Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Big 6 Good Guys


The year was 1966.

Dave Mann was known as "The Great Kahuna"

Gary Raymond brightened our day.

"Devil with a Blue Dress On" by Mitch Ryder and The Wheels was #1

Good grief, it would be a full 10 years or more before a Flint radio station had a female DJ.

These guys, and "The Jones Boys" from WTRX (aka Trix), were our gods.

I interviewed Denise Carmona, I think her name was, the first female jock on (I think) WWCK, the first FM rock station in the city. Of course, although her name came back to me, nothing else does.

Actually, I can still see myself, unsure, interviewing her in her living room. I think also it was my first feature story, having previously only covered municipal meetings.

She told me something "off the record," and I remember going back to the editor, him questioning me about whether I had asked her such-and-such, and me telling him she told me that off the record.

This was when he told me there was no such thing as "off the record." *Gulp*

I was still following the Fab*40 on WTAC and WTRX when I went off to college in Ann Arbor - where the marching band (the Marching Men of Michigan) and cheerleaders were all male.

After my stint in Ann Arbor, I returned to Flint and WWCK, a radio station that played "Stairway to Heaven" and "Nights in White Satin" so frequently that I still cringe if I happen to hear either song.

My sister recently told me how she was listening to WTAC one day, and it abruptly became a country station. As in, mid-programming. Eeek, she said, eeeeek.

Can you imagine any DJs today wearing suits and ties for a promo shoot?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the flyer you had under your bed?

Gillian Swart said...

Yeah. I also had a paper from the Academy with you and Mo and Tracy T. (with others) on the cover.