Dan Fogelberg, Jackson and WZZQ

[Doctor_Technical]

Monday is starting on a sad note for soft-rockers – or our girlfriends who made us go to his shows -- with the news of Dan Fogelberg passing.

Wikipedia says he wasn’t a success until 1974, but I remember ZZQ playing the heck out of him well before then. I went to one or more DF concerts at the Auditorium in Jackson during that time. Didn’t he also headline at the “Tin Can” (Coliseum)?

Anyone else have a DF memory, either why WZZQ played him so much, and so early, or why he was such a success in Jackson before anywhere else?

 

[tbarber]

I took Darryl Tate's (early MISS 103 jock) sister to a Folgeberg concert in 1982 I believe at the coliseum. Had great seats thanks to my bud- David Perkins. I sprang for Steak and Ale and the whole bit.... was a great night.

 

[robgrayson]

ZZQ used to play an "exclusive" live version of the Eagles "Best Of My Love" performed by Dan Fogelberg, recorded in Jackson.

 

[flytrap]

the first time I ever heard of Dan Fogelberg, it was on ZZQ. It seems like they played a ton of his records. Long before he became popular on the AC stations. Doe''s anyone remember when ZZQ would briefly stick a disco record on from time to time? I distictly remember hearing the long version of Donna Summer's "I feel love" in regular rotation. I wondered how that went over with listeners. Most ZZQ listeners hated disco with a passion. Doe's anyone remember "I'm the operator with my pocket calculator"? one of the last songs ever played on ZZQ. You hardly ever hear that ditty anymore.

 

[kevinkelly]

My first memory of hearing Dan Fogelberg was on 56 WHBQ and the song was "Heart Hotels" . . .

It puzzled me for years how ZZQ 102 could be HIGHER on the dial than Rock 103 from Memphis, until I got a digital tuner. lol

 

[tzbarber]

The Donna Summer cut was no doubt played as part of a long theme or set. Always the thinking man's radio station. Remember management getting testy during the Easter flood because of the "if it keeps on raining,levee's gonna break" lyric from Zepplin. Fogelberg got a lot of airplay early on ZZQ because it wasn't mainstream at the time. When Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" came out, I remember Wayne Harrison saying he didn't want to play it because it was too commercial. Fogelberg,like ZZQ,gave some of us non-mainstream kids a definition of cool. In the next few weeks,every pop and "classic rock" station will play Same Auld Lang Syne over and over,but it won't sound the same.

 

[buttonpuncher]

I heard about his passing tonight and it took me back. Another one gone too soon.

Fogelberg's first albums were woven into my life and that of several close friends and lovers at that time in the early-mid 70s.

In 1974 a carload of us drove over from Monroe to Jackson to see him at the Auditorium, this was the concert where the above mentioned version of “Best of My Love” was recorded. ZZQ also aired that show live using (I assume) a telephone line.

It was sold out and we didn’t have tickets. The girls with us went into the restroom which was outside the theatre seating area so folks had to show their ticket stubs to get back in. Lo and behold when they came out of the restroom some girls had given them half of their ticket stubs so we could use those halves to get us all in!

We sat on the floor and it was a really good show, just him solo, other than him singing you could have heard a pin drop.

And he had us do a sing-along of the chorus of “There’s a Place in the World for a Gambler”


I just read this article last week:
http://www.millsaps.edu/pubrel/magazine/summer98/story3.html

excerpt:

In 1974 Elder and the concert committee booked the then little known Dan Fogelberg to campus. But two weeks before the concert, Elder was informed that the Christian Center would be unavailable for use the scheduled weekend. Elder contacted Womack and Wayne Harrison, a deejay at WZZQ, and they secured the city auditorium after assuring local officials that Dan Fogelberg would not stage a rowdy rock concert. The Student Government Association, however, said it could not help finance the show because it was off campus and not a college event.
"So we went out on our own and sold out the show in ten days," says Elder, "I remember calling up Fogelberg's agent and telling him the show sold out. He thought I was lying to him because Fogelberg had just been playing clubs and this was his first real gig - 2,500 seats."

 

[flytrap]

The Clarion Leger did an article about Dan Fogelberg's Mississippi connections. He was playing gigs with as few as 100 people until WZZQ started playing his records and developed a local following. He was booked for a show in Jackson and was surprised to see a full house with over 2000 people. Word got back to his handlers and his career really took off. Here is a link to the article http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007712180322

 

[missterled01]

First Fogelberg memory for me was hearing one of his songs that appeared on the "FM" soundtrack--"There's a Place In The World For A Gambler". Do not know about 'ZZQ, But WABB, "97 Rock" in Mobile Played it quite a bit during that particular time. Yes, indeed, another one gone too soon, like that special edition PEOPLE magazine that I saw on a magazine rack.

 

[robgrayson]

"Stars", "Long Way Home", "Wisteria", "To The Morning"... then "Souvenirs", "The Long Way", "Part Of The Plan"; Dan Fogelberg before "they" got to him and branded him a "soft rock" artist. I think even JDX played Long Way Home as an album cut, then Part Of The Plan as a single.

 

[JeffSteele]

Any chance WJMI ever played any song by Fogelberg?

 

[beachguy3b]

Back in 1974, ZZQ started playing Home Free. People bought multiple copies over time- I know I've had 5 or 6- and he became a VERY big deal in Jackson. I remember watching him wandering the halls at ZZQ/JDX back then. Somewhere, I have an autographed 8 track.

When Souvenirs was coming out, we got an acetate master to dub to reel so we could play it as early as possible. I've always wondered where that went. I remember listening to it with Sergio and thinking how good it was.

And I also remember Fogelberg's "Best of My Love"- first time anyone had heard the song outside of the insiders in L.A.- I was blown away and when the Eagles came out with it, I pushed to get it on the air on WWUN (I was MD there) and had things lasted a shade longer, I'd have gotten a gold record form the record company. We had it in hot rotation already when the single was released.

Those were good days... and hearing about Dan brought it all back.

 

[flytrap]

Any chance WJMI ever played any song by Fogelberg


I doubt it, but I remember WJMI used to play quite a bit of music by white artists back in the day. It usually would be a band that had a funky beat or a tight bass line. I remember hearing "Love is the Drug" by Roxy Music, (because of the bass) Peter Frampton's "Feel Like We Do" because of that funky talk box thing, Play that Funky Music White boy by Wild Cherry, Average White Band, "love is alive" by Gary Wright (another great bass riff) and I believe they also played some Hall and Oats too. But after Hip Hop came out that all ended. You seldom even hear a white rapper on WJMI anymore.

Can anyone else name any other white or rock crossover music played on WJMI? My mind is a little fuzzy on the 70's

 

[buttonpuncher]

According to this article in Millsaps Magazine, BeBop Record Shop got most of its startup money from the proceeds of that sold out Fogelberg Concert in '74 - http://www.millsaps.edu/pubrel/magazine/summer98/story3.html

***************
excerpt:
"So we went out on our own and sold out the show in ten days," says Elder, "I remember calling up Fogelberg's agent and telling him the show sold out. He thought I was lying to him because Fogelberg had just been playing clubs and this was his first real gig - 2,500 seats."
As fate would have it, about this time Jackson's only discount record store, Budget Records and Tapes, had recently closed its Jackson store. Elder, Womack, and Harrison decided to start their own.
"We thought Jackson needed a good discount record store and we had made a little money on the Fogelberg show and we decided to open a store," recalls Womack.
The three put in $1,500 apiece and took out a $1,500 loan from the bank as well. From this $6,000 seed money has grown the multi-million dollar business of the BeBop Record Shop seven-store group.
"For $6,000 we started the first location at 321 North State Street next to the Capri Theatre. Of course at that time albums were selling for $4.39. Today $6,000 would buy about 400 CD's," says Elder.

 

[jimwalsh2001]

True story - NOT a joke...

I remember MISS103 playing Run For The Roses when it came out (I was jocking at 'JDX down the hall). As I recall, the girl who did middays on MISS owned a horse that had just died, and one day when she played Roses, she broke down sobbing and had to go home for the day. True story...

 

[JeffSteele]

Any chance WJMI ever played any song by Fogelberg


I doubt it, but I remember WJMI used to play quite a bit of music by white artists back in the day. It usually would be a band that had a funky beat or a tight bass line. I remember hearing "Love is the Drug" by Roxy Music, (because of the bass) Peter Frampton's "Feel Like We Do" because of that funky talk box thing, Play that Funky Music White boy by Wild Cherry, Average White Band, "love is alive" by Gary Wright (another great bass riff) and I believe they also played some Hall and Oats too. But after Hip Hop came out that all ended. You seldom even hear a white rapper on WJMI anymore.

Can anyone else name any other white or rock crossover music played on WJMI? My mind is a little fuzzy on the 70's

Well, I remember hearing Hall & Oates and Pet Shop Boys on JMI-100 in the '80s.

 

[rfburns]

Re: True story - NOT a joke...

I remember MISS103 playing Run For The Roses when it came out (I was jocking at 'JDX down the hall). As I recall, the girl who did middays on MISS owned a horse that had just died, and one day when she played Roses, she broke down sobbing and had to go home for the day. True story...

I can believe that story. It was probably Carol Taylor. She was doing midday at MISS and owned a horse or two.

RFB

 

[the golden boy]

Can anyone else name any other white or rock crossover music played on WJMI?

Let's see...Madonna, Phil Collins, George Michael (with and without Wham!), Hall & Oates, Teena Marie, Vanilla Ice, Van Halen...just to name a few.

 

[johnnyv]

Hello, everyone,
It is with pride that I find a thread about Dan Fogelberg & WZZQ on this site. WZZQ was my creation. I was PD at WRBC in Jackson (3rd time I had worked there) when I was hired to be PD for WJDX-FM in July 1972. The station had been playing rock music of one kind or another since the summer of 1968 when I was working at WWUN with Jim McCullough, Jimmy Rabbitt, Mickey Robinson & Jesse James. In 1973 we changed the call letters to WZZQ and a truely legendary Jackson radio station was born. I was also afternoon jock for WZZQ at the time of that Fogelberg concert. There were a lot of memories that went through my head when I read about Dan's passing. He is a special part of Jackson's musical history. Today if you mention Dan Fogelberg, nobody has even heard of the "Home Free" album, his first. I even got into an argument with a Columbia Records promo man down here in Florida once because he didn't know that the album was on his label! He argued up and down that DF was on EPIC. I told him yes, all of his albums WERE on EPIC except his first. THAT one was on Columbia. I finally showed him a copy of the record and he was amazed.
If my memory serves me it was either Curtis Jones (known on air as "Sebastian") or the late David Adcock who "discovered" the Home Free album. Even now, over 30 years later, I would be hard pressed to tell you why it clicked, but it did. I even tried playing some cuts at WGRQ in Buffalo in 1977(where I went after ZZQ) and the only song that ever generated a call from a listener was "Stars." When Dan played that infamous sold-out concert we did get the OK to broadcast it live and we tapeed the show at the studio and that's where we pulled "Best of My Love" from. At the time of the concert the Eagles On the Border album hadn't been released yet and Dan said he had gotten permission from Henley to do the song at the show. Dan's version of that song remained as popular as the Eagles version as long as I was there.
I guess now that I've discovered this site I'll have to make some appearances in some other threads to participate in the trips down memory lane about other stations and other people. Thanks for reading and thanks for bringing up a moment close to my heart.
Johnny Sommer

 

[ronniev]

Hi Johnny Sommer. I remember listening to you in the early '70's. A very smooth delivery. I remember thinking "this guy is too good for Jackson, Ms!" Didn't you also work at JDX AM?