New Year's Eve 1971, I was listening to Debaser counting down KB's Top 100 of the year. As he explained how the countdown was tabulated by assigning points based on the K-Big weekly survey, I decided I'd keep track the following year, and next New Year's Eve, see if my countdown would match his.
Adding to the challenge was my living 300 miles away in Southern Vermont. When the weather got warmer and the days longer, it naturally became a little more difficult to catch the current "Capsule Countdown". One week in June I did miss...so I wrote to Debaser and explained what I was doing. A couple weeks later, his personal secretary had written back with the actual in-studio playlist for that missing week enclosed.
The following New Year's Eve, the countdown ran eight hours...filled with artist interviews and other trivia (I assume it was one of those "Opus" packages that you customized for your station)...and my tabulations were, for the most part, spot-on. But as the top 10 unfolded, it all began to unravel...as my #1 song, "Alone Again Naturally", came in at #2 or #3 (I don't remember)..."American Pie" had a 9-week run at the top of the weekly survey but the first couple of those weeks were in 1971...so how could it be the number one song of 1972?
I picked up the phone...1-716-644-9850...and after a couple rings, there was Debaser. And as I explained how I'd tracked the Top 10 every week for the past year...he noted to me that the countdown also had some of Billboard's results mixed in...and that the real #1 song of the year was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face...but that just wasn't palatable."
At the tender age of 15...here my first exposure to the behind-the-scenes theater that later in my own career would characterize thousands of Top 8@8's, weekly playlists and year-end countdowns. A theater that only ended recently with the advent of Vortal and WordPress apps for tracking actual votes.
"Hope you enjoyed it" was how DB finished the conversation. I answered that I'd very much enjoyed it and we said our goodbyes. And a few months later...my radio career began at a tiny 1000-watter MOR in my little town in Vermont.
A half-dozen years ago, a good friend here in Pittsburgh began corresponding via email with Jack Armstrong, then back on 'KB via voice-track from North Carolina. I wanted to email him and thank him for his profound influence, but I never did...besides, I'd left radio to "go make real money" as co-owner of an advertising agency. That lasted a little over three years...and as I sold my interests in the agency and came back to radio...no richer but MUCH wiser...it wasn't long after, that Armstrong died. And I regretted not shooting him that email back when I had the chance. (Hope daughter Devon finishes his unfinished "Rock Jocks" book!)
Radnowski, this thread you started...which I learned about via Sean Ross...gave me opportunity to at least swap posts with a couple...maybe more (I don't know the real names behind all the handles. Does Sandy Beach, for example, post here?)..of those teenage heroes.
So thanks.
I can only imagine. Three pages. Sweet Jeebus. If I'm lucky, your mom and dad tossed that one.