "Abdul" Harmon

(Help me out here). Mike Wolf (second from left), Lee Arnold, Guys from "The Cars"

During the WHOoPLA days (circa 1982). Randy Mc Elrath (rear), Bobbin Beam (Behind Lee Arnold's hat), Lee (w/hat), John Duncan (right of Arnold), others.

Kristi Knight (1982 or so).

Jim Rodeo, Jeff "Mr. Midday" Peterson, Tim The Rock N Roll Animal @ a poorly attended Little Switzerland concert event (notice the empty hill reflection in the window behind).

Wally Cleaver w/ Tim The Animal and Patti Genko

Jim Rodeo and Tim the Animal.

Grey Starr Band w/Tim The Animal and Patti Genko.

Terry Gibson and Downstairs Dan just before a long session of love making.

Unknown former QFM PD, Tim The Animal, fan w/long tongue, Mark "Mangy Man" Krueger

Patti Genko and Suzie Austin.

Kristi Knight: Red Hot Radio Lady

2008-12-04T12:44:00.016-06:00

Kristi Knight was a friend. She was eclectic in nearly every way. She was funky, artistic and sensual. We often had long 93QFM night shift talks about nearly every subject you can imagine. Her ditsy, flaky persona hid - for safety sake- her kind and street savvy intuition. Kristi was cool.

An article in the July/August 1989 Single Life local Milwaukee magazine entitled Red Hot Radio Ladies by Lynne Shaner Williams featured Kristi as well as Marilyn Mee and Patti Genko. Read that article here.

When Playboy magazine put out a call for female radio DJ's for a March 1986 "Radio Visions" article- she spent a lot of time considering the idea of giving it away for next best thing to nothing. The small corner of a page topless photo wasn't all that revealing but generated a lot of buzz. While she was no Bo Black, but it was nice for us real men to have a Milwaukee radio girl make the cut.

Kristi is still in radio and is part of a rare husband and wife morning team in San Diego. Click here.

Pictured above: Patti Genko, Marilyn Mee and Kristi Knight from 1989 Single Life mag.

WHOoPLA: Comments

2007-12-20T14:34:00.000-06:00

Here's what folks have said so far about WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever

Mike Boyle (Rock Editor Billboard/R & R):

Remember the impact that rocker WQFM/Milwaukee had on the national and local rockscape in the `80s? Maybe you were a part of it or know someone that was? If so, check out the new book "WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever" by V Scott Beddome...

From Radio's David Martin:

The true story of how one gifted radio program director and his staff, with nothing more than a great idea and their own relentless passion, made national news and history bringing The Who to their town. Sex, drugs, and a generous helping of wireless swagger, that radio surname magic one should properly call only by its given name, rock and roll... Highly recommended..."

Dan Kelley (Classic Rock FM):

You feel the drama, pain and triumph...

Dave Begel:

In all of our worlds there are good memories, bad memories and some that just defy description. This is one of the greatest memories and times in life...what an astounding scene it was to watch and write about.

Tim the Rock N Roll Animal:

It’s a very factual, on-the-money, expose’ that is the real deal. You did an excellent job of putting it together and making it all flow. It was facinating reading all that and actually really emotional…

Brent Alberts:

It’s an exciting chronicle of a Rock and Roll event that captivated an entire city and was talked about from coast to coast. Scotts story telling is very compelling, when I first read it I could not put it down. Anyone who is a Rock fan will enjoy this trip through rock history.

From Jeff Petersen:

It's a great "read" and man, the memories............ Thanks and Best of luck to you Scott!!

From Mark Krueger:

Way to go Scott, this book and your site is a great time capsule of Milwaukee Radio and Music History.

From Keith Harmon:

Congratulations to all my QFM cohorts – especially Tim, Lee, Andy, Duncan (I think I may still owe him money for some sinus medication) - my partner Rodio where ever he is (Palec too and I know where he is) Mr. Midday who cured many a hangover for me and all the folks who set the stage for us from Paul Kelly and Bobby Rivers to Commander Green and Bobbin and of course the godfather Bob Reitman (thanks for letting Mueller come over to TMJ!) and Brent who took me to Bakers Square a time or two...

From Lee Arnold:

Congratulations on your monumental work.

Having lived with your manuscript, now, for the last couple of weeks, I was amazed by your ability to capture both the intricacy and the vibe of this “once in a lifetime” event. It was definitely hard to put down. Your depictions of the main characters and all the supporting characters, as well, was right on the money. I hope this becomes not only a best seller, but a movie as well.

From Susie Austin:

WOW!

Feel free to post your comments here. (Click at bottom).

Scott

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

WHOoPLA: Chapters 1- 4.

2007-12-05T11:03:00.000-06:00

Chapter One

It was a call he’d feared might never come. After 14 cold days of camping out on a 21st story ledge, Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who was on the line wanting to talk to him. He knew what the news would be but was incredulous that the event was actually happening. The delirium that comes from floating above a city for days and nights lingered in his exhausted and frazzled mind. So he said the first thing that came into his head.

“Is it really you?”

Forgiving the apparent stupidity of the question, Daltrey muted a quick, short laugh.

“Yes,” he said.

“Is it really Roger Daltrey?”

“Yes, it’s Roger Daltrey!”

There was an exhale that could likely be felt in China. Then, after a short silent moment, they both just burst. Words and laughter stumbled out all at once until, finally, Tim The Rock N Roll Animal relented and let Roger Daltrey speak:

“You can come down now.”

The Who had always had a love for theatrics and The Animal’s performance was one for the ages because it wasn’t theatre. It was a sincere and honest plea from a dedicated fan.

But it didn’t start out that way.

Chapter Two

Sometimes we forget that it’s all about the music. Sometimes, in the course of going about our busy, hectic, stressful lives, we forget how much the rock and roll means to us. We fade from it. It dies. Or so we think. Then, in an unexpected moment, we hear a song. A warm, incandescent drug flows through our mind; it tumbles smooth the sharp edges of our jagged fears. Like a friendly stranger who we know loves us in the briefest of instances when we first meet, no matter what we have done, no matter what we will do, the music has always been there and will always be there. But sometimes we forget.

It’s been said that greatness can occur when people reach beyond their grasp in order to attain a worthy goal. Moreover, history has been made by groups of dedicated, competent individuals working above and beyond their abilities for a common, higher purpose. We all naturally seek those experiences that will take us to another place, another reality, an altered state. We thrive on our subliminal hope of being transported to somewhere else... anywhere else... but here.

But pursuit of those lofty dreams is a risky commitment that many are hastened to accept because this can also be the formula for a major fiasco if we’ve reached too far and it all falls through. Unfulfilled big promises are how fools are made.

Chapter Three:1982

The social and economic epoch in 1982 was a very different world than that of today. President Ronald Reagan was referring to The Soviet Union as the “evil empire” in the typical manner that politicians tend to do when they want to distract the general public from the difficult times. Unemployment was double that of today at nearly 10%. Mortgage interest rates had come down from an unimaginable 20% in the year before to 15%. The median income was $20,000 and a stamp cost 20 cents.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy had won the Grammy for Album of the Year and the summer movie releases included “ET: The Extraterrestrial” and Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan. Spiderman movie actress Kirsten Dunst was born and Animal House/Saturday Night Live comedian John Belushi died.

In Milwaukee, June of 1982 had begun with news that Schlitz,

“The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous,”

was headed out of town for good. After several tumultuous years that included a labor strike and plant closing the year before, both Pabst and Heileman Brewing had lost out to The Stroh Brewing Company of Detroit, Michigan, in the battle for ownership of the brand. Schlitz was now being referred to as,

“The Beer That Made Milwaukee Furious.”

The next month Cal Ripken played the first of his record breaking 2,632 consecutive professional baseball games.

Chapter Four:FM

There’s a common perception out there that when freeform radio died, rock radio died. It’s the subtitle to the well known book by Richard Neer. FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio typifies the arrogant attitude of the me generation that everything begins and ends with them.

It’s time to throw that rap into the same dumpsters that all those mediocre Grateful Dead albums were tossed into. Fuck Dylan too.

I know it’s unhip to admit, but with 60’s Top 40 prepubescent radio roots, I never acclimated to the unfamiliarity of progressive radio. For me, rock radio BEGAN when freeform ended.

1979 heralded the end of a difficult generational transition in both the free world and the radio world. We were done being preached to by the Joan Baez crowd who were “united under a common purpose” against the Vietnam War and “the man.” We had lived under the shadow of the self absorbed, whiney hippie brats of the 60's long enough and had summarily booted them out of the picture with loud, brash, in your face “punk” music that left no question about what we thought of the previous generation and their “sharing of feelings.” The tribal drum was forced onto a far off reservation. And while the heartland flew under the cultural radar because of the shocking appeal of the CBGB circus, it’s reflection of the times would come to be the loudest and most influential but with none of the idealism of our predecessors. We weren’t communal, zodialogical or spiritual. So the wimpy music of the "Merry Pranksters" and the “sunshine” generation was flushed for blue collar, kick ass metal.

“Shut the fuck up and rock!”

With the freedom that comes from a clear victory came exciting new music. And while the influences were many, the one commonality was the fast tempo that would be coupled with a hard, crunchy edge. The late 70's/early eighties spawned Boston, Rush, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Metallica, Scorpions, UFO, Judas Priest REO Speedwagon, AC/DC, Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, Styx, Journey, Aerosmith, Asia, Ozzy Osborne’s solo tours and dozens of other so called “stadium rock” bands that grew out of a yearning to leave the apathy of the 70's Nixon aftermath behind. They were a heard of thundering buffalo who demanded you to run along with them or step aside. The heartland leaped onto their backs and screamed,

“Weeeeeeee haaaaaa!”

And radio followed.

The free form “play what you want say what you want” idealistic, poopy, “thinks too much”, music authority, DJ centered radio genre was officially dead. A new, rigidly structured rock format was sweeping the country by storm because it tapped into the sentiment of the times. It had culled out the old slow shit of the past, muzzled the self absorbed, egotistical DJ’s and tightened the playlists to include fewer, but more popular songs rotated on a near Top 40 basis. It was called “The Superstars” format. It’s advent was demonized by the hip Rolling Stone crowd as being “corporate” and “research” influenced and thus, soulless and bland. But the radio listening public disagreed and lunged at it like a hungry lion to a wounded gazelle.

In Milwaukee, it was the Hearst Corporation who first decided to bring it in as they converted their little known FM frequency, 97.3, to WLPX, “The Superstar Cruiser.” The debut was stunningly successful in that they had caught the Milwaukee rock radio mainstay WQFM sleeping. “Sunshine Music 93QFM” had been slow to reflect the evolution of the music and the times.

The physical difference between LPX and QFM was striking. LPX was in a big beautiful broadcast facility that was corporate clean. There were three floors and giant studios. Lots of off limit places and big conference rooms. The interior design was contemporary, uncluttered and well lit. It was a startling contrast to QFM’s messy playboy 70's cheaply paneled tiny downtown penthouse abode. It had but one floor that was no bigger inside than a two bedroom ranch house. It did have a city view out dirty windows and it’s closet-like, thin walled, spaces brought everybody closer together. Like it or not.

Hard rockin’ LPX was an uncomfortable fit for the Hearst facility that had a television station and a prominent AM station that were firmly “old school” broadcasting. But the investment had paid off for a few very strong years from ‘77- ‘81 as QFM cleaned house twice and struggled to regain its once dominant place. By ‘82 QFM was back in the battle having been christened the “1981 Billboard Rock Station of the Year” and turned the momentum their way. The stage was set for a classic radio war that would pit the “Darth Vader” rich corporate Goliath, LPX, against the independently owned pauper “David” WQFM. LPX was fighting to hold and QFM fighting to regain.

WHOoPLA: Chapters 5 - 7.

2007-12-04T11:24:00.001-06:00

Chapter Five: It’s All About…

Having started at my radio work in 1978 as a Sophomore at the University of Wisconsin campus public radio station- WUWM, I had made the jump to commercial radio and was making the hour and a half commute from Milwaukee to Rockford, Illinois for an overnight weekend shift on Album Oriented Rock Station WZOK at the suggestion of Tom Daniels, LPX’s debut Program Director. Daniels then hired me for overnights on LPX after a few months in ‘79. The midday balding LPX elder jock “Uncle Chris” nicknamed me “Scott The Kid” and it stuck because I was child-like in comparison to him.

I dropped out of college. After a couple years there it started to feel funky as they started plugging in “new wave” artists such asDuran Duran and Thomas Dolby. With the encouragement of QFM’s then Program Director Brent Alberts, I jumped ship over to QFM to work overnights there. It was the culmination of a long held dream to inhabit the hallowed studio of my teen mentors. But, as the next generation, I too was tired of living in the shadow of the 60's & 70's “older brothers and sisters.” I was very cynical about the era yet empathetic having let my hair grow long and pierced both ears. I loved wearing retro 50's shirts, just like Seinfeld’s “Kramer,” that I would buy at the second hand clothing shops down on the funky Brady Street, east side Milwaukee, strip. I was rail thin and acted much smarter than I was. (Some things never change!) I was the father of my high school sweetheart partners’ three year old daughter. I was 22 years old.

Aside from the overnight radio job, I also owned and managed a small suburban record store called Hot Waxx. It featured High Fidelity stereo speakers tucked inside a 1940’s deco wooden standup radio and lots of tall, nearly dead, house plants. Sammy Llanas, who later formed a well known band called The Bodeans, worked at the store part time.

My move to QFM felt like it had been a good one but I still held strong respect and love for my former LPX friends.

Chapter Six: The Combatants

Just after my move to QFM, Tom Daniels was fired at LPX.

“We were like two General’s at war,”

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 8- 10

2007-12-03T12:06:00.001-06:00

Chapter Eight: The Scene

Warning: This chapter describes the 1982 club scene. It contains raunchy graphic depictions of sex and drugs that may be offensive to some (if not all). If this might be you then skip it and move on to Chapter Nine. You won't miss any of the "ledge" storyline.

A key component to the wild bar scene back then was the 18 year old drinking age (which was rescinded just a few years later). Milwaukee had at least twenty live music clubs with dozens of bands playing original music almost every night.

The Violent Femmes grew out of that Milwaukee time period playing first for the pre show outdoor lines that formed outside various venues. For a Pretenders show that I attended at the ornate, east side, Oriental Theatre, the Femmes were invited off the street by the band to play as the opening act. Without microphones, they rocked the fans in the first rows but got booed by the antsy balance of the crowd.

Brian Richie, of the Violent Femmes, described the period in a later 1986 interview with me on a call in style Sunday night talk show I hosted. He said:

“We’ve played in over 300 cities around the world and we’ve been able to check out a lot of the music scenes there and talk to other musicians and, in general, I would say that Milwaukee has really- and this is serious- has one of the best music scenes for live music in the country…or the world…because there’s so many bars per capita and just so many different styles of music playing in bars for free or $1, $2 or $3… and that’s an opportunity that you really don’t have in most other cities.”

Femmes drummer Victor DeLorenzo agreed,

“It was a very exciting time.”

Each jock had a club, bar or tavern that they were practically affixed to. Most of us made more money from those “appearances” than from the radio station. We were beyond accessible. We were the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave. That stood in great contrast to the seasoned and spoiled LPX air staff who were doing fewer and fewer “drop in” gigs for bigger and bigger fees. That kind of connectedness put us all in touch with the pulse of the city and the feedback we’d get from being out there was invaluable.

Most nights were horribly boring with mediocre bands playing to half filled or empty rooms. But by being everywhere, if something did happen, we were always right in the middle of it. And every now and then, something would happen. It didn’t take a full moon for there to be nights that blew up and got completely out of control. It was the coke, the booze, the dope, the pre-aids free sex and the ear splittingly loud metal blasting in densely smoke filled cavernous dens packed wall to wall with factory assembly line escapees in desperate need of every kind of mass or individual release that could be had.

Everything you see typically now was bigger back then. Wet T-shirt contests that ended with not only the removal of their tops but flat out illegal groping of their nipples with a softball sized chunk of ice. One winner grabbed the half melted cold stone and shoved it down the front her unzipped hip hugging jeans and let out a scream that likely caused half the guys in the place to cum. And there were hundreds of local band groupies that were that perfect combination of classy, sexy and really fucking horney. One such “Crazy” band fuck vixen was legendary for her ability to let herself go completely and thoroughly enjoy the sex to the degree that she kept a respirator next to her bed to breathe into after her violent multiple orgasms. A popular NW side live rock club had a hot tub in the basement. It was often filled with leather banded, mascara dripping, half naked, drunken, coked up, barely legal teen rock chicks whose torn fishnets were soaking in a bubbling steamy soup of semen, beer and vomit. When I would pass by the hot tub on my way to see the owner and hopefully get paid, I remember that, due to the dim blue neon beer sign lighting and similar hair, make-up and accessory styles, I seldom could tell the 80’s band guys from their groupie girlie fans.

As the overnight guy, the clubs I would get to “appear” at were not the cream of the crop. Rock City in white hick suburban New Berlin, now torn down, was one of my regular haunts. Its décor could best be described as “early rec room.” Dark Walnut stained rough sawn wood barn beams lined the walls and a black low drop ceiling helped to enhance the heavy “what if there’s a fire” claustrophobia. I spun records there in a corner closet-like, cramped booth with The Stones “Miss You” being the memorable guaranteed dance floor filler. It was lined with foot wide floor to ceiling mirrors and featured a mirror ball that that you literally had to dance around or you’d hit your head on it. Summer or winter it would get wickedly hot and quickly filled with the sensual stench of sweaty caucasians.

Being the famous radio DJ in the place protected me from the many brawls that broke out amongst the football jocks, spoiled rich kid freaks and biker friends of the owner.

Two very drunk strapping farm boy brothers whose parents owned a local bowling alley were talking to me when suddenly one of them looked at the other and said,

“Hey! Let’s go kick the shit out of that fuckin’ freak.”

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WHOoPLA: Chapter 11.

2007-12-02T12:37:00.001-06:00

Chapter Eleven: The 26th floor.

At 35 years old, Lee Arnold was at the top of his game and his unique mix of experiences were perfect for what he was thinking he was going to try to pull off. To him, it looked easy and would flow very naturally. To everybody else, he appeared insane. It’s that “incomprehensible by the general masses” aspect that makes something art. When the rest of us cannot even imagine how something is created, we give it higher qualities because we have no idea of the process from which it came to be. Or, we want to deny it’s relevance as trickery or “a fix” to ease our ignorance. When the source of the magic is a salesman, it’s even that much easier to dismiss. But sometimes, in the pursuit of selfish interests, even salesman can end up doing magnanimous things.

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 12 and 13.

2007-12-01T13:06:00.001-06:00

Chapter Twelve: What Plan?

For the 21st largest market in the country (Milwaukee has since declined to #36) there wasn’t much room in the public's eye for too many big events to happen at the same time.

The results of Milwaukee Brewer General Manager Harry Dalton’s blockbuster 7 player deal from the year before were paying off as Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Cecil Cooper, Rollie Fingers, Pete Vuckovich and back-up catcher/future manager Ned Yost and team had the best record in baseball and were bearing down on the American League pennant. The Milwaukee Journal described the upcoming home games as “opening a new season” and headlined the Sports Section with:

“THE BIGGEST HOMESTAND EVER.”

LPX was all over it. Their AM across the hall, WISN, had just recently won the broadcast rights away from AM historic Milwaukee powerhouse WTMJ, so their tie-ins were proving valuable. Bobbin Beam, who had made her name as an air talent and later PD at QFM but jumped ship to LPX on their debut, was singing the National Anthem before games. That’s exposure that was hard to compete with. Beyond that LPX was throwing their considerable promotional funds behind The Pro Rock Rally to be held at the lakefront. It was a response to a wacky Burlington, Wisconsin preacher who was crusading against the evils of music. He claimed that rock music, in particular, had been infiltrated by forces that can turn adolescents into Satan worshippers. The former Valium addict claimed his being “born again" not only cured his addiction but also his Leukemia. He created a list of 55 performers who were dangerous. It included Elton John, The Captain and Tenille and the hard working Village People. There were very real fears that the free concert at the lakefront Gun Club site would erupt into a brawl of some sort so the Milwaukee Police department was planning a show of force. They had tried to line up Doors keyboardist Ray Manzerek for the show but ended up settling for The Shoes opening for Blackfoot. With all this going on, it was going to be a struggle to get folks attention. This wasn’t a time to be subtle.

Lee Arnold wasn’t. This was going to be a loud, noisy, brash, in-your-face, affair. Just the way he liked ‘em to be.

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 14 & 15.

2007-11-30T13:26:00.001-06:00

Chapter Fourteen: The Animal.

Arnold knew he would need a “voice” to represent the event to the greater public. His first and only choice was Tim “The Rock N Roll Animal” U’ren. “The Animal” was the Real Mc Coy. He’s a Jack Black, just a bit taller than a fireplug, kinda guy. The kind you hated to be matched up with in gym class when you were practicing wrestling because you knew he was going to be hard to get a grip on. He was munchkin-like with stubby hands on arms that looked too short for his body. He liked to talk, endlessly. When he spoke it was just above a whisper with a gentle rasp that flipped in and out for emphasis during the many stories he would have for nearly every topic. He had a self assuredness that was captivating due to the seemingly incongruent mix of mind and body. He presented a hard veneer on the air that hid a soft and big heart.

His moniker had been earned long before he was a rock DJ while in college when he would blast Lou Reed’s Rock N Roll Animal album in his dorm room early in the mornings, thus, this was no made for radio character. “The Animal” was the personification of the Milwaukee rock radio market. More importantly, he was ripe, having only worked in Rockford, Illinois for a couple years, then overnights 2a-6a at QFM and now had moved up to the 10p-2a night shift. He was ambitious and young. Not seasoned and spoiled. He was impressionable and he was continually improving on his inventive rap.

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 16, 17 & 18.

2007-11-29T13:40:00.001-06:00

Chapter Sixteen: The Ledge

A lot of dope was going to be smoked out on “the ledge” Monday night. The “Ledge” was the thinking place at QFM. It was a 3' wide walkway between the news room window and a 3' high jagged stone facade that topped off the building. QFM was in the penthouse on the 21st floor. Above it was the roof upon which sat a 20' high steel sculpture that was thought to be a blimp dock but had never been used for such. The large metal double hung newsroom window opened wide and was low to the floor so it was easy to step out onto the ledge and survey the cityscape. Aside from up on the roof sitting beneath the blimp dock, the ledge was the best place in the city to smoke dope. The 70's progressive rock jocks had called the newsroom “the crystal palace” because there was a double glass sliding door that separated it from the on-air studio. With that door open and the window open, you could even smoke dope while sitting at the control board in the studio, blow it out toward the open “palace” patio door and it would make a hard right and zoom straight out the window and over the ledge edge. The ledge was a truly magical place that laid waste to any heavy shit that may have been burdening you. It cleared your mind’s hard drive and refreshed your psyche.

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 19, 20 & 21.

2007-11-28T15:15:00.001-06:00

Chapter Nineteen: Patti.

Among the few personnel “adjustments” Lee Arnold made was to “reassign” Promotions Director, Patti Genko, to the 15th floor research phone cubicles and bring in a key long time friend, John Duncan, to replace her.

John Duncan was,

“Lee’s Boy.”

He was known to jokingly hide behind Arnold with his hands on Arnold’s shoulders and bob his head up and down and make “nah, nah, na nah nah” type comments. He was a tall, skinny, soft spoken, dark haired California kid. Even though he had followed Arnold from Gainesville to Tampa to Boston, his mid seventies dark blue Corvette still bore the blue and gold California license plates. Lee and John were nicknamed “The Bobbsey Twins” due to their childlike interactions that many times had Duncan crying out loud after a tumultuous shouting match. That intensity told you that there was great passion between them. Arnold,

“He was my best friend in the world. I trusted him with my life.”

Duncan’s job during all this was to “hold down the fort” with the everyday general station duties.

Genko took the demotion professionally- on the outside. She was really fucking pissed on the inside.

Having grown up in The Northern suburbs of Chicago, Patti Genko was a WLUP Patti Hayes groupie. WLUP was Chicago’s hardest rocker and Patti’s father couldn’t help but notice her knowledge of every single song they played. He encouraged her to pursue a radio career and, strangely enough, she took his advice. She earned a Broadcast/Mass Communication degree from Western Illinois University and had made an attempt at an internship at “The Loop” but was turned down. Thus, her first gig was a low paying one writing commercials and station promotional announcements at a local Rockford Television station. She was suffering from the blatantly male biased sexism that existed in rock radio back then and decided to just play into it by putting on a short shirt and “workin’ it” to get Brent Alberts to hire her at Rockford rocker Y95.

“He said I had great legs.”

Knowing Patti, her legs, at the time, weren’t her biggest asset. If Alberts had managed to keep his eyes on them then he must have been a very disciplined man. Patti was stacked. She didn’t, however, flaunt it. Not the cleavage type. She was very Midwest but with an east coast, nasal ring that she dampened on the air.

It was during her tenure at Y95 that she partnered up with Tim The Rock N Roll Animal and later was promised work in Milwaukee as part of Alberts inducement to The Animal to make the jump. Genko felt unappreciated and betrayed by her demotion in that her 2-3 years of promotional efforts were part and parcel of QFM’s resurgence but, at the time, she had nowhere else to go. Aside from the lowly QFM research department part time work, she continued to work on-air weekends and on miscellaneous other fill-in duties but, for a time, was reduced to fobbing off her boyfriend for financial help.

Now Arnold, who was oblivious to the impact of his actions on her, pleaded for her help. He knew she had the ability to be unstoppably tenacious (aka bossy) in whatever she was pursuing. He needed her to take Gene Mueller’s News Director position immediately and be his PR person for the event. Fortunately for Patti, things were going to be moving too fast for her to carry around any baggage about her treatment. After the wacky staff meeting she had worried about her partner Tim sleeping on the ledge and figured as News Director, with his perch being just outside the newsroom window, she’d be right next to him for the duration to make sure he wouldn’t sleep walk or drowsily tumble over the edge. Patti Genko is the best childless mama bear you will ever meet. She was fiercely loyal. At the very least, she thought, she'd know where he was. That's something she had begun to have serious concerns about.

Chapter Twenty: The First Attempt.

Wednesday night was the day that had been set for the rant and jump out but it rained so the secret had to be muzzled for one more day. They were flying so wildly by the seat of their pants and so anxious to get Tim out there that they hadn’t even thought of the need for some kind of protection or for necessities. So first thing Thursday Arnold, Duncan, The Animal and Patti raided the Army/Navy Surplus Store across the street from the building for free supplies that included a porta potty, tarp, army cot and flashlight. OK, now even if it rains he can go out! And if he has to shit, he can do that too! (Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Wise guy eh?)

Chapter Twenty One: The Call.

When the call from the band finally did come, it wasn’t even Bill Curbishley, it was Regis Boeff, Curbishley’s assistant. Arnold wasn’t fazed. He was ready with a well thought out presentation.

Boeff had a “wise and loyal British butler/Sir John Gielgud” demeanor. Of Arnold’s baited telegram he said,

“We’ve never been approached by a radio station in quite this manner before.”

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 22, 23 & 24.

2007-11-27T15:34:00.001-06:00

Chapter Twenty Two: No Guarantees.

The next step in his thousand mile journey had Tim The Rock N Roll Animal stepping out onto the 21st story crystal palace/newsroom ledge. As encouragement, Arnold briefed Tim on Boeff’s call and the status of things. He was very careful to limit Tim’s expectations, even overcompensating by dramatically underplaying the potential for success. Tim:

“He kept telling me over and over that there’s no guarantee that the bands gonna come here and play...You’re really laying yourself out on the line for a while here...You may have to stay out there for some time ...4, 5, 6 weeks.”

Arnold told The Animal this just a few hours before he was to make his leap. Tim was already committed, so whatever he thought of it, there was no backing out.

One of the ways Tim, Patti and many other staffers would buffer their fears was to believe that maybe Arnold knew more than he was saying. That he actually had this in the bag all along and was just playing a big game. That was a comforting thought to all of us because, at this point in time, it was beyond our ability to comprehend how it could be done any other way.

Thus, as Tim prepared to head out onto the ledge it had been a telegram and then one conversation with the band’s Asst. Manager. That was it. Oh, and a wild plan to create this big....

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 25, 26 & 27.

2007-11-26T15:44:00.001-06:00

Chapter Twenty Five: The Splash.

Even with little sleep The Animal was in better shape than the newly configured morning team who had made a mess of themselves at their weekly “After Dark” West Allis nightclub appearance. For good reason, given all the shit that was flying. Abdul was doing sports drop-ins while lying under the newsroom desk and flat on his back on the floor wrapped in the extension cord of The Animal’s ledge mic. He slept between his breaks and, like Rodeo, was still wearing his clothes from the night before that wreaked of the sweated out cheap wine coolers that were the night club special...

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 28, 29 & 30.

2007-11-25T16:07:00.001-06:00

Chapter Twenty Eight: It Blows Up Real Good.

Having simmered nicely over the weekend, the story began to blossom Monday morning as the idea of calling out to encourage coverage quickly became overshadowed by the demand to handle the calls that were coming in. Channel 6 was the local CBS affiliate and now dispatched St. Aubin to also create a piece for the CBS News network that was to air on the Evening News and on Tuesday’s CBS Morning News Show. Genko was soon over her head with people on hold wanting to talk to the “Crazy DJ on the Ledge.” At first, it was mostly newspapers and radio stations from just about everywhere in mostly rural America responding, but as the day went on some bigger names from farther away started to enter the picture and managing the onslaught was starting to become dizzying for both Arnold and Genko.

RJ Harris fired Bobbin Beam that day citing low ratings (this was two days before the actual ratings period start). She was replaced by Eddie Democelli on the air and Susie Austin dove in head first into the rock radio war as Beam’s Music Director replacement firing off a blast to the FMQB radio trade/rag saying:

“Lee Arnold, everyone knows you’re off your rocker. Why don’t you quit calling attention to the fact?... Our station blows yours off the dial right now and you know it…everyone knows you’re full of it. I’m sick of this.These people who read these trades are not our listeners—they’re professional radio people who are tired of reading all your bogus comments. Quit using this trade to badmouth us. Try talking about your own station for once. Your Who promotion is almost over, and so are you. My dad still thinks you’re an idiot.”

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 31 & 32.

2007-11-24T16:26:00.003-06:00

Chapter Thirty One: They Buckle.

Lee Arnold had been so busy sending out all these media messages in a bottle he'd nearly forgotten to think about if or when the band would call again. Beyond that he was struggling to manage the six headed serpent that included his boss Ralph Barnes, The Animal, the media, LPX, his own ad agency (David Joseph) and now he was dangerously on the radar of the station owner Bill Lynett. So when he picked up the phone and found it was Who manager Bill Curbishley, it was a surprising relief. Curbishley:

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 33, 34 & 35.

2007-11-23T16:40:00.002-06:00

Chapter Thirty Three: “Just Bring Tim in.”

Three days had passed since Arnold had teased The Animal with the story about Curbishley’s call. The Animal was getting impatient was getting hard to contain his frustration. He had abandoned filling his porta potty plastic bag with both number one and number two choosing to piss in the ledge rainwater drain about 20' down from his encampment just outside the window of the bookkeeping office of Rhonda Stratman. Rhonda was a dishwater blonde former party girl white chick who was now married with kids and settling in to a much more normal lifestyle and body type. The Animal would poke his head through the smaller ledge window into her office to warn her of the impending yellow liquid barrage and she would escape to get a bucket of warm sudsy water to pour down the drain after he’d tucked his cold, shrunken peter back in.

Patti Genko was starting to think Arnold’s claims of talking to the band were just complete bullshit. She started thinking,

“He has no IN there...It’s all a bunch of BS! This is baloney! Lee doesn’t even have an end to this. He’s just waiting for a miracle to happen!’”

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 36 & 37.

2007-11-22T17:01:00.001-06:00

Chapter Thirty Six: WQFU

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WHOoPLA: Chapters 38 & 39.

2007-11-21T17:19:00.001-06:00

Chapter Thirty Eight: The Boys in the Band.

In the interim before the December show, famous auto designer turned automaker, John DeLorean, was entrapped in a sting by overly ambitious undercover FBI agents for selling cocaine. Another classic visual happening from that time is that of USC’s Kevin Moen completing a 57 yard touchdown kickoff return that included running into the end zone as Stanford’s marching band prematurely entered the field. Also, Barney Clarke was the first artificial heart recipient and the “evil empire” invaded Afghanistan.

The Animal was rewarded with the most important and key spot on the station, 6p-10p, as Mike Wolf left for greener pastures. I moved up from overnights to Tim’s vacated shift, 10p-2a.

Stroh’s ramped up their ”Schlitz Rocks America” co-operation with The Who by the end of November with full page ads in Rolling Stone magazine hyping a “Sweepstakes” that offered a trip to see the final show in Toronto and dozens of other prizes. The ads and overall design of the promotion have always struck me as funky at best. They look glitzy, pop and out of sync with the nature of The Who. But, nevertheless, maybe befitting a band that didn’t really know itself at the time.

Tim and Patti went to the first of The Who’s two nights of concerts at The Rosemont Horizon in Chicago to meet the band before their Milwaukee show. Backstage they were greeted warmly by Daltrey in particular.

He threw his arms around Tim and practically wrestled him to the ground.

“You didn’t fucking jump did you!?”

It was a good laugh. Tim’s recorded interview questions weren’t the deepest but you have to remember he was still a human. Picture yourself as a young rock n roller at 26 years old now backstage with one of the greatest bands of all time. Daltrey’s warm greeting put him at ease but he was still in awe. He asked Daltrey if this tour was more fun than the others.

“I’m enjoying this one more because you can see an end in sight...it’s great to be doing it and knowing that you don’t have to go out and parody yourself for the rest of your life.”

He then promised Milwaukee that,

“We’ll give ‘em a hell of a show.”

John Entwhistle was next. He was bored to tears as he first did a station promotional announcement for the show. The Animal then tried to flatter him and jokingly asked that they play the song that Entwhistle had wrote from their latest album It’s Hard. It’s Your Turn had been battered in heavy rotation on QFM while Tim was on the ledge because it’s opening lyrics were:

Up here on the ledge,
I’m getting pushed to the edge.

Entwhistle explained that only three of the band members knew the song so they wouldn’t be doing it.

When The Animal asked him who his influences were, he droned:

“Nobody.”

He said there was a group in England called “The Shadows” that were about the only band with decent instruments at that time so everybody,

“... admired ‘em just for the instruments...not that they were that good musically.”

He said he learned to play bass by playing along with old rock n roll records by folks like Eddie Cochran, Duane Eddy and Chuck Berry. He said he never really admired any other bass players because he always thought he was better than everyone else.

“A bit ‘a conceit (laughs) but that’s how I thought.”

Entwhistle, who passed away from a cocaine induced heart attack in Las Vegas in June of 2002, may have not been the prettiest or most showy of the bunch but he was very in touch with the psyche of the band. “It’s Your Turn” had no chorus or hook you could attach yourself to but the balance of the lyrics from his song supported the band’s “Farewell Tour” rap. It’s an elder rocker’s warning to the up-and-comers:

I was a face in a magazine,

When you were still playin' with your plasticine,

Now you're doggin' my tail,

ridin' the slipstream,

You can take the fans and the enemies,

The little girls who squeeze and tease,

Then pass on their social disease,

Go get your penicillin.

I know you young and dumb,

I know where you're comin' from.

Having come off a two year bender, Pete Townsend was giving interviews at the time that are just historic in their nature, reflecting on his many years of working too much and the impact of it on his family. It was a key transitional period for him that he was openly sharing. He pulled Tim into The Chicago Bulls basketball team locker room and they sat down literally IN the shower area for an “echoey” talk. Townsend said:

BUY WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever

WHOoPLA: Chapters 40, 41, 42 & 43.

2007-11-20T20:28:00.001-06:00

Chapter Forty: The Arrival.

The Animal and Lee Arnold spent the day waiting for the call from Curbishley that The Who’s plane was en route. One final reminder from Mother Nature of just who’s in charge had the plane stuck in fog on the airport tarmac in St. Louis. It would be hours of waiting that had both fearing a cancellation as the short winter day began to darken.

BUY WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever

WHOoPLA: The Last Chapter.

2007-11-19T21:00:00.001-06:00

Chapter Forty Four: The Last Chapter.

Tim The Rock N Roll Animal’s step out onto the ledge wasn’t just a stunt. He tapped into the collective consciousness of a generation ...

BUY WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever

WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever Screenplay Treatment

2007-11-13T14:06:00.000-06:00

In that the book, as written, is a lineal description of actual events, I can say with great confidence that the movie version of this story is not only more compelling, it's simply exciting. Halcyon Daze WHOoPLA is a fast moving sex, drugs and rock n roll period piece that is both heartwarming and thrilling. It's Almost Famous meets Blow meets Boogie Nights.

Clearly, and for obvious reasons, the treatment manuscript is not something I'd give away here. However, if you are a serious and credible producer or production company, I'd be happy to forward it to you along with excerpted scenes from the fully written screenplay. Both are registered with The Writers Guild of America, west, Inc (#1168879) and ready to be ripped to shreds and/or ignored by a worthy suitor.

I have no illusions of grandor and will entertain any and all offers. Contact me at:

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

Scott

About the Author

2007-11-07T06:32:00.000-06:00

If you met him, Scott Beddome would strike you as average. It’s only when he speaks that you could then peer down into his soul. His voice has a resonance and gently humorous demeanor that says there’s more to him than meets the eye. There’s something that’s disengaging and makes you feel at ease. You instantly know that he likes you. You want to begin to ramble.

It’s that ability to get folks talking that has always been his best talent. He hosted nearly 200 nights of a popular two hour call-in style radio talk show in Milwaukee for four years. The guests and topics were everything from sports stars to coroners. It provided welcome relief from his wild and woolly rock DJ duties.

After ten years of rock radio he escaped to the tiny central Wisconsin historic hamlet of Rural where the restoration of an 1853 Greek Revival National Register property led to a 20 year profession of large scale preservation projects that included Cathedrals, Basilicas, State Capitols, Supreme Courts and, ultimately, The Smithsonian.

Part of that hokey wisdom comes from spending 8 years as a single father. Three high school kids (2 girls and a boy) will pretty much fill anyone’s day. After many thousands of them in a row, the sharp edges of his jagged mind have been tumbled smooth as a shoreline stone. Toss him onto the water at just the right angle and he’d skip!

Having the empty nest ability to do whatever you want is a daunting realization that those less weathered (or lazy) might never be able to properly handle. Not the case for Scott Beddome as he clearly has found his place writing stories about the everyday world in an every other day kind of way.

-Coco Potomac

Sponsor Halcyon Daze

2007-10-13T15:09:00.000-05:00

Sponsor This Blog.

3-6,000 new viewers per month reading nearly 10,000 pages. Perfect for Harley Davidson or Miller Beer. Contact Scott (bottom) to make a sponsorship bid now.

Submit photos, stories, say "Hi" or inquire about sponsorship:

scottbeddome@yahoo.com.

The Bodeans. Sammy Llanas. Kurt Neumann.

2007-08-01T09:21:00.000-05:00

The BoDeans are a rock and roll and roots rock band formed in Waukesha, Wisconsin in 1983 by Kurt Neumann (vocals & electric guitar) and Sam Llanas (vocals & acoustic guitar). In 1985, after adding a drummer and a bassist, the band signed a contract with Slash/Warner Records and recorded their first album. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band had several singles in the top 40 "mainstream rock" charts. In the mid-1990s, the band had two top 10 songs in the "Adult contemporary" charts.

She's A Runaway

Initially, the band called themselves, Da BoDeans, a reference to the character Jethro Bodean from the Beverly Hillbillies TV show. The original duo of Kurt Neumann (vocals & electric guitar) and Sam Llanas (vocals & acoustic guitar) added Guy Hoffman (drums) in 1984. After the trio became a popular band on Milwaukee's East Side music scene, they decided to add Bob Griffin (bass). In 1985 the quartet signed a contract with Slash/Warner Records and shortened their name to simply BoDeans. Under the guidance of producer T-Bone Burnett, they entered Hollywood's Sunset Sound Factory in October to record their first album. The critically acclaimed debut Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams was released in 1986.

In January 1987, a Rolling Stone reader poll voted them Best New American Band. Their second album, Outside Looking In was released that year. Followed by that were Home(1989),Black and White(1991) and Go Slow Down(1993.)

Their 1993 song Closer to Free was selected as the theme song to the TV series Party of Five. It is also the opening song used in the movie, Heavyweights. In 1995, Joe Dirt Car, a 2 CD live set was released followed by the 1996 album, Blend. The band took some time off in the late 1990s so Neumann and Llanas could record solo albums. Sammy created the band Absinthe and their album A Good Day To Die. Kurt released his solo album called Shy Dog on which he plays all the instruments.

Sneaky Video of "It's Only Love" Acoustic. Live. 12/30/07. Chicago. Rialto.

In 2001 the 17-song compilation Best Of The Bodeans: Slash & Burn was released on London/Slash/Rhino. In 2004 they returned with new songs on Resolution released on Rounder/Zoe. Their live CD/DVD is Homebrewed: Live from the Pabst (2005). In January 2006, Bob Griffin left the band for unknown reasons. Their newest CD entitled, Still .

Buy Bodeans Albums Here:

Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams (1986)

Outside Looking In (1987)

Home (1989)

Black and White (1991)

Go Slow Down (1993)

Joe Dirt Car (1995) (2 CD live set)

Blend (1996)

Slash and Burn (2001) (Best of)

Resolution (2004)

Homebrewed: Live from the Pabst (2005) (2 CD live set)

Purchase Homebrewed: Live from the Pabst. Click here.

Still (2008)

Solo albums:

A Good Day To Die (1998) (Absinthe/Sam Llanas solo project)

Shy Dog (1999) (Kurt Neumann solo project)

Click here to buy Shy Dog

Mark "Mangy Man" Krueger

2007-06-13T09:34:00.003-05:00

Mark Kreuger is a Milwaukee music landmark. The "Mangy Man", as he is called, has spent the better part of 30+ years turning us on to the strange and new sounds that eminate from far off places across the sea. Some of which later became household names that we've come to worship and love, but most of which will forever be destined to be appreciated only by the right brained, semi-troubled, antsy creatives who, as Mark would say, not only hear the music but actively listen to it.

It's been a good thing for Krueger who discovered his love for the complex notations on a 7th grade Catholic School field trip to The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The nun he sat next to was stunned with his seemingly awestruck interest and helped to cement it with a rare, heartfelt compliment.

It may help to explain why he's always been able to see an empty glass as half full and why his lust for life and love of music is so effusive. You can't hang with him without coming away from it either bitten with the Euro music bug or just plain happier than you were before. Don't bother trying to maintain a down demeanor in his presence because he isn't acting or wearing the upbeat tenor as a Prozac laden facade. He is a real life, actually happy, guy. Hardly the physical form you'd attach to a person with the nickname "Mangy Man." Add to all that his high school jock status- letter jacket and all- and you get a pretty strange and different carbon based unit.

It was 1971 when then DJ Bob Reitman on WZMF asked a trivia question that Mark was likely the only person listening who knew the answer to. Reitman invited him to make the trip from his Bayview environs to the hayfields of the far NW side and bring some of his Rolling Stones Europeon collectables to play on the air. That event was the beginning of what would be a long career of throwing those eclectic sounds out into space. If there are men on Mars, my guess is that thanks to Mark Krueger, they likely don't think ALL our music is simple minded poppy shit.

The interview, recorded at WMSE's production studio, is edited (hacked?) from the hour we spent yapping down to 11 minutes of just the neat stuff.

Mark_Krueger.mp3

Mark describes his wife, who suffers from a rare disorder, as "brave, strong and beautiful." We send our prayers and love to both.

Planet Prog airs on WMSE on Sundays at 9pm.

Rolling Stones. We Love You. 1967.

Rudy Ray Moore. Dolamite. Live. 2006.

Explicit!

End.

The portrait photo is Mark from 1982.

My Life As Co-Host with Shock Jock Perry Stone.

2007-06-09T09:07:00.001-05:00

By Susie Austin.

Things started out OK with Perry Stone. During our first meeting, one of the things he mentioned was that he wanted to do something different with traffic reports. I suggested having a reporter that did bogus stories with made up streets. Perry liked the idea.

It turned out we had a mutual friend in the business, Marc Coppola, whom Perry mentioned a lot. A couple times, he asked me if I met his brother Nicolas (Cage). He seemed somewhat star struck.

For almost a month, I drove Perry everywhere, showed him around town and even let him borrow a spare TV I had so he could keep up with what was going on. He was staying at the downtown Ramada Inn—TV’s in hotels must have been a luxury in the mid 80’s. Pat ti Genko told me later we were hanging around so much it was like we were dating. We weren’t dating, but it was an adjustment when "Jill", Perry’s supposed wife (who turned out to be his girlfriend), finally moved here. I was on my own.

It was soon evident to me that everything was about Perry. He was getting paid about four times what I was and yet he expected me to participate in his paid appearances and live commercial reads. He commuted from Oconomowoc where he had bought a huge home across from the lake. It had a six car garage. Perry said some limo service owner used to live in the house and had the massive garage built for his cars.

The show was basically a “fly by the seat of your pants” operation. For the most part, it worked. The phone lines were lit up the entire four hours and the show gave a rather lethargic 93QFM a huge kick in the ass. There was no show prep. He let the first phone call of the morning set the tone and we were off and running. We had no seperate"producer" back then.

I was the one who was always finding information and people to call. Perry was always happy to accept the credit. I had a keen ability to find where the opposing baseball teams were staying and I could always get a call through to them. Perry couldn’t believe it when I found Dave Winfield who agreed to talk with us.

One of the bits we did was a search for the bullets that killed John Lennon. It was either his birthday or the anniversary of his murder. I managed to locate the NY detectives that were on the scene when he died. Perry and I interrogated them about where the bullets were now (some crime scene warehouse in NY) and they snapped back at us with their loud Brooklyn accents like they thought we were the most absurd people on the face of the earth. At some point in the bit, the BoDeans had come to do an interview with us and we had to stop. The boys in the popular local band gone national were really disgusted by the whole thing. Didn't matter, when they left, we called the detectives right back.

Before I started at QFM, I had just returned from building, staffing, and programming a station in Richmond, VA; prior to that I was acting PD at WLUM, which I kept in its top spot and Music Director at WLPX, the rival of WQFM. Rick Sklar, the “inventor” of top 40 radio had called me a few months before coming to QFM to see if I was interested in a program director’s job in North Carolina. He was referred to me by another radio programmer in New York. I decided to stay in my hometown (Milwaukee).

Perry kept telling me I didn’t know how “lucky” I was to have experience as a program director and that he wanted to be a PD. I thought it was a crazy wish—after all he was this “great shock jock” and being a programmer wasn’t nearly as much fun nor did it pay as much. Contrarily, I was hoping to move his way and maybe get some credit for my efforts and better pay. I was beginning to see that that wasn't going to happen. Things began to turn.

Perry started ridiculing me on the air, calling me names, saying I looked like a school teacher, and on and on. It did get to me as I was already feeling slighted and this was not the part I wanted to play. I didn’t really have a choice though. I had to play the part I was relegated to and I was left to guess what the part was. Air check sessions were done with Perry and PD Greg Ausham behind closed doors. There was no clear direction from Greg on what I should be doing.

The atmosphere became tense. At times, it seemed like Perry was more than irritated and I couldn’t figure out why. Instead of asking, I became more distant hoping he’d somehow just get over whatever it was. However, he would soon stop talking to me when the mic was off, and sometimes, even when it was on.

Once after playing the song "The Boys of Summer", he said on the air the song reminded him of warm weather. I started to say how it reminded me of this vacation I took in Key West. He interrupted me and curtly said,

“That’s what I just said”

and then went straight into a commercial break.

He was really annoyed when someone wrote the station and complained that I said Bryan Adams had bad acne, when it was actually Perry that had said it. Sounding like some little kid whose parents didn’t give him something they gave his sister, he said,

“Why did they say your name?”

I secretly relished the idea that I was getting credit for something Perry did. Even though it was insignificant to me, it apparently was a big deal to Perry. I felt I was headed nowhere, however, it would be a while before I was gone.

Earlier on, Perry “confessed” that Jill's son was the one who wrote all his Vic Morrow bits. It didn’t seem like he was kidding and I didn’t believe him at first. Perry insisted and I was stunned.

To make matters more confusing, an odd thing happened. Jill called me at home. She was complaining about Perry and how he hardly talked to her anymore and she didn’t know why. This was sounding so familiar.

I wondered where Perry was while she was talking to me.

“He’s outside stretching before he goes for a run. I’m looking at him right now.”

She described his exact movements and location. I pictured this forlorn woman staring out the window at him as violins played in the background of my mind. As much as I couldn’t believe what was happening to me, I also couldn’t believe the same thing was happenng to Jill. Sounding really sad, she told me she might end up flying back home. Things were getting bizarre. And now I had to work with Perry while harboring the knowledge of our secret conversation.

Then Perry’s “cousin” came to town. She was here for an inordinate amount of time and I was told she was just visiting. Perry introduced her to me as yet another "Jill." The new Jill and I didn’t talk much to each other, she was standoffish in an apprehensive way—I thought maybe she was just shy. We shared a few laughs at different station promotions and would occasionally borrow cigarettes from each other. She was always around.

Perry’s "cousin Jill" was staying at his house. Perry’s "wife/girlfriend Jill" told me that Perry and "cousin Jill" were “so close” that in the morning "cousin Jill" would come into their bedroom wrapped only in a towel, sit on the edge of the bed and talk to her and Perry as they were lying nude under the covers.

One Monday morning, I got off the elevator at 5am and PD/boss Greg Ausham met me outside the doors to the offices. He said I was being fired. Feeling somewhat relieved, I asked him who he hired as my replacement and he told me “Randi Rhodes”. I had heard of Randi through a couple of former co-workers, including Marc Coppola. I left and listened to the show for awhile, but it didn’t sound too exciting. Randi, however, turned out to be the one masquerading as Perry’s "cousin Jill." I felt more betrayed than ever. I wondered how many people inside (and outside) QFM knew of Perry’s deception.

Randi Rhodes in a Robe.

Since Perry had mentioned our mutual friend Marc Coppola so often, I called Marc to tell him I’d been fired and replaced by Randi Rhodes. He said Perry already called him and let him know. This struck both of us as odd, especially since he hadn’t heard from Perry in a long time. I felt like Perry was doing damage control, because he knew the whole thing was wrong.

I lasted 5 months working with Perry Stone. Perry and Randi had lasted about a month.

Their legacy is losing business and dollars by blowing off advertisers because Perry liked to say the word, “homo”. Perry explained my firing in a newspaper article with I “refused to do a commercial for a wet t-shirt contest” but that “Randi would have had fun with it”. The duo gave the show a definite jump in notoriety, but that was about it.

Finally, they were fired. Greg Ausham took the majority of the QFM airstaff to Laser103 in the aftermath. In the meantime, word got out that I was on the beach and WKLH called me to work nights. The whole Perry fiasco left me too fried on radio to do anything and I said no. I called Patti Genko and told her about it and suggested she call them. Even though we worked at totally opposite times, Patti and I had commiserated together whenever we could during our days together at QFM. She called KLH and, like me, managed to escape what had seriously begun to turn into a real hellhole.

Brent Alberts came back to “resurrect” QFM and called me to ask if I’d come back. By that time, I realized I had to get a job and said yes. However, the destruction caused by Perry was evident and the station began a slow, painful downward slide. There was a long string of morning show morphs that never did work out. I couldn’t believe I was back there.

After Perry went to San Jose, I had heard he had come back to Milwaukee to do a live broadcast from the National Liquor Bar. I’m not sure how that fit in with the San Jose market, but during the broadcast, he reportedly said I was having sex with someone in a car at Country Stadium.

One morning several months later, Perry’s morning show co-host from San Jose called me at WQFM. She was fired and had to talk to someone who “would believe her.” She told me you can’t talk to anyone about working with Perry because they think you’re making the stuff up. Only the people who have been there really know.

I managed to leave WQFM before the station’s total demise by just resigning. Our contracts at the time “automatically renewed” unless you gave management this lengthy notice. I gave my “notice”, completed my sentence and WKLH called again. This time I said,

"Yes."

End.

Susie Austin is a Marketing Communication Specialist for Lake Country Online. Her Myspace is here. E mail here.

Airchecks.

Perry Stone w/Susie Austin morning show aircheck snipet here.

Perry Stone on-air comedic bits with Nick Fenske can be heard here.

Randi Rhodes Wiki info here. Myspace here.

Photos are from top: l to r Christie Knight, Bobbin Beam and Susie Austin. Marc Coppola. John and Yoko. Rick Sklar. Random chick in robe. National Liquor Bar sign at night.

93QFM Penthouse Renovation Photos.

2007-06-03T08:37:00.000-05:00

This is the former on-air studio now gutted out. The corner once had a small, fixed window that has now been made into a doorway that leads to a newly added balcony. Space Commander Green's artwork is to the right of it.

More Green characters that were previously hidden beneath the former built out walls.

The view from "The Ledge."

The entire floor is emptied out awaiting a "build out" by whomever purchases it (asking $800K). Contact the owners here.

Thanks to Patti Genko for the photos!

The Violent Femmes.

2007-05-23T04:37:00.006-05:00

93QFM didn't play the Violent Femmes music and, in that they were from Milwaukee, in 1986 this was becoming an issue as "the legend" had become internationally known and they had returned from a very successful 3oo city tour of the whole freakin world.

In what was ostensively a chance to plug a nearby gig for a group of local musicians called "The Noisemakers from Hell," Brian Richie and Victor DeLorenzo joined me for an hour on the call-in style talk show I hosted back then called "Talking to Q."Gordon Gano, the ecentric and gifted writer of the songs, joined in at the end via telephone.

They talk about the infamous Pretenders "discovery" gig at the Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee and they also describe the origin of the bands formation and how they earned their record deal. There's much more as they are free wheeling and comfortable and display a commeradarie and closeness that belies their real friendships with each other.

This first part runs 19:22.

Part Two runs 10:27.

TROUBLE WITH THE AUDIO? LET ME KNOW:

scottbeddome@yahoo.com

TOP PHOTO: by Steve Buhai. Top row (L-R): Victor DeLorenzo (V. Femmes), Pete Farndon (Pretenders). Bottom: James Honeyman-Scott (Pretenders), Brian Richie (V. Femmes), Martin Chambers (Pretenders) & Gordon Gano (V. Femmes).

Violent Femmes website here. Wiki info here.

Perry Stone

2007-05-17T12:33:00.001-05:00

Special to Halcyon Daze.

The controversial firing of Perry Stone in 1987 was a significant QFM milestone. Unlike the euphoric success of Tim The Rock N Roll Animal perched on the ledge for The Who six years earlier, Perry Stone’s departure represented the station on other end of the spectrum. The fallout from his release was a terminal, devastating blow from which QFM never recovered. Although it would take another ten years to destroy QFM for good, the events of 1986 and 1987 were clearly the beginning of the end.

The Milwaukee radio landscape was in a period of transition in early part of 1986. The balance of power had begun to shift. Bob Reitman and Gene Mueller had been dominating morning radio for the last four years at WKTI. Yet QFM found itself competing directly against new challengers. 1986 was the year where WMGF (Magic 96) would change format and become WKLH-- the first Classic Rock Hits radio station in country. Dave Luczak and Carole Caine were retained to continue in morning drive for the new WKLH. The Dave & Carole Show is currently the longest running morning show in Milwaukee. But it was the music that fueled its initial success.

The effect of WKLH on QFM’s audience was significant. QFM management chose to ignore the initial threat. When the ratings showed the station taking a beating from WKLH, QFM management decided to overcompensate for their losses. Soon QFM began playing oldies records from Chuck Berry and cramming them in between Judas Priest and Led Zeppelin songs. The change in direction only alienated QFM's core audience.

QFM had always outlasted their toughest competitors (most notably the Hearst owned Superstars formated WLPX). This time it was different. PD Jerry Gavin wanted to go after the same 25-54 year old audience that was listening to WKLH. Doing that would have to come at the expense of the 18-34 year old audience that QFM had worked so hard to build up over the last decade. The previously loyal 93QFM audience was purposely blown off. It didn't work. Gavin was fired and was replaced by Greg Ausham.

Greg Ausham was the last truly successful program director at QFM. Greg was aggressively competitive. He was shrewd and relentless. He was what QFM needed at the time. His first order of business at QFM was to find a new morning show. Greg needed a show that would guide the station back to its place of prominence. At the time, Milwaukee morning radio was a fairly mainstream environment. The landscape was wide open for a lightening strike. That lightening strike was Perry Stone.

Greg hired Perry Stone for morning drive in 1986. Perry Stone would soon become the most controversial jock in Milwaukee radio history. Perry’s show pre-dated the days of nationally syndicated morning radio shows such as Howard Stern. Having spent time in New York at WAPP, Perry Stone was clearly influenced by Stern. However, many believed that “shock” radio shows were an East Coast phenomenon and would never work in Milwaukee. With Greg Ausham’s blessing, Perry was given free range with the content of his show. As a result, he proved the critics wrong.

Perry Stone says:

“I was hired by one of Greg’s friends and one of the best Programmers today, Dave Hamilton (KQRS). I worked with Dave in New York on WAAP in the early 80’s. He sensed that I had the potential to be a great morning host. He flew me into Washington DC for possible wake-up duties on WAVA but it didn’t work out…No one was really sure what kind of morning show I would do.”

Perry’s show was unlike anything that Milwaukee radio had heard before. By comparison even Steve Dahl at the Loop in Chicago seemed more restrained than Perry Stone did at the time. Suddenly the ratings began to climb.

One of Perry’s signature bits was to summon the dismembered head of actor Vic Morrow who had died during a helicopter accident while the filming of the movie version of “The Twilight Zone” in 1982. Vic, Perry’s alter ego, would launch into caustic verbal tirades and comment on the news of the day. He also welcomed other dead celebrities who had just joined him in Hell. When Jackie Gleason died in June of 1987 Perry aired a full conversation between Vic and Gleason in which Gleason announced “That’s right….I’m dead!” It was vintage Perry Stone.

It was open season. There were no sacred cows on Perry’s show—including other QFM disk jockeys. Chip Hobart, who reportedly discovered Bon Jovi, was one of Perry’s favorite targets. In particular Perry poked fun at Chip with a parody of “Hip to Be Square” from Huey Lewis and the News with a version called “Hip to Be Chip”. The finished product was not exactly flattering—a fact not entirely lost on Chip.

Perry would also periodically call night jocks Jay Philpott and Karen Marks at home to grill them about the intimate details of their relationship. In an earlier post, Karen Marks recalled filling in for Susie Austin with news on Perry’s show. During those broadcasts the grilling became even more intense. He even put Karen’s father on the air to discuss his daughter’s relationship with Philpott.

Perry Stone was driving the other jocks crazy. But there was no ignoring the fact that the audience loved it. Although he never beat the more popular Reitman & Mueller at WKTI, Perry was clearly the talk of the town. People were paying attention to a QFM morning show again. Greg Ausham finally had the morning show he needed despite apprehension from General Manager Ralph Barnes. Greg assured Ralph that Perry would continue to succeed. And for a brief time he did succeed. Ralph made the best of situation by periodically reading complaint letters to “The Big Guy” on the air. Despite his participation, the Perry Stone Show still made Ralph Barnes nervous.

In a matter of months, Susie Austin, who had been reading the news on Perry’s show, left the station. Her replacement was Randi Rhodes. Randi, who would eventually emerge on Air America, was much more opinionated on the air. She provided a more combative foil for Perry’s on-air persona. Unfortunately their success would soon come to an end.

Perry says:

“My co-host, Susie Austin, became more and more upset with my material. It seemed like she began to take things personally. It affected our show and our working relationship. I worked with Randi in New York at WAAP and knew that she could handle this type of show.”

In August of 1987, Stone and Rhodes were suspended for a month without pay after a number of gay rights organizations accused Perry Stone of being homophobic. These groups put pressure on some of QFM’s biggest advertisers. When boycotts were threatened several clients chose to pull their advertising from QFM. In question was Perry’s frequent on-air use of the word “homos”. Even though the threat of an advertising boycott was real, many considered the suspension to be a stunt in itself. The hope was that a brief disappearance by Perry Stone would neutralize the controversy without having to take permanent action against him.

Perry says:

“As a young rebellious morning guy I didn’t understand the ‘business of radio’. I didn’t understand why management couldn’t tell the advertisers to shut the **** up or get new advertisers. The money side of radio was foreign to me.”

Perry returned from this suspension but his return would not last long. The outcry for an advertising boycott resurfaced when Perry referred to a local AIDS fundraiser as a “homo-fest”. Rather than stand by the morning show, GM Ralph Barnes suspended the morning show again. This time it was personal. During the second suspension Perry Stone appeared on the Bob Grant radio show on WABC in New York where he vented his frustration with QFM management and with its owners, Shamrock Communications. Unfortunately WABC can easily be heard in Scranton, Pennsylvania—the home of Shamrock Communications.

Perry says:

“I felt slighted because they told me that this suspension was not real. They just needed time for things to cool off. They wanted me to play along with it as the radio station would garner more publicity by taking listener calls and airing them (which they did). I soon learned that my suspension was real due to the main guy at Shamrock. Bob Grant’s people tracked me down and wanted me to do an interview. I said yes. Mr. Grant asked me why Howard Stern’s company supported him but my company did not. I don’t remember the exact words but I said something like, ’Because my company is a bunch of gutless-spineless minor leaguers led by Bill Lynett.’ That did me in. However I already had an offer to do mornings in KSJO in San Jose.”

When Shamrock owner Bill Lynett heard about Stone’s appearance on WABC he quickly called Ralph Barnes and demanded Perry Stone’s immediate termination. Barnes, fearing further losses of revenue and his own termination, caved into the pressure and fired both Perry Stone and Randi Rhodes soon after.

The news of Perry Stone’s termination was a bona fide media event. The news quickly spread throughout the city. The story was reported in the Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Sentinel, and on every local television newscast. While Perry was accused by the local media for being offensive, the listeners were more critical of the radio station. Many believed that QFM sold out by caving into the pressure---putting money before credibility.

Greg Ausham was furious over the decision to fire Perry Stone. By this time WBCS would drop their country music format in favor of competing directly with WQFM as WLZR—Lazer 103. In October, Greg Ausham would leave QFM and begin programming WLZR. To make matters worse he also took most of the QFM air staff with him including Chip Hobart, Jim Crowe, Karen Marks, and Darren Arriens. All of whom were on the air that day claiming to have “Made the Switch to Lazer 103”! Jay Philpott would soon follow. The move would be devastating for QFM. WLZR already had a morning show in place with Bob Nelson and Brian Madden from Toledo, Ohio. The Bob & Brian Show would soon dominate the 18-34 year audience for the next two decades. Ausham’s exodus would also prompt the quick retirement of Ralph Barnes as General Manager.

QFM would never recover. The station had been emasculated. For the next 10 years, QFM would make various attempts at restoring their tattered reputation. But nothing worked. The station would go through four more General Managers, five more program directors, and nearly a dozen morning show incarnations. Finally in 1997, QFM abandoned the format and became WJZI—an all-jazz station. 93QFM was gone for good.

This would not be last time that Perry Stone would cause controversy while on the air. In 1989, Perry made national headlines at KSJO in San Jose after he was accused of calling a 17-year old girl a “slut” and a “pig” during a broadcast. The final straw came after he allegedly encouraged a local Brownie troop to embezzle money from the sale of their cookies.

Six months later he was hired by KITS-FM in San Francisco to host a morning show that promised a “more music in the morning” approach. The format failed to make much impact. Stone was soon fired for low ratings.

Years later Perry found himself at WROX in Norfolk, Virginia where he encountered even more trouble.

In 1995 Perry and his partner, Henry “The Bull” Del Toro, were sued by Tommy Griffiths from rival station WNOR for defamation of character. Perry and particularly Del Toro were accused of repeatedly suggesting that Griffiths was a drug addict. Del Toro had been Griffiths’ former morning show partner for many years at WNOR. Ironically, Del Toro had been arrested and fired from WNOR for falsifying medical prescriptions two years earlier. According to the lawsuit, Del Toro and Stone made nearly 40 on-air references to Griffiths as a “coke head”, “whiff king”, “snort boy”, “Mr. Toot”, and “Frosty the Snowman” during a four-month span. The taunting got even nastier when they would call WNOR and put Griffiths on the air as he answered his own request line. Perry, Del Toro, and WROX agreed to pay $80,000 to settle the case. Perry Stone and Del Toro would be fired the following year.

At last check Perry Stone has retired from being on air. He is now the operations manager of a group of radio stations in North Carolina. To be fair, Perry Stone was hired by all these radio station to be outrageous and to achieve ratings. Each station knew what they were getting into when they hired Perry Stone. Additionally each station encouraged Perry to behave the way that he did. In the end, Perry Stone would pay the price and fall victim to the requirements of his various employers. QFM was no different. They played with fire and everybody got burned.

Perry says:

“No doubt, I pushed it too far and didn’t care about the consequences. I felt that if QFM didn’t work out, I could go anywhere and pave the way to bigger things. A top notch agent from Chicago signed me to a contract and did all of my future negotiations. Obviously being young and rebellious, I didn’t see the forest through the trees and the bigger picture. That being said ‘management’ should have had clearer boundaries and parameters. No doubt, WQFM was getting excellent publicity. But when it got too hot in the kitchen (as with the Don Imus situation) and advertisers threaten to pull out, that pretty much seals your fate.”

Regardless of the controversy that surrounded Perry Stone’s career, his firing from QFM has left a lasting impression on Milwaukee morning radio.

End.

Photos from top are a Chip Hobart toon, Jay Philpott, actor Gordon Jump from sitcom WKRP(a dead ringe for Ralph Barnes), Randi Rhodes and Bob Grant.

Special Thanks to Jay Philpott for the audio contributions!

The WZMF Story.

2007-04-17T12:41:00.002-05:00

Imagine literally growing up with and amongst the crazy environs of a progressive rock radio station. Seeing its' beginning through the eyes of a teen age kid and having your mentors and influences being that of a group of seemingly immoral, strangely artistic and hopelessly poor hippies who were trapsing from the East Side of town to pastoral Menominee Falls to vent their creative and social agendas and then when the time comes for you to inherit it; to come into you own and actively participate, it all ends.

I've known of Steve Amann's story for quite some time and never found the opportunity to write about it. His father, Ron Amann, was one of three Globe Union co-workers who decided to take a shot at owning a radio station. With the only available frequency being that of a low power (3,000 watt) 98.3, they partnered up and rolled the dice.

In 1999 WMSE held an on-air WZMF Reunion hosted by "Nick The Greek." It was a 2 hour show that featured many of the folks you may have already heard on the WZMF Final Hour podcast. During the show Steve called in from a Midway Motor Lodge in Kenosha to tell this story (with the help of some friends). It's an articulate, passionate and relevent rendering of the tale of how ZMF came to be and what it was like to be in and around it.

No doubt Steve has much more to tell than the snippets here and hopefully we'll someday see an expanded rendering of that in print. This runs 19:52.

Very special thanks again to Al Javorek!

93QFM Bugle American Ads.

2007-02-10T19:15:00.000-06:00

The Bugle American was a fairly well written local hip/hippie rag that was started in 1970 by Dennis Kitchen, Dave Schriener and Mike and Judy Jacobs. It ran for seven years. These are some of the funky QFM display ads from it.

And a bonus WZMF ad.

More Bugle info here.

Special thanks to Martyn Dempsey for scanning the old mags he held onto all these years!

QFM 1975 Photo Booth.

2007-02-10T19:01:00.000-06:00

Green

Reitman

Bobbin

Reitman

John Grivas & Mary Curran

Green

Reitman

Grivas

Green

Joe Santoro

Special Thanks to Martyn Dempsey!

WZMF. The Final Hour.

2007-01-28T22:36:00.002-06:00

For a radio station to announce a change in format and then allow it’s current and former employees to gather together for a live on-air send off is really quite a rare thing. The standard procedure for format change is a quick and sudden disappearance of the staff and music usually only to be heard from by whatever local print media decides it is worthy of mentioning. To take it one step further, besides ZMF, can you think of ANY progressive radio station in the country who was allowed a live on-air send off?

The event, a gathering around a small suburban house/studio fronted by stolen gravestone markers and surrounded by diehard fans ratty cars blaring fm 98.3, is a someday movie scene.

This recording is a signature of a moment. “Downstairs” Dan Hansen is buzzed up and clearly in a liquid state but his prose comes from the heart and his laments are funny and true. The interplay between he and the very straight Reitman shows the mutual respect they have for each other. Reitman’s observations and nostalgic stories add perspective. Steve Stevens, Marty Racine and Jim Roberts are among many others who join them.

There are many more here who deserve mention but I’ll leave that to you.

Enjoy! (25:21)

Special Thanks to Al Javorek. He knew history when he was listening to it and was smart enough to retain it.

Heart.

2007-01-26T19:12:00.001-06:00

Bobbin Beam and Ann and Nancy Wilson are "like souls" who just plain hit it off from the start.
Bobbin writes:

In 1975, one warm, picture-perfect July afternoon, I went over to the Pfister Hotel to do an interview with the leaders from a new band that was the opener for the Jefferson Starship that night. Their names are Ann & Nancy Wilson from Heart. We had an immediate rapport and Ann called room service and ordered up a couple bottles of wine. We were like 3 school chums, hanging out and talking about music, our likes & dislikes. Of course Robert Plant and Paul McCartney were at the top of the male artists, and the three of us were waxing poetic at Joni Mitchell’s vivid imagery and vocals. It was the start of a friendship that has lasted years. Ann later would laughingly refer to that first meeting, with the comment, that she decided to never get that buzzed again BEFORE a show.

Which Heart album was out then?

The very first – “Dreamboat Annie” LP on Mushroom records.

Crazy On You. Live. 1979. (6:57)

Plant and McCartney were the subject of your conversation? The likes and dislikes? Can you elaborate?

Well Ann always said she’d marry McCartney in a heartbeat- No Pun intended. Discussion always centered around the music. We loved to talk about music...What’s new. What’s old- stuff we loved and grew up on like everyone else. Ann loved McCartney’s lyrics. Being the same age, we both grew up loving Paul, the “cute Beatle.”

Paul. (2:13)

Then of course at that time Robert Plant was the consummate Rock God Idol. In the early days of Heart, it probably comes as no surprise that the band played a lot of Zeppelin when they were a bar band in Canada , which is where a lot of the “female Plant” comparisons justifiably arose. (Listen to heavy influences between Kashmir and Mistral Wind) Bottom line. Ann has a God-given voice to sing rock and roll, and not just the song title, which she did a lot of for years. But she could also finesse the softer McCartney acoustric lyrical lilt in the songs. So this is the stuff we talked about. Music. Oldies. She even loved Harry Nillson. One night we stayed up in the hotel room after a gig and sang oldies. Howard Leese (Guitar & keyboards) came up to the room with his guitar and we all sang and jammed ‘til the wee hours.

That was the Joni Mitchell talk too- the buzzed conversation about what you all liked?

Nancy, Ann & I decided at our first meeting we were so into Joni Mitchell. Her music was the great ice-breaker for our interview, that turned into a conversation that’s gone on for years. Joni’s guitar work and chord phrasing was a huge influence on Nancy then. On this tour, they had the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra play with them on “Soul of the Sea”. Unbelievable!

Heart. Soul of the Sea. Live. 1976. (7:16)

One time Ann confided to me that I was on the radio speaker system during setup at one of the stadium shows in the afternoon. It was time for their soundcheck and I was doing a break. Ann later told me she listened and complimented me on my voice and said she always wanted to be doing what I was doing. Being a DJ!! Can you believe that? One time I heard her on a Westwood One special doing a DJ thing, playing songs and talking about music. I smiled, as I knew she was totally happy doing something she really loved to do!

What were the later communications- when they played gigs or phone girl talk? Etc...

Yes, we have seen each other and communicated a number of times. Over many years. In Milwaukee, Chicago, Madison, Alpine Valley and San Diego. During and after gigs. Dinners, hotel room hangin’, phone calls and several stations and interviews over the years.

The "buzzed before a show" was the two bottles of wine? Did you see the show- the opening gig? How did they do? What was it like during ... after?

I was definitely at that show. I thought they blew Starship away. They kicked BUTT. Nobody’d ever know our 2 bottle of wine pre-show “secret” unless I told you.

When was your last communication?

Lovemongers. Battle of Evermore. (7:11)

The last time we saw each other was after a gig in San Diego when they were “The Lovemongers”- Ann, Nanc and songwriter Sue Ennis, Howard and they played a killer version of Zeppelin’s “Battle of Evermore”. Quite memorable. Back to the roots. The show was in a bar. Very intimate. Ann was in excellent voice!

Is the photo of the four of you from then or later?

The hotel room photo sent was taken during the “Bebe Le Strange” days/tour about 1978. Ann gave me their song list from the floor of the stage that night during the encore. She just peeled it right off and handed it to me from the stage. I still have it, duct tape and all. (I was up front of the stage taking photos for the show)

Bobbin Beam's website here.

Heart/Lovemongers Official site here.

Top Photo taken in Milwaukee during the Bebe Le Strange tour in 1978 by Bobbin Beam.

The Divinyls.

2007-01-23T18:30:00.001-06:00

When I think about Steve Palec, I touch myself. He was a morning guy at QFM "back then." He writes:

I think it was 1985 when The Divinyls released an album called What A Life. I had no idea who they were (yet).

Their record company was waltzing them around and brought them to QFM one morning. We went out to lunch with the band at some downtown restaurant.

Right after lunch Christina Amphlett, who would later display an amphlett cleavage in the video for their 1991 hit "I Touch Myself" asked if we could hit the mall for awhile. We were right across the street from The Grand Avenue and I can't remember if just she and I went over or if we all did and the two of us got separated from the pack.I had no idea that years later both I and Austin Powers would be titillated by her lung capacity and seductiveness in her self-touching masterpiece.

Austin Powers Touches Himself. Fembots! (3:41)

That day, I have to be honest and say she was just an average Australian chick (Australian in not only her country of origin but her up close resemblance to Crocodile Dundee. OK...I am exaggerating and I would guess she didn't think I was Mel Gibson either, but the point is...) She didn't look anything like she later would in the video. But she was very nice and very friendly.

This early 1981 video is a pop rocker in true 80's form but is less than flattering for Christina. It's called "Boys in Town."

Palec:

What I distinctly remember was as we were shopping, we went into a leather store (maybe Wilson's???) and saw a jacket she liked. "I want this" she said and pulled out a cigar box. It was filled with cash. She just handed the box to the clerk and said, "I don't know which of these are what, so just take what you need."
She Touches Herself.

Steve Palec web site here. Divinyls Wiki here.

Steve Dahl. McBean. WLPX. 1979 Aircheck.

2007-01-13T21:53:00.001-06:00

It was on the heels of Steve Dahl’s infamous Comiskey Park Disco Demolition fiasco in late summer of 1979 that LPX invited Dahl to spend a Saturday afternoon on the air w/ Jim McBean.

I was the "gopher" for the stint that had me running around town looking for canisters of helium that Dahl liked to use to spice things up. The afternoon was to be a demo for what might be an every Saturday thing but McBean received a call midday into the show from boss Tom Daniels, who had heard more than enough to make a decision, telling him not to mention the weekly idea on the air again. Thus, McBean knew this was a one time deal and did his best to make the most of it. He holds his own fairly well with the comedically gifted Dahl who, at 24 years old, was still fresh and funny.

We all know how rigid the Superstars format was in regards to DJ banter. Dahl had to continuously remind McBean that it was OK to be talking. That it worked for him in Chicago and it could also work here.

A couple years later he simulcast a morning show on QFM that had KTI’s Gene Mueller doing live news drop-ins. It was short lived. As a regular Chicago listener in recent years, I’ve heard his disdain for Milwaukee anytime the subject would come up. We’ve gotten over it and look back fondly on his brief foray in the market. Hopefully, someday he will too.

The following aircheck reminds me that I was fortunate enough to work the 7p-12mid Saturday night shift on LPX for a couple years. As a 20 year old "Kid", it was a gas. Listen for me in the background of Part Three as well as Bobbin Beam who jumped in for the fun also.

Part One.

Steve and Jim interview and do gas with the guys from Guru Guru .They sing "My Balona"and there’s a classic Suburpia (sub shop) commercial. Also, Steve comments on his grade school days with David Lee Roth from Van Halen (Steve was not nice to him). (13:46)

Dahl_McBean_Part_One.mp3

Part Two.

Riddled with Steve Dahl mocking Getty Lee from Rush. He talks of his one time work at Taco Bell and McBean tells the funky story about the exploits of "Old Man Coleman"- the owner of the Coleman Cooler manufacturing company. (14:58)

Dahl_McBean_Part_Two.mp3

Part Three.

Steve finds out for the first time what sausage is encased in. He talks about John Wayne Gacy and Ed Gein as the free for all with the four of us gets stupid. (15:07)

Dahl_McBean_Part_Three.mp3

Steve Dahl’s Disco Demolition website here. His radio show website here.

Dahl w/Keith Oberman. MSNBC. (3:52)

Jim McBean is a production "big wig" now at XM.

Scott The Kid. Photos.

2007-01-13T00:54:00.000-06:00

1978 WUWM

1982 WQFM

1986 Summerfest Rock Stage

Photos #1 and #2 by Mara Kay Pozorski. #3 is by Paul Lorentz Jr..

Lee Abrams and Lee Arnold.

2007-01-10T23:42:00.000-06:00

Lee Abrams and Lee Arnold teamed up way back when to try to break a band. From Abrams most recent blog entry, he writes:

CRITICAL MASS:

Lee Arnold was PD of our client WAAF in Worcester/Boston. He kinda discovered the Cars. One day he came to me with this band from Miami called Critical Mass. Kind of a U.S version of the Buzzcocks thing. Real engaging. The guys were like the Three Stooges on Acid. I figured that Lee had a good handle on music trends and that maybe an Americanized Punk thing could fly. So we talked, played around and decided to give it a shot. They were great guys not yet warped by the business and hilarious to be around as they played The Green acres theme as effortlessly as their own songs. Figured we might want to record it in the UK to soak up the vibe since things were happening there, so I rented Chris Squire’s studio in suburban Surrey outside of London. These guys COULD have been Green Day. Energetic pop, great melodies. Playful but decent musicians, but the sessions were a disaster. Fueled by the evil circa 70’s Cocaine Cognac and Hash cycle. Though the guys were pretty straight, preferring English Pub food to drugs. It was an incredible learning experience about the perils of Drugs and Rock n Roll. Adding to the problem is that the engineer was too UK centric---going for the rough JAM sound than a smoother Van Halen sound. In ’79, there was literally no FM in the UK so the engineer’s reference was how a Jam record sounded on AM rather than how Van Halen sounded on FM, additionally the band had a manager who was a Broadway producer and had little knowledge of how to break these guys. The whole experience was depressing as we were all holed up in this dive hotel amusing each other with comedy routines and lots of booze and drugs among the production crew….all highlighted with a dark lonely Thanksgiving in a cold hotel café eating bad turkey sandwiches slathered in butter and limp cucumbers served by an apathetic waitress with Pink hair.. We were all going crazy but too stoned to see the light of why.The resulting sound was miserable, however Trevor Horn was a good friend and let us remix it at his SARM Studio and the final final was surprisingly pretty decent and the session was somewhat saved. We shopped it and MCA bought it, but it never really happened. Part of the problem was that US radio wouldn’t accept that sound. Kinda funny ‘cause I was viewed as the guy who was responsible for the US radio sound back then. If we could do it over, we’d record in Miami their hometown, outlaw all substances from the premises, get a US engineer and bore into doing what the band was capable of—which was Green Day in 1979.

Lee Abrams is "somebody" at XM. His blog is here.

Critical Mass website here. Myspace here.

Green Day. Basket Case. Live. (3:02)

The above "purple lady" photo is a cheap attention getting ploy that has no relation to the story at all.

Brent Alberts.

2007-01-04T21:31:00.002-06:00

by Terry Gibson.

Starship. We Built This City.

In the last few months thanks to Scott "The Kid" Beddome, who has created this site, I have spent quite a bit of time remembering the "Halcyon Days" of 93QFM, and the constant parade of characters who participated in its history throughout the early to mid 80's. There are so many great stories that have been told, and still many more that hopefully will be recounted in the future. If I could just narrow it down to one guy who should get the life time achievement award it would go to Brent Alberts, the former QFM Program Director. I say this not because Brent hired me and plucked me out of radio obscurity from an overnight shift in Madison which he did, but rather because Brent truly created a legendary place that is still being discussed 25 years down the road.

Brent Alberts was the architect of the really successful 93QFM era. It was Brent who created an environment where creativity, working hard, and playing hard were respected, expected, and accepted all at once. A perfect storm of a radio station where the musicians, dj's, and listeners were livin' it all together. We were like a gang without any particular gang leader, and without the violence. There could not have been any better conditions to work or live in.

Brent oversaw the music, promotions, and hired the dj's, including :

Gene Mueller, Jim Rodio, Jeff "Mr. Midday" Peterson, Mike Wolf, Tim the Rock-n-Roll Animal, Patti Genko, Scott "The Kid" Beddome, Mark "The Mangy Man" Krueger, Jerry Gavin, Downstairs Dan Hansen, Steve Palec, Andy Bloom, and many others.

Anyone remember the "Rock On Milwaukee" campaign? That happened while Brent was there, and it personified a whole generation of young rockers just coming into their own.

Brent hired me to replace himself, as he was moving off the air to devote all of his time to programming. I never understood why he did that because he was really good on the air. He had worked as a dj at The Loop in Chicago, and on rival crosstown rocker WLPX. I never asked either for fear he would change his mind and then I wouldn't have gotten the gig. My job interview went something like this:

I show up to QFM from Madison, Brent says,

"I want you to meet some of our advertisers..."

that was code for friends. My first impression of Brent was,

"Man this guy has a lot of friends!"

Radio is best when it's local, and he was tied into every nook and cranny of Milwaukee, he knew everybody and their uncle, and the red carpets just unrolled for him at every stop. First visit was the Jabberwocky on 69^th and Greenfield. He gets the VIP greeting not only from the owner, Chris, but from the bartenders, the bar manager, the doorman, and listeners, everyone in the joint acts like he is their brother. I think,

"Maybe he owns a piece of the place?"

but I was wrong. That was just Brent, he was like everybodys brother. Next stop, the Palms at 26^th and State. It was the same, everybody falling all over themselves to say hello because they are all happy to see him. The routine never changed, we went to Fantasy's, Teddy's and Major Goolsby's. At each stop we had a drink and by now I am pretty hammered, but I'm still standing so I guess I passed the audition. I started to wonder if Brent was not in fact the Mayor of Milwaukee moonlighting as the program director of QFM. Even at rival LPX, they were not seen as the enemy, his best friend was LPX afternoon air talent Jim McBean. Even his competitors loved him!

Styx. Blue Collar Man.

I was starting to get it. All these "friends" are part of the gang. I remember more than a few times, after a staff meeting, he would just say "Jabberwocky for lunch" and maybe 10 of us went out to eat together like a gang. As I met the people at Alpine Valley, and at Stardate productions, I was always told how lucky I was and that I was going to love it at QFM. I didn't need to be told, I knew it from the first hour, and I wasn't even on the air yet.

Brent was the boss. That was understood, but he did not rule with an iron fist. He was exactly the same as anyone who was a listener, a passionate rock fan who was just there to have a little fun. In the end he self destructed, and like a shooting star, he wasn't there long enough to enjoy the entire full ride. When QFM finally beat the goliath WLPX in the ratings Brent was gone. The team he put together started that momentum. QFM was named Billboard Magazines' Major Market Radio Station of the Year in 1981. His team that earned that award. When Tim The Rock-n-Roll Animal went out on the ledge to bring the Who to Milwuakee, Brent was gone, but who was it that hired Tim and brought him in from Rockford ?

You guessed it. My mom is not a rock fan. To her it's all noise and she never understood why my hair was so long. Yet after she met Brent at summerfest in 1981 she told me she knew I was going to be alright if he was around. It was the only time she was ever at ease with this crazy career choice I had made for my life.

We all owe Brent a thank you for how he enriched our lives back in the day. As I look back ever so fondly on this period through these pages I want to give credit where I think it is due, right on Brent's lap. I love the guy. In all these years that have passed I have never once have heard anyone say a bad thing about him, and my life would have turned out very differently if it weren't for him. I think many of the people mentioned above would agree. I would love to read more of their own recollections on this site.

Today Brent is right where he should be, alive and well and programming a bunch of rock radio stations all across the country. The more things change, the more they stay the same! Rock On America!

Brent Alberts is my unsung hero.

Terry Gibson. 93QFM. 1981-1987.

End.

Who's Next.

2006-12-28T17:02:00.001-06:00

Spartan Atlantic was a Kmart like department store on Milwaukee’s far Northwest side. It was in the area of Silver Spring and Appleton Ave (Hwy 41 back then). It was 1971 and I had just turned 12 years old.

I was there with my best friend and his mom when she offered to let me pick out any record album I wanted as a birthday gift. That was very exciting to me because I had none. Hundreds of 45's but no albums.

My parents had built a duplex on Potomac Avenue just off 76th & Congress in 1961. It was part of a string of similar buildings on that block that usually had the owners living in one flat and renting out the other. My friends duplex was two doors down from ours so our families were very close. They were a wild Catholic bunch who, comparatively, barely kept things under control. His mom was much more liberal than mine and that’s what made their house the better place to hang out in. She was a tall, chain smoking, once beautiful blond who was ragged from the demands of a five kid household. The place was an organized mess that always had plenty of food. There was always yelling of some kind between siblings, between the parents or by the parents at the unruly kids. Shit was always happening there as they were tremendously active with St. Margaret Mary’s Church and Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic school. It was a fun and exciting world over there.

I spent a long time looking at album covers as she shopped with my friend for back to school clothes. It was smart of her to find something to keep me busy. When they finally were done she wanted to know which album I wanted and I boldly had picked one off a display end cap that had a bunch of long haired rock dudes walking away from a monument of some sort having just completed pissing on it. I pointed to it.

"That’s the one you want?"

She smiled and laughed.

"OK, but don’t tell your parents who bought it for you alright?"

I had to hide it in my bedroom and played it only when my parents weren’t home. I didn’t like it. I know I should say that when I heard it I thought it was a revolutionary sound that was perfectly in touch with the times and the sentiment but I wasn’t in touch with the times and the sentiment back then so I didn’t know it was cool. I had bought it solely on the basis of the album cover. Nothing else. That doesn’t happen much now does it?

It was another one of those rebellious statements I was making to myself at the time. I remember very well thinking that it sounded too hard, that it wasn’t like the Top 40 stuff that I had liked. Thus, there was only one song that I played over and over, which was my mentality back then, and it was,

"Gettin’ In Tune."

I grew to love that song like I did the pop sings of my youth. I didn’t listen to the rest of the album at all. Weird huh?

So now here I am many years later writing a book about an event that played a major part in my early adult life and the band that is at the center of it is that same band. Singing all the songs I neglected to listen to back then at a concert in my hometown that was part of a transformational city event that trancended the mere confines of a simple rock concert. Cool. Another one of those accidental purposeful connections that we make as we get old.

I know now why the cover appealed to me so much back then. It was anti-authority. The cement marker being the establishment- my parents- and the act of pissing on it a clear and forceful statement of disrespect. In 2003 VH-1 declared it the second best album cover of all time. Number one was The Stones "Sticky Fingers" with the zipper on the cover. Released earlier in the same year it must have been one that I considered but may not have selected either because it wasn’t on an end cap or the whole sex thing was just not in my repertoire yet and thus I didn’t get the reference.

Those songs that we beat ourselves up with when we were young have the ability to make us feel great now if we have gone a long time without hearing them. ‘Gettin’ In Tune’ is never played anywhere on the radio so when I choose to play it for myself it always creates a warm, incandescent drug that flows through my mind and tumbles smooth the sharp edges of my jagged daily stresses and fears.

I'm singing this note 'cause it fits in well

With the way I'm feeling

There's a symphony that I hear in your heart

Sets my head a-reeling

But I'm in tune

Right in tune

I'm in tune

And I'm gonna tune

Right in on you

It embraces me. Like a friendly stranger who I know loves me in the briefest of instances when we first meet. It saves me. Redeems me. No matter what I’ve done. No matter what I will do. It’s always been there and will always be there. We all have songs like that. This one is mine.

End.

‘Gettin’ In Tune’ was originally part of what was called "The Lifehouse" project which was overly ambitious and highly complex for it’s time and was scrapped until many years later when Pete Townsend took a much more limited shot at it again. Read about it here.

The Who Gettin' in Tune.

Wiki info on Who's Next here.

And just for fun.

Keith Moon (his last) and Pete Townsend Interview. 1978. 9:12

James Brown. T.A.M.I. Performance. 1964.

2006-12-25T11:39:00.000-06:00

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a giant of R&B and an inspiration for rap, funk and disco, died early Christmas morning. He was 73. Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music.

His "Live at The Apollo" in 1962 is widely considered one of the greatest concert records ever. And he often talked of the 1964 concert in which organizers made the mistake of having the Rolling Stones, not him, close the bill. He would remember a terrified Mick Jagger waiting offstage, chain smoking, as Brown pulled off his matchless show.

R.I.P

For The Halcyon Daze home page click here.

Wikipedia info. Click here.

The show was made into a movie and shown here in Hollywood at The Archlight in 2004. A review of that show says:

It's really a time capsule of a film. The line up included legends James Brown, The Rolling Stones, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, The Beach Boys (who appear briefly, but actually had their performance removed from the film because their manager thought it was beneath them), Chuck Berry, Jan & Dean and the Supremes; one-hit wonders Leslie Gore, Gerry & The Pacemakers; and no-hit wonders like the Barbarians.It was fun seeing Smokey, Marvin, The Stones and the Supremes on the verge of superstardom. This was 1964, so no "Tears of a Clown," "Heard It Through The Grapevine," or even "Satisfaction." Instead they gave energetic performances of their early R&B hits.

Now, the real entertainment for most of the show was nearly upstaged by a group of choreographed dancers, including Teri Garr and Toni Basil, who shimmy and wiggle madly behind the acts. Fortunately the dancers were done by the time the Flames took the stage. Ah, James and his Famous Flames.The highlight of the film is undoubtedly James Brown. He was at his peak, in his mid-30s and the fastest dancer alive. He ripped through "Out Of Sight" with dance moves that made me jump out of my seat. I know the people behind me must have been annoyed. Then he cooled it down with "Try Me" and "Prisoner of Love." The showstopper was "Please, Please, Please," which featured James falling to his knees, mic stand in hand over and over. When his valet and one of the Famous Flames came over with the cape to drape over James' shoulders, the audience in the movie theater went as nuts as the crowd on hand. It was that electrifying. The final number was the mainly instrumental "Night Train" which showcased Brown's dancing talents, with numerous dancing encores. James lit the stage so hot that even the Stones couldn't handle following him.

Needless to say, if this film comes within a county of you: you better run, don't walk, to see it. The T.A.M.I. Show is pop history.

Read the full review here.

Grant Field's Rebellion.

2006-12-18T22:29:00.001-06:00

The changeover from the freeform progressive 70's to the corporate guitar chord research rock of the 80's was a difficult one for all involved.

Grant Field’s rebellion was one of the few protests that was carried out on the air. What led up to it? Field:

One, of course, was the tight play list but I was also motivated by the recent firing of John Rausch. John did middays at QFM and was fired for breaking format. He had the audacity to play Cat Stevens "Bitterblue" on a raw frigid morning in Milwaukee.

Steven's Bitterblue and Changes IV (9:59)

"How dare you be creative…Get Out.!"

It was Brent Alberts who was Program Director at the time and who fired Rausch as well as others when he arrived at QFM. Alberts:

Firing an employee is the hardest job a manager ever has to do, I take no pleasure in it. But it’s my job to make sure the systems work like a well oiled machine, and if a team member does not contribute to the whole, they need to go.

Field had come to the conclusion he didn’t want to be a part of that team anymore...

So I decided I would plan out my final show on QFM. Something almost no one gets to do. Usually you’re removed from the air before you get a chance to even say goodbye. So I sat down with a buddy and we made a list of all the great rock songs I could play that weren’t on the play list. The list was endless.

When did it happen?

It was, I believe a Saturday night Sunday morning shift in February of 1981 when I obtained access to the album library prior to my shift and created a stack of albums at least three feet high. At approximately 1:30 am I turned the mic on and the rant began.

This is what he said.

Grant_Field_Track_1.mp3

The Average White Band song he played was "Work To Do."

The second song was "The Golden Age Of Rock N Roll" by Mott The Hoople.

Alberts had just left The Palms Nightclub and was in his car when he heard Field begin his rant. It was in the middle of the third song Elvin Bishop’s "Sure Feels Good" that Brent Alberts arrived at the station. Brent:

"It was very scary to go in there at midnight and confront him alone, as I had no idea what state of mind he was in to commit a career mistake like that, who knows what could have happened. When he turned the mic on and challenged me..."

Talk about tension!

Grant_Field_Track_2.mp3

The transmitter could be turned off in the area right next to the wall clock (directly behind the piece of paper that is hanging from the speaker) by simply pushing a button. Alberts:

I killed the transmitter, informed him he was fired and to leave immediately or I would call the police. At that point he was trespassing...

Grant left but apparently hadn’t felt as though it had been enough.

So I remember a couple of nights later being at a party of radio people and somebody suggested to get a hold of Mike Drew at the Journal. I did an interview with Mike and he did two or three relatively positive articles about my "martyrdom".

This is what Mike Drew wrote:

Headline:

"Firing at QFM Illustrates a Distressing Trend in Radio."

"The latest example in the continuing disenchantment of jocks and listeners with restrictive music policies is a curse that’s severely damaging today’s radio. The story is far broader than the insubordination of one part time jock."

Drew went on to describe the event at the station and said:

"Field probably got what he deserved for his aesthetic bravery."

He then listed the many songs that were no longer played such as Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Simon and Garfunkel and Elton John. He quotes Grant as saying,

"I grew up listening to ZMF where jocks could play what they wanted to and you had variety. Every other song would turn you on to a new kind of music."

Reitman, who was at KTI, still had a bone to pick too. Drew quotes him as saying,

"QFM took an exciting station and made it mirror LPX and the Burhart/Abrams format it buys from an Atlanta firm. What’s more it hired a former LPX disc jockey, Alberts, to do it."

Drew goes on to complain that there are certain types of music, mainly the new wave artists, that also aren’t being played in spite of the fact that they are in the Billboard Top 100. The article was a substantial one and started a series of such that had Drew lambasting Milwaukee radio. A very successful hit for Grant Field.

Then came the blowback.

Then a couple of days later I was down in Schaumburg visiting my parents and the phone rang and it was a representative from Radio & Records magazine asking me if I was the Milwaukee jock who flipped out on the air and I said "Yep, that’s me". We did about a twenty minute interview and they printed a short article on the "incident" in their next issue. I later found out that it was Brent who contacted R&R in hopes of getting me black balled all across the country.

Alberts:

I did not set him up with R&R, they called and asked about the incident, and wanted his take. I had no reason to blackball him, it was not personal. I was a manager, he was a rogue employee that decided to take over a multi million dollar property and do what he wanted with it.

Field was off for about a year when Michael St. James hired him to work at the new country station WMIL.

"We miss you man."

He also worked at WZUU and WLTQ. He then spent 13 years at Chicago’s WLIT and is currently handling traffic and production duties for Clear Channel in Milwaukee.

"I never ever regretted the rebellion. I was only standing up for what I believed in. I was, however, an infant in the business and would soon find out that tight play lists were a reality everywhere."

Says Alberts:

I believe history now shows the right moves were made.

Alberts went on to bring QFM up to a 6.0 share to LPX's 6.3. QFM was the Billboard Major Market Station of the Year in 1981. Many credit Alberts with creating the momentum that Lee Arnold built upon and took to new heights. QFM was #1 with an 8.5 share 12+ in the fall of '83.

End.

The Milwaukee Journal 3/12/81 article by Mike Drew. Part one here. Part two here.

Bowie's Rebel Rebel Live. Reality Tour. (3:25)

Jeff Peterson. Mr. Midday.

2006-12-13T21:16:00.002-06:00

Jeff Peterson is ticking away the moments that make up a dull day. He’s fritterin’ and wastin’ the hours in an offhand way because his illness is getting the best of him. He looks back on The Halcyon Daze at 93QFM with great fondness but has a warning for everybody who enjoyed the times the same way he did.

Runnin’ around on a piece of ground in your home town,
waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Jeff’s first radio gig was in Watertown at WTTN. It was the mid 70's and he had his sights set on WQFM so he figured he’d call the night jock there and see if he wanted to "share some bud." Space Commander Green was up for the buzz and Peterson took along a bottle of cheap red wine to supplement the fun. He and Green shared an hour together in the hallowed penthouse studio. It made a lasting impression. After his first long toke, Green bumped the turntable arm and knocked it completely off the record then hastily grabbed it and plopped it back down somewhere in the middle of the song. Jeff can’t quite remember the song...he’s trying....

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.

His next gig was weekends at WZUU during their heyday. The air personalities there were David Haines, Doug Blair, Charley McCarthy and Paxton Bird. The " Birdman" and Peterson would get together at Bird’s Northwest side apartment and get stoned and watch The Gong Show. Chris Curtis was the Program Director back then.

After that he got his first full time spot overnights at WLPX on their debut. Within three months he evolved onto the morning show which already had Brent Alberts and Joanie Bowman. Alberts and Peterson shared an apartment and were "buddies." Bowman was an attractive lady and she knew it. She had a sports star/rock star mentality that was great fodder for Alberts and Peterson to play off. What did they do?

"You mean besides drugs?"

They did a great show that had a good two year run til the paddy wagons pulled up to the Channel 12/ WISN/WLPX studios parking lot at 5:45am one morning and took away half the show. (I know there were three but Brent was a big guy.) After that Joanie quit and was replaced by Cindy Marsh who wasn’t a good blend with Peterson. Time stood still and Jeff ended up working with his buddy once again as Brent had been gone and back and had begun to build a new monster at QFM destined to take back the city. That put Jeff "Mr. Midday" Peterson smack dab in the middle of the Halcyon Daze as he would stay there for another 4 years.

"We were all young and impressionable. It was one of the best times in my life."

Compared to his former radio digs, QFM’s 21st floor location was special because...

"You could open up the window to the newsroom ledge and then open up the sliding glass patio door to the studio and you could smoke in there and then blow out toward the newsroom and it would just zoom out through the patio door and make a hard right and be out the window with no tell tale signs."

Pink Oz.

So smoking in the studio was common even during his daytime 10a-2p shift. A small little shelf was just under the turntables that made a great hiding place for his pipe.

Ralph Barnes, QFM’s General Manager (aka "The Big Guy"), would often poke his head in just to say Hi. On one occasion he caught Jeff just after an inhale but instead of saying Hi and leaving he spied a newspaper on the table next to the control board and decided to sit down and read it. Jeff had to make a hasty exit to the newsroom and exhale out the window before he could say a word.

While they weren’t many, Peterson has a couple sex stories too. One happened on a Nazareth concert promotion. The winners got a dinner and drinks at Major Goolsby’s, tickets to the show and a limo ride to and from. Jeff got the babysitting assignment and forgot his duties as he met a women who loudly pronounced herself "officially divorced" at the bar and joined him in the limo at the lakefront as the winners enjoyed the show. A funky twist has the limo driver as the son of a prominent sportscaster at the time. Another encounter involved a Metro and Summerfest.

He also remembers a concert at Little Switzerland that was billed as,

"A Day in the Life of Rock N Roll!"

Badfinger was the headliner. He remembers talking for quite a while to the one day Governor of Minnesota, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, who was hired to handle the security for the poorly attended event.

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

Disc Jockeys learn to get a little bit sick and fearful of the day they return from a vacation. It’s a favorite time in the industry for firing. On this day his cruise along Lake Drive was highlighted by his noticing the white tips at the crest of the waves and,

"everything looked particularly beautiful and sharp and clear."

He was fired by Jerry Gavin who was none of the above.

He did mornings at WBGK and then worked at "Breezin" with Steve Scott before he went back to school and got a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Educational Psychology from UWM. He spent the next 14 years doing community counseling in Milwaukee and Waukesha. All the while keeping his feet wet in radio working weekends at WKLH.

In December of 2003 he got a call from the doctor who had just received the blood test results from his previous weeks physical. He said that he was noticing a six year trend of increasing liver enzymes and called him back for more tests. Those tests showed Jeff to be negative for HIV but positive for Chronic Hepatitis C. Jeff thought,

"Oh! Well what did I eat?"

His doctor corrected him,

"No. This is not good."

Jeff’s homework revealed Hep C to be an infection of the liver that is transmitted by blood. At that time, it was generally considered to be from shared needles and rough anal sex.

"Holy Shit!" he thought. "How did I get it?"

Like everybody who has worked in radio he had been fucked up the ass but only rhetorically. He never did any drugs that required needles either so he was dumbfounded and asked his doctor,

"How did I get it?"

"Did you party way back when? Did you do cocaine?"

That answer was yes. The liver biopsy tests had shown that he had been carrying the disease for 20-25 years. The doctor explained to Jeff that the shared dollar bills and ball point pens could have been the source. A recent Time Magazine article confirms that the "coke straw culprit" is coming to be widely known.

"I highly advise anybody who is our age- if you’ve ever stuck anything up your nose- get yourself tested for Hep C."

In his first three months of treatment he ran into five people who he had partied with before who were also receiving care.

"It’s a pandemic. There are more people being diagnosed and dying of this disease than of HIV."
Treatment began a month after he was diagnosed. It consists of two wicked medications needed to beat back the virus. The first is Ribavirin. It kills everything but it effects your vision, your dentistry (he’s lost eight teeth in the last two years) and your hearing. The other drug is Interferon. He gives himself an injection of that every Friday. The combo is considered "Chemotherapy" because the side effects are very similar to the treatments for cancer.

After that first round he reached the "non-detectable" blood level but had to discontinue a bit too soon because he’d gotten pneumonia as his immune system started to fail. Six months passed and found a return of the disease with even greater ferocity so the debilitating regimen began once again.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.

Steve Scott had once again hired Jeff but this time it was at Smooth Jazz WJZI. Scott was let go not too long after. The JZI General Manager was familiar with Peterson’s affliction and suggested he take a couple weeks off. Need I say what happened on his return?

This most recent round of treatment started last April and was initially supposed to last 12 weeks but has been extended because Jeff ‘s strain is the one that has proven to be the most resistant as was evidenced by it’s reoccurrence. Jeff’s lost 60 pounds and his hearing in one ear. He can’t cross the street to get the mail without huffing and puffing. He fights a 103 degree fever with a dozen Tylenol per day. Ativan has also been added to his drug list as he is battling panic attacks that wake him up in the night gasping.

The meds also affect his short term memory causing him to stop mid sentence to try to remember what he’s talking about. He doesn’t- and "can’t"- drink alcohol.

The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

He likes to think about his days at QFM,

"The radio station had something special- not just the people who were there but the people who where listening to us... It was like... this is not normal... This is more of an intimate relationship on a very large scale."

His son recently came home with a story about a friend’s mom who remembered, "Mr. Midday!"

"It's amazing...I still get that stuff..."

Now he remembers the song that got knocked off the air when he visited Space Commander Green those many years ago. It was Queen’s,

"Keep Yourself Alive."

End.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.

- Lyrics from "Time" by Pink Floyd.

Queen. Keep Yourself Alive.

E mail Jeff Peterson here.

Mangy Men.

2006-12-12T20:05:00.001-06:00

By Mike Baxendale.

You cannot have a substantive conversation about QFM with talking about Mark Krueger. Krueger is possibly the most unique individual who was ever granted a set of the keys to the QFM offices. There really is no way to describe the self-described Mangy Man since no description does the man justice. Those who know him can fully attest to his outrageousness. I got along great with the guy. I hope that one day Krueger submits some stories to this thing. I’m sure that they would be worth the wait. Mark, write something! Please!

Krueger will be most remembered for hosting the longest lasting import show in the country. The show was loaded with music from obscure bands from Europe such as Eloy, Hawkwind, and Marillion. However the real gems in his record collection were the ones that could never be played on QFM or any other radio station for that matter. Never the less, Krueger made sure that they were played around the office—constantly! For example, Krueger’s favorite band at the time was The Mentors. The Mentors were a band that wore hoods on stage and sang such toe-tapping numbers as “All Women are Insane”, “On the Rag”, and “My Erection is Over”. They were delightful family fare.

Strangely enough, The Mentors were hardly the most shocking selections in Krueger’s record collection. That honor goes to late G.G. Allin. G.G. was a technically a “performance artist” who had released such soothing classics as “Sleeping in My Piss”, “Anti-Social Masturbator” and the much lauded smash hit “Suck My Ass it Smells”. G.G. received national publicity after promising to commit suicide on stage during a Halloween show in 1990. Sadly he was unable to make good on that promise after serving time in jail for beating an ex-girlfriend and attempting to set her on fire. Needless to say G.G. Allin was not exactly someone that you’d want to hire to play at your prom.

In March of 1989 G.G. Allin was arrested in Milwaukee following a show at the Odd Rock Café. According to reports G.G. Allin caused a bit of a fuss within the first 15 minutes of the show when he defecated on stage. The show was promptly stopped by the club’s owner, Jack Koshik. It was here where Allin and his band began throwing stuff at the unsuspecting crowd—including the offending defecation. (It should be noted that G.G.’s bodily waste was the most accessible thing that he ever produced.) Koshik would soon file a $2 million civil lawsuit against Allin. I do not recall how or if that lawsuit was ever resolved.

Allin appeared in a Milwaukee court room two years later to answer to the criminal charges of disorderly conduct and public indecency . Surprisingly enough Allin was convicted by a jury. In fact the jury reached their decision in just under 2 hours and half hours. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and was ordered to pay a $1000 fine.

Because of Krueger’s love of G.G. Allin’s work we all followed the case very closely. This is especially true of QFM’s night jock, Mark “The Shark” Dyba. After all, this was a fascinating case that loosely touched upon a man’s constitutional right to express his incontinence in front of a ticket paying crowd—all in the name of art!

G.G. spent some extra time in downtown Milwaukee as he awaited sentencing. Tired of getting loaded in his motel room G.G. decided to wind down with a few cocktails at a certain bar that was located just down the street on West Wisconsin Avenue . It was also a night in which Mark "The Shark" felt a need to enjoy a few drinks for himself. Within minutes of his arrival Shark immediately discovered G.G. hovering over the bar—drowning his aggression with shots of cheap whiskey. Shark introduced himself and invited G.G. up to the QFM studios for an interview. Wisely Shark suggested pre-recording the interview since G.G. Allin had never had a conversation without using at least half of the seven dirty words that you’re not supposed to say on the radio. He agreed. G.G. then relieved himself in the sink in the QFM restroom.

I was doing the overnight shift at the time. Shark asked me to keep an eye out just in case G.G. started to toss his feces around the radio station. Thankfully that never happened. Shark and G.G. sat in the production room for nearly 45 minutes recounting the case, his music, Mark Krueger, and a number of other inflammatory topics. It was a moderately coherent conversation that was both fascinating and incredibly timely! The interview ran the following night. It was one of the most riveting interviews that ever aired on WQFM. It was unbelievable.

After the interview Shark had G.G. personally autograph Krueger’s copy of his landmark album “Freaks, Faggots, Drunks, and Junkies”. It was a watershed moment for everyone involved—especially Krueger who received a very special keepsake that left him misty-eyed for years to come.

Sadly G.G. Allin would die of a drug overdose a few years later. But for those of us who had the fortune to meet G.G. Allin that night it was an evening to remember…as I assume all evenings with G.G Allin probably were.

End.

Mike Baxendale does mornings at Rock102 in Springfield, MA.

Top Photo is Mark Kreuger's fav band Eloy (Couldn't get myself to put GG's mug up there. ) Next is Mark "Mangy Man" Kreuger then Mark "The Shark "Dyba. Bax photo is above right.

GG Allin website here. (You can buy the Odd Rock Cafe performance video there.)

Don't Watch This Bloody Horrible Video of GG Allin!
,

John Grivas.

2006-12-02T21:14:00.001-06:00

When I think back about my time in radio I’m often reminded of the Joni Mitchell song, when she sang,

"Don’t it always seem to go,
you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone…
they pave paradise and put up a parking lot."

For me it all started when I was 18 years old and working an all night shift at a gas station near the freeway by Beloit, Wisconsin in summer of 1967. In those days there wasn’t much traffic on the roads at 3 AM other than the occasional traveling salesman who was either up early or driving all night to get to his next appointment, or someone getting gas on their way home from the bars.

So I spent most of the time, sitting at the counter listening to the AM radio. And at night you could hear radio stations from hundreds and even thousands of miles away due to a phenomenon they used to call a "skip", which meant on clear nights, the radio signals would bounce off the ionosphere come back to earth, and then skip back up into the sky and bounce back to earth, allowing the signal to travel far past it’s regional home.

I was listening to radio stations in Pittsburg, Nashville, Memphis, and even as far away as Texas. It was intriguing how these voices journeyed all of that way to entertain and enlighten the audience with the music and events of the day.

I wanted to be part of that.

Later that summer I went to college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I tried out for the school radio station, but was told that I wasn’t good enough, and in retrospect, I probably wasn’t. Then one thing led to another and I eventually flunked a chemistry class and lost my 2-S status in the draft, and was about to be drafted unless I enrolled in another school, but it had to be a trade school, not a university.

One afternoon I was sitting with some friends pondering my plight in life and someone lit a cigarette. On the matchbook cover it said something like,

"You too can be a disc jockey."

I read the ad and there was a phone number to call, so I called it. Honest to God, that cliché is how it all started for me.

A week or so later, I was at the school and enrolled in their broadcaster training course. I could have gone to many cities but chose to go to their Hollywood, California school, which had just opened up and it was quite the adventure for a 19 year old boy from Wisconsin. Besides learning about radio, I also saw the old Hollywood of the of the Turner Classic Movies era merging with the Hippie Culture of the present.

Six months later, I had graduated and was working at a small radio station, in the very city where I used to pump gasoline and listen to those far away radio stations. I had taken another step in the journey that I had dreamed about a few months earlier.

Eventually the draft caught up with me and into the army I went on July 22, 1969, the same day that the astronauts were walking on the moon. I was extremely fortunate and ended up working in Armed Forces Radio.

After the Army, I went back to another school to get my first class FCC license, which at the time was a big deal.

By that time, the summer of 1971, AM radio stations were still very powerful, but something new was beginning to shake things up. Small FM stations were playing the music that eventually would end up on the AM dial, but they were playing more of the songs and also music from artists that never made it to America’s Top 40. It really was an exciting time. We were innovating what the others were imitating. I started at WRKR in Racine, Wisconsin using the name Uncle John. At first I did the all night show, but eventually did afternoon drive. They were a pretty solid underground or progressive rock station at the time.

After a couple of years, I decided it was time to move to California. So I packed everything I owned into the backseat of a Volkswagen and drove west.

The year was 1973. I had sent Thom O’Hair the program director of KSAN radio in San Francisco, a number of air-checks, and he eventually wrote back saying something like, "Thanks, but no thanks, we don’t have any openings now, but if you are ever in the area, drop in."

Now when you are 22 and working for a small radio station in Wisconsin that seemed like an offer. KSAN was the granddaddy of progressive rock stations. It was The Station that all of the others looked at for direction.

It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, as the 18-foot U-haul truck I had driven finally lumbered its way into San Francisco. The radio was blasting "Fresh Air" by Quicksilver. Life can imitate art.

Scott McKenzie "San Francisco"

Everything I owned including the 1967 red Volkswagen was in the back of that truck, swaying every time I turned a corner, or when I went up or down one of The City’s famous hills. The engine had blown a rod near Salt Lake City and it was cheaper to rent a U-Haul truck than it was to get the engine fixed.

I actually parallel parked that truck on Bush Street near China Town and got a room at a fleabag apartment…The next day I went to KSAN, and asked for Thom O’Hair. When he came out into the reception area, he seemed a bit shocked that I had actually driven all of that way after the letter he had written to me.

He said something like; well let's go for a ride. So we hopped into a cab and went over by Golden Gate Park to a house just on the border of the park. We went inside and I learned that it was The Jefferson Airplane's house and the current home of Grunt Records...played pool and had some very interesting "refreshments" with the kids... I didn't realize it at the time, but that was my job interview...

About two hours later, Thom said he would call me. He stood up and left me there! So I walked back to Bush Street, probably bouncing off a few walls and doorways, but it definitely was a wonderful stroll.

About two weeks passed and Thom O’Hair called and said that I could start working the overnight shift, filling in for the person who was going on vacation for a couple of weeks. After that, I did other fill in work, and a couple of weekend shifts. There I was, living my dream, working at KSAN radio in San Francisco. This was really the big time. I was making about $100.00 a shift, which was a good sum of money in those days and people like Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, Frank Zappa, Muddy Waters, Randy Newman, and others, would just drop in. A couple of years later, the Symbionese Liberation Army dropped off a tape announcing they had kidnapped Patti Hearst.

Then the energy crisis hit and they cut back some of their staff, and I was out. I was shattered, but I had to go on and I went to work for the Archdiocesan Communications Center of San Francisco. They were like the public relations department for the Catholic Church...creating movies for the schools and commercials for the Campaign For Human Development. They also rented out their space for other events...I used to do the sound for the Isadora Duncan Dancers when they did a performance and the local Buddhists group when they had an event...

From there I went on to work morning drive at KOME in San Jose for about a year until they hired a program director from a Chicago Top-40 station who took our record library of about 10,000 albums down to 225 songs. I couldn’t be a part of that musical genocide and quit and moved back to Milwaukee.

I got a weekend gig at WZMF, which eventually turned into the all night satellite show, doing midnight to 6 AM. I had settled in and was enjoying the ride. In those days some radio stations dumped all of their news obligations into the overnight shift, and I was forced to read 15 minutes of news every hour. But I would try to make it interesting by playing sounds in the background like birds, or whales, or light abstract jazz songs. I would introduce it as "It is time for the rip and read newscast and yes, I am ripped and I’m going to read the news."

This was 1974 and 1975, the time when The Rolling Stones and then Pink Floyd played at Milwaukee County Stadium. ZMF sponsored The Stones and QFM sponsored Pink Floyd. When the Stones came to town I was at WZMF and we did our shows from the broadcasting booth at the stadium but by the time Pink Floyd came to town I was talking with WQFM about moving over there and was actually going to start the next week but it wasn’t announced yet.

When I did my WZMF show from the broadcasting booth at Milwaukee County Stadium, it was from midnight until 6 AM, so I got to see the crews setting up the stages while I serenaded them and the radio audience with songs. I will never forget the sound of Elvin Bishop’s "Sure Feels Good" playing and him singing, "Never seen such a beautiful day" while the sun rose over the field. After my shift, I left the booth and went down onto the field for a moment and stood on the pitcher’s mound and wound up and threw an imaginary strike to home plate. Elvin was right. It was a beautiful day.

I used to listen to the morning show at QFM when I got home from the all night shift at ZMF. I really liked listening to Bob Branson who was then doing mornings. He had this amazing presence, was very loose and tight at the same time. He truly was a pro.

Randy Newman Sail Away.

When I started at QFM, I did the afternoon drive shift, but eventually they moved me into the morning show, which was difficult because I liked Bob Branson, or Boomer, as he was called. But Boomer was out and I was in.

I remember calling him on the day it all came down, and he was so gracious and generous, saying something like don’t worry about it kid, that’s radio. Years later when I was driving into San Diego to start a morning show on KPRI, I heard him on a radio station, called him, and we got together later that night. We became good friends and hung out for about 6 years until I moved from San Diego back to Milwaukee. We did talk on the phone for a couple of years, but then lost touch, as radio was somewhat of a nomadic life and people tended to move around a lot. I heard a few years ago that he had passed away somewhere in Northern California. He was still working in radio and doing a morning show at a country music station. Boomer was a true free spirit…and I know that he is doing a morning show somewhere in the heavens…

Back to the QFM morning show. At first I was working with Frank Bialeck. Frank too was a pro, but I think it was difficult for him to have me there and not Boomer. I don’t remember him saying that, but it was just a vibe. He and Boomer had worked together for quite sometime and had a rhythm and chemistry that Frank and I were not getting. It wasn’t Frank’s fault. And it wasn’t mine. It just was. So they eventually moved Mary Curran into the morning show in Frank’s place and Frank moved to do the news in the afternoons, and that is when the magic really began for me.

Continued

Mary had a soft, feminine voice, and mine was a bit lower, so our voices harmonized the morning airwaves together. We were one of the first man/woman teams that I knew of at the time.

I always thought the building that housed QFM looked like the Daily Planet building that Clark Kent worked in on the old television series, "Superman". And when you went up to the 21st floor and got off of the elevator, there was this magical, surrealistic music factory, known as Sunshine Music, 93-QFM. All of us were at ground zero of something that seemed important and had a life of its own. We were merely the caretakers of the fire, as a good friend has told me a couple of times, but what a wonderful experience and delight it was to be one of the people gently tossing logs onto that flame.

George Harrison. "Here Comes The Sun." 1972.

That period of time was near the end of the Hippie Daze in radio and the culture. We lived for the moment and were so optimistic about what we were doing. This is when "Flower Power" was still in the vernacular and long before the excesses of "Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll" came around and probably helped bring an end to it all. It was also long before the out of town consultants began programming stations based on "research". Research, sometimes done in another city, or research based on what the consultant liked. Our research was based on what we liked and what our audience told us that they liked. Pretty simple method, but one that worked.

But for that short period of time, we did shine brightly. I recently saw the movie, "The Replacements", again, which is a film about a pro football strike and the replacement players that were hired to continue the season. At the end of the movie, Gene Hackman’s character says something like, "When that game was over, the players had no big endorsement deals for tennis shoes or soda pop. All they could do is clean out their lockers and catch a ride home. But when you are part of something great, even for a short period of time, it stays with you." How true.
What an ensemble of people we had and we all worked together as a team to create those good times and crazy surprises we used to talk about on the air. There were no ego hang ups, or back stabbings that I would see later in radio. It was true harmony. Mary and I in the morning, Bobbin in mid-days, Joe Benson in afternoon drive, Bob Reitman in early evenings, and then Green The Space Commander for your late night musical pleasures. Early on, we had Jim Thompson doing Jazz music in the over night slot, and then Rich Cleary took over with a reggae beat after Jim left.

And everything was running smoothly because of the guidance and vision of Joe Santoro, the Program Director. Joe had to run interference between the management, sales, and on air staff, come up with promotions with little or no budget, tweak the music, and generally keep that cosmic bus on the road. When he left, that was truly the day the music died at Sunshine Music, 93-QFM. The station went on for a decade or so, and evolved into other manifestations and was successful at what it did, but that magic, the magic of Sunshine Music, 93-QFM, went with Joe, in my humble opinion.

The Beatles Rooftop "Get Back."

We also had a great group of other people who either did fill in work, news, or weekends. People who would go on to bigger and better things because of their great talent, but at that time, they were in the wings waiting for their chance. Paul Kelly, Bobby Rivers (who both took over the morning show after Mary and I moved on), Susan Wirth, Rick Schroeder, Rich Cleary, and a woman who I only remember as Lee.

Lee was this incredible person who could do an assortment of voices. We would get her, me and maybe Paul Kelly in the production room, turn on the tape and just play. Maybe it would be a promo for an upcoming weekend station event, or just a general station promo. But we would just improvise around the facts of the event. It would be like, "Okay, Lee you are a witch guarding the music library giveaway vault and Paul you and I are trying to get her to let us give some of the music away." It was that come on kids, let’s do a show kind of thing. We were blending the show biz schmaltz of the 40’s and 50’s with the somewhat hip and awareness schmaltz of the 70’s, which was something that no one else was doing at the time.

But I don’t think we did anything shocking. There was nothing mean or assaulting in the content. We would walk up to the edge but we wouldn’t cross the line. Everything was innuendo and just fun or to use a term that hasn’t been used in 30 years, "Right On". Okay, so maybe that term should be put back on the shelf. Sorry…

Here are a few memories I have from those days while sitting in the on-air studio’s "Captain’s Chair"…

One Saturday morning in December, Mary and I were doing the morning show. That night the station was having an event called "Sunshine at Sunburst", which was supposed to be a skiing event at the Sunburst Ski Hill. The only problem was that it had been in the 40’s all week and there was no snow. When I got to the station at 4 AM, a light snow was beginning to fall. As the morning and the show progressed, the snow started coming down harder. By 6 AM it was almost a blizzard outside. Then the station went off the air. Erwin, the engineer came in and looked things over and told me that the wind had caused some wires to become disconnected on the transmitter and he needed my help to solder them back together. So up to the roof we went.

Now, the tower was sitting on a perch on the roof, which was 21 stories above Wisconsin Avenue. We climbed up a ladder, and with the snow coming at us sideways, and the wind blowing at 30 or 40 miles per hour, Erwin and I hung on for dear life, while I held the wires so he could solder them back together.

Maybe you had to be there, and count your blessings that you weren’t, but it was one of the craziest things I ever did at WQFM or anywhere else that I had or since worked. Erwin, having not been to sleep yet, because he had been playing cards with some pals the night before, and I have never been fond of heights, especially at 6 AM, during a blizzard, and a couple of hundred feet up in the air. But we got the wires soldered and the station back on the air, and with all of the snow, the Sunshine at Sunburst was a huge success. Talk about a cosmic snowstorm…

Another time Mary, Reitman, Green and I went to see The Tubes perform at I think it was at the Downer Theatre or someplace like that. It was general seating, and we got in there right away and got our seats. Green headed out into the lobby to get us something to drink. After he left, four of the biggest, orneriest, kids in platform shoes and glitter came in and demanded our seats. Having lost Green, our spokesperson to that crowd to the concession stand, Mary, Reitman, and I were shocked by their behavior and didn’t know what to do except get up and leave. We didn’t have the heart or nerve to tell them that they were bullying the nucleus of the radio station that had brought The Tubes to Milwaukee in the first place.

Right off the on-air studio was an office that we used to call "The Crystal Palace". It had a very large window that gave us access to the ledge around the building. One morning after our show, Mary and I ventured out onto the ledge of the building, because President Ford was going to speak at a luncheon event downtown. We sat out there thinking we might get a glimpse at the motorcade as it drove by. Mary was opening her mail with a silver letter opener, and I was having a smoke. Suddenly two men with black suits and sunglasses appeared through the window and told us to come inside the building immediately. They said that they were secret service agents and sharpshooters had been looking at us through their scopes for the past ten minutes, wondering what that shiny object was in her hands. The ledge never quite seemed the same after that…

While working at KOME in San Jose, California, we did a promotion where all of the jocks did a 24 hour shift in the studio. I mentioned this to Joe Santoro at one point, and we both thought it would be a great promotion for us to do, since in those days the budget was something like a couple of thousand of dollars and any albums we could get from the record companies. There were no billboards, no signs on buses, and very few television commercials, although I do remember one where I dressed up in a chicken suit, and Tony Smith, our general manager, did a very straight voice-over promoting the station. I sat behind a desk and pretended I was Tony.

We did the 24 hour shift promotion, but added a twist. We called it "6 Days On The Road With Sunshine Music, 93-QFM" and did it from the Rhythm And Blues section of an 1812 Overture Store up by Northridge. In those days, when we did a remote, we took a control board with us and all of the albums, and we had to cue up everything ourselves. That was one of the only times in my life, that I was so aware of every second and every minute of one 24 hour period. It was another one of those good times and crazy surprises.

And then there were the Summerfest shows. We didn’t have a trailer, or air-conditioned booth to work from. We were in a tent, right there on the muddy ground playing the tunes and drinking beer with the crowd. I used to call it gorilla radio. I remember some days it was so hot in the tent, that the records would actually start to warp on the turntable as they spun around. Here is a picture of me from 1975 or 1976 at Summerfest. The mural in the background was something that Green The Space Commander created.

In those days, everything centered around the music. We would talk, and actually say something other than announcing the music, but they were short bursts of information, or "bits", lasting sometimes 10-20 seconds and up to a couple of minutes and the music would be the "punch-line", or the song coming out of the bit would relate to what we were talking about. But the music was the star. We were the surrounding cast of characters.

Yes those days in radio were very magical.

We were usually hired based on our musical knowledge and how we would put musical sets together, and how we communicated.

We could create a mood or tell a story with a music set. It was a beautiful thing going from a Joni Mitchell or Ry Cooder or J.J. Cayle or Dylan song into something by The Stones, The Kinks, Van Morrison, or B.B. King, and then finishing the set with The Tubes, The Sons of Champlin, Roxy Music, or Lou Reed.

The songs being connected by either the lyrics, or musically, meaning one song might end with an up drum beat and the next one started with a down drum beat...

We started with a blank canvas and could paint the picture using any color. Then they changed it to painting by numbers in the late 70's, with play lists that told us what to play and when to play it. It went from an abstract painting to a juke box.

Somehow we all, and I mean those of us on the radio and those of us listening to the radio let this get away from us.

Bob Dylan "Tangled Up in Blue."

I often thought that we were the "tribal drum" of the sub-culture. But then the sub-culture became the mainstream culture and everybody was banging on a drum and nobody could hear any more because there were too many drums banging in the wind...

Amazing journey when you think of it...

I tell people that being in radio in those days was like being a cowboy in the rodeo. You would come into town, ride the bull, and then leave for the next town and the next rodeo because the show was over. In life we all have passions and dreams. And if at all possible you should follow your dreams and live your passions. Radio was truly the love of my life and something I had, and still have, a passion for.

What a long strange trip it HAS been.

End.

John Grivas Bio

I got off the bus in 1983 and went into the promotional products industry here in Wisconsin selling promotional branded products (pens, caps, clothing, etc.), premiums, and incentives for marketing programs, internet company stores, and mass mailing projects for major corporations. In a way I still do a show, its just that the audience is smaller...

I have been married for 23 years. We raised our nephew who is now off on his own and we live “the quiet life” with our two dogs, Thelma and Louise, along with our cat, Hazel, who just walked into our lives a year ago. She was a stray cat that announced herself one day at our doorstep. Kind of like I did all of those years ago at KSAN…

E mail John Grivas here.

Top Photo is Grivas in the broadcast tent at Summerfest in Milwaukee w/Green’s art as backdrop. Circa 1975.

Next is the mansion that The Jefferson Airplane lived in during the 60’s followed by a famous photo of Patti Hearst.

Snapshot was taken backstage by Bobbin Beam at the 1975 Rolling Stones Milwaukee County Stadium concert. It’s Mick Jagger and keyboardist Billy Preston just before the show.

Then, a Bugle Magazine ad from 1975 also followed by the former QFM building at 6th and Wisconsin. Next is Space Commander Green allong with Rich Cleary at the 1812 Overature record store promotion. Finally, another Summerfest tent shot.