In 1981, The Kinks did a song called "Around the Dial," an obscure song that no one plays anymore. I used to hear it on old "98 Rock" in Honolulu when I lived in Hawaii. It wasn't so much about DX'ing but rather a missing DJ.
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Have there ever been any popular songs with a reference to DXing?
- Thread starter gar hi
- Start date
Not directly but it does touch on DXing as he mentions tuning in every possible station on the dial to find his favourite dj..so he had to have dxed to do so.
Man, I'm glad somebody remembers that song besides me! Probably the last time I heard it was before it fell off of 98 Rock's playlist, probably sometime in '81 or '82. Another Kinks song from that time period was one called "Destroyer" where the group stole the riff from their own "All Day and All of the Night" and used it for that song.
With a long wire and Hearever Rocket Radio, you could hear 50000 watt stations with DAs that favored my direction. They would be there for a minute or so and then suddenly disappear when they fell under the sensitivity of the diode. Never heard KDKA though on a crystal radio.
RE: the phasing sound in Itchycoo Park and Crimson And Clover: it was a popular special effect at the time (and has been since then, of course) called 'flanging'.
If this has been addressed before in this thread, my apologies.
Also, the song "Midnight In The Desert" comes to mind as a DX song, as I think it was written for Art Bell's show, and as anyone knows, a lot of Art Bell listeners were DXers, including Art himself.
If this has been addressed before in this thread, my apologies.
Also, the song "Midnight In The Desert" comes to mind as a DX song, as I think it was written for Art Bell's show, and as anyone knows, a lot of Art Bell listeners were DXers, including Art himself.
It's a stretch, but sorta does have double DX meaning, at least for DXers ....
Imagine battling in order to DX through a storm, to 'Loop de Loop' by Johnny Thunder, hi
Imagine battling in order to DX through a storm, to 'Loop de Loop' by Johnny Thunder, hi
Can't believe I didn't mention this when this thread was current, but anyone else here remember Nikita the K on Go Go Radio Moscow?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rECtD2GmlX8
Decades later, Vasily Strelnikov made the real Radio Moscow sound a lot like this on his "Vasily's Weekend" show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rECtD2GmlX8
Decades later, Vasily Strelnikov made the real Radio Moscow sound a lot like this on his "Vasily's Weekend" show.
Here's another one... Audubon by C.W. McCall.
It includes this verse:
So I was raised on Dust Bowl tunes, you see
Had a six-tube radio an' no TV
It was so dog-goned hot I had to wet the bed in the summer just to keep cool
Yeah, many's a night I'd lay awake
A-waitin' for a distant station break
Just a-settin' and a-wettin' an' a-lettin' that radio fry
Well, I listened to Nashville and Tulsa and Dallas
And Oklahoma City gave my ear a callus
And I'll never forget them announcers at three A.M
They'd come on an' say "Friends, there's many a soul who needs us
"So send them letters an' cards ta Jesus
"That's J-E-S-U-S friends, in care a' Del Rio, Texas."
It includes this verse:
So I was raised on Dust Bowl tunes, you see
Had a six-tube radio an' no TV
It was so dog-goned hot I had to wet the bed in the summer just to keep cool
Yeah, many's a night I'd lay awake
A-waitin' for a distant station break
Just a-settin' and a-wettin' an' a-lettin' that radio fry
Well, I listened to Nashville and Tulsa and Dallas
And Oklahoma City gave my ear a callus
And I'll never forget them announcers at three A.M
They'd come on an' say "Friends, there's many a soul who needs us
"So send them letters an' cards ta Jesus
"That's J-E-S-U-S friends, in care a' Del Rio, Texas."
Another one, Lionel Cartwright's early '90s country hit, "I Watched It All On My Radio"
I had a six-transistor when I was a kid
Under my pillow I kept it hid
When the lights went out and no one could see
Over the airwaves the world came to me
I'd go through the stations 'til I found a game
I knew how they played by the sounds of their names
The sluggers hit homers, those pitchers threw smoke
And I watched it all on my radio
[Chorus]
At the crack of the bat, I knew how far it'd go
And I watched it all on my radio
I watched it all on my radio
[Verse 3]
When the ball game was over, the wrap-up complete
I'd search through the static 'til I found a beat
The Beatles and Creedence, the Stones and the Byrds
You should have seen all the groups that I heard
And on Saturday night, when the skies were all clear
A station from Nashville sometimes would appear
The steel guitars and soft Southern twang
The stars of the Grand Ole Opry would sing
[Chorus]
And I had a seat on the very front row
And I watched it all on my radio
I watched it all on my radio
And right about midnight, some preacher came on
To tell me what's right, to tell me what's wrong
And there was that test at the sound of the beep
It was only a test, the voice would repeat
And the National Anthem would sing me to sleep
I had a six-transistor when I was a kid
Under my pillow I kept it hid
When the lights went out and no one could see
Over the airwaves the world came to me
I'd go through the stations 'til I found a game
I knew how they played by the sounds of their names
The sluggers hit homers, those pitchers threw smoke
And I watched it all on my radio
[Chorus]
At the crack of the bat, I knew how far it'd go
And I watched it all on my radio
I watched it all on my radio
[Verse 3]
When the ball game was over, the wrap-up complete
I'd search through the static 'til I found a beat
The Beatles and Creedence, the Stones and the Byrds
You should have seen all the groups that I heard
And on Saturday night, when the skies were all clear
A station from Nashville sometimes would appear
The steel guitars and soft Southern twang
The stars of the Grand Ole Opry would sing
[Chorus]
And I had a seat on the very front row
And I watched it all on my radio
I watched it all on my radio
And right about midnight, some preacher came on
To tell me what's right, to tell me what's wrong
And there was that test at the sound of the beep
It was only a test, the voice would repeat
And the National Anthem would sing me to sleep
Yeah, how could I have forgotten that one? It was a great song... As you said, it was a big country hit in the early 1990's. I think it was also used in an NAB or other pro-radio advert some time during that decade also (I worked in the industry at the time).
That he'd get all nostalgic about EBS tests was what got me about that song. As a shortwave listener, I feel the same way about interval signals!
Starman, by David Bowie, might be one
Didn't know what time it was the lights were low
I leaned back on my radio
Some cat was layin' down some rock 'n' roll, lotta soul he said
Then the loud sound did seem to fade
Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase
That weren't no DJ that was hazy cosmic jive
All Over the World, by ELO, might be another
Everybody all around the world, gotta tell you what I just heard
There's gonna be a party all over the world
I got a message on the radio, but where it came from I don't really know
And I heard these voices calling all over the world
Didn't know what time it was the lights were low
I leaned back on my radio
Some cat was layin' down some rock 'n' roll, lotta soul he said
Then the loud sound did seem to fade
Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase
That weren't no DJ that was hazy cosmic jive
All Over the World, by ELO, might be another
Everybody all around the world, gotta tell you what I just heard
There's gonna be a party all over the world
I got a message on the radio, but where it came from I don't really know
And I heard these voices calling all over the world
Don't know if this record ever made the playlist of WDGY 1130 back in 1967, but it would have been a natural for the Top 40 Tundra Torcher. If their pattern then was similar to today's KTLK 1130 Minneapolis, WeedGee's 25 kW into a 9 tower DA with Moscow in the main lobe probably got trashed by Russian jammers, but it's fun to contemplate "Radio Moscow" sneaking into its intended market by way of Minnesota.
"Wavelength" is a great song. Another Van tune that references DXing - although it wasn't that popular - is "In the Days Before Rock 'N' Roll" from his 1990 album "Enlightenment." He wrote the song with a poet named Paul Durcan, and the verses mostly consist of Durcan reciting a narrative. Here's part of the first verse:
"I am down on my knees
At the wireless knobs
I am down on my knees
At those wireless knobs
Telefunken, Telefunken
And I'm searching for
Luxembourg, Luxembourg,
Athlone, Budapest, AFN,
Hilversum, Helvetia
In the days before rock 'n' roll"
Not * directly * DX but indeed radio-intended was the terrific Stones-ish rocker 'Rosalie' by Bob Seger.
The title was the name of Rosalie Tremblay, the music director of CKLW. The song itself was a mix of station references and how picky 'Rosalie' was when it came to do her job as the MD.
'From Chattanooga, to good-ol' Bogalusa you can hear her fine ....'
'She's got the power; she's got the tower, Rooooosaleeee...'
'She makes her choices, and babe, you best be smiling when it's choosing time ....'
Almost predictably, it's said that Rosalie refused to air the song on CKLW.
We played it a lot on the AoR's where I worked.
The title was the name of Rosalie Tremblay, the music director of CKLW. The song itself was a mix of station references and how picky 'Rosalie' was when it came to do her job as the MD.
'From Chattanooga, to good-ol' Bogalusa you can hear her fine ....'
'She's got the power; she's got the tower, Rooooosaleeee...'
'She makes her choices, and babe, you best be smiling when it's choosing time ....'
Almost predictably, it's said that Rosalie refused to air the song on CKLW.
We played it a lot on the AoR's where I worked.
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