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Five O'Clock Whistle 96 Rock

The Friday 50's at 5 on Magic 96.7 back in the 90's was a great show. GTO's was the Drive-In owned by the Oddo Brothers(Paul, Warren, and Chuck). Paul loved sponsoring the show because it gave him the opportunity to be on the air.

X-14 ...those were good times back then. And for sure, Paul was never at a loss for words when it came to "the oldies and Dean Martin"!

The show that Paul did with me on the morning show was called "Tax World". We did over 500 different 1 minute tax tips(plus :60 sponsor spot) in a little over 2 years. Somewhere I have every episode saved on those big reel-to-reel tapes.

Great post! Great memories!!!
 
Listening to this gem I am reminded of what might be the end of the golden days of Atlanta radio from a listeners perspective. As a kid I used to record the Friday 5 PM Bits. They were especially sweet in the Fall. 96 Rock had the "Weekend Whistle", JJ Jackson on Fox 97 blasted "Friday On My Mind" Kicks had "All My Rowdy Friends" with sound bytes thrown in. And on Bulldog football weekends WNGC would kick the weekend off with tunes to fire up the Dawgs!

As I grew older each afternoon was spent doing homework to The 50's at Five on Lake 102 and on Fridays I made sure Steve Nichols played a Little Richard tune to get my heart pumping and my feet jumping. If you were a listener to Lake 102 I was "Brian in Lawrenceville" During its heyday I had the request line on speed dial (even making calls in the wee wee hours of Saturday morning if I couldn't sleep).

Sorry for going off topic. I couldn't help myself.
 
OK.....another 96 Rock trivia question.
On Friday mornings, who started playing David Allen Coe's "You Never Call Me By My Name?" Was it Nick and Jeff withe Lorna Love or was it the Rude One?
The senior moments happen more and more frequently these days....isn't there meds for that?
 
That David Allen Coe song was also known as The Beer Drinking Song. I remember Chris Rude using it on his morning show. But,then he stopped using it. What ever happen to Lorna Love? Is she still in radio? I forgot about the Five O'Clock Whistle. I also remember songs and clips being being added and dropped during the years that 96 Rock used it.
 
It was Nick and Jeff with Lorna Love. To this day, I can sing every word. It was an honest to goodness party atmosphere in the studio, I can remember landing after my last traffic report at PDK airport, and heading over to the studio to be there live for it.

I lost track of Lorna, I remember her being in Tuscaloosa Alabama, and then Houston for a little while. I have no idea where she is now. I know she loved horses, so wherever she is, there's plenty of land for her horses.

"Flyin Ivan"
 
Sweet! It's been years since I heard the whistle! And I've never been able to hunt down the isolated VO of "It's Friiiiiiiiii...iiii....ii. DAY". I can't wait to hear it again! I will definitely drop this into my all-request show on Friday!

www.buzz103.com
 
jasondavis said:
Denied... on both counts.

Go to archive.org, look up z93.com in the Wayback Machine, and try some of the other archived versions of the site from around 2004 or so. I've found this to be hit or miss when looking up stuff like that....some of the archives have the linked files and some don't. I apologize for not testing the link I posted.
 
I couldn't find the exact version of the Five O'Clock Whistle I wanted so I went ahead and recorded my own. It is virtually identical to the one that was posted earlier in this thread except it DOES include the best part, the rant by Murray Saul at the end. I was not able to find this version ANYWHERE on the Internet so hopefully this will help out those people like me who are looking for it. It was recorded directly from 102.1 The Fox here in South Carolina.

Here is the link: http://rapidshare.com/files/164007582/Friday_Work_Whistle.mp3
 
Wow- thanks for the Whistle mp3, Steve. That brings back memories of sitting in my office at WKLS, drinking the liquor that Tom and Michael bought, and Deborah picked up from the store. Kaedy chain smoking in the booth. I miss those days. I think I got out of radio around the right time, just before Great American sold 96rock.
 
belden said:
it DOES include the best part, the rant by Murray Saul at the end.

Thank you!!! The end was what made this so memorable to that impressionable teen I was back in the 80's. It's great to hear it again.
 
Stumbled on this site quite by accident and it's a kick to see how many people recall the 5 O'Clock Whistle so fondly.

I can add a little to Steve Mitchell's history of The Whistle, for real trivia buffs. After Steve left 96 Rock in late 1986 or early 1987, I stepped into one of his very big shoes as production director (his other shoe being morning host). PD Bill Pugh (from Ohio) was a big fan of WMMS's Murray Saul and gave me the tape of his extended rantin' & ravin' and asked me to do something more with the Whistle. I took Steve's great work that had already played for years and built on that. It's been a long time, but as far as I can remember, the part before "Shanty" was his; the montage after "Shanty" was my doing.

And there were only those two versions. It was edited later to end with "The Party Starts Now", probably to remove the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'" because it no longer fit the format, or to shorten it. I'm guessing here, but I suspect Rich Van Slyke, who replaced me, did that edit. I would have had the original tapes and could have taken the Spencer Davis Group off completely. Can't remember clearly, though.

I always preferred the version that ended with the full play through of "Gimme Some Lovin'" because Steve Winwood et al shouted "Hey" on the very next beat after Murray's final "Friiiiii.... DAY!" (Hey!). The timing was total luck, but very cool.

The versions attributed to other stations that sound like the 96 Rock 5 O'Clock Whistle were recorded by them straight from 96 Rock's air. (I notice they took care to cover with sfx the Atlanta reference, where Paul Shaffer says "It's a party town, Atlanta G-A".)

I have the version with Spencer Davis and without "The Party Starts Now" on tape, but I'm afraid it's in storage very far from where I am now. Someday, I'll try to digitize it if the tape doesn't fall apart and post it for those interested.

Want to say again that I'm really tickled people liked it and still remember it.

Thanks! Matt Walsh
 
MattW said:
Stumbled on this site quite by accident and it's a kick to see how many people recall the 5 O'Clock Whistle so fondly.

I can add a little to Steve Mitchell's history of The Whistle, for real trivia buffs. After Steve left 96 Rock in late 1986 or early 1987, I stepped into one of his very big shoes as production director (his other shoe being morning host). PD Bill Pugh (from Ohio) was a big fan of WMMS's Murray Saul and gave me the tape of his extended rantin' & ravin' and asked me to do something more with the Whistle. I took Steve's great work that had already played for years and built on that. It's been a long time, but as far as I can remember, the part before "Shanty" was his; the montage after "Shanty" was my doing.

And there were only those two versions. It was edited later to end with "The Party Starts Now", probably to remove the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'" because it no longer fit the format, or to shorten it. I'm guessing here, but I suspect Rich Van Slyke, who replaced me, did that edit. I would have had the original tapes and could have taken the Spencer Davis Group off completely. Can't remember clearly, though.

I always preferred the version that ended with the full play through of "Gimme Some Lovin'" because Steve Winwood et al shouted "Hey" on the very next beat after Murray's final "Friiiiii.... DAY!" (Hey!). The timing was total luck, but very cool.

The versions attributed to other stations that sound like the 96 Rock 5 O'Clock Whistle were recorded by them straight from 96 Rock's air. (I notice they took care to cover with sfx the Atlanta reference, where Paul Shaffer says "It's a party town, Atlanta G-A".)

I have the version with Spencer Davis and without "The Party Starts Now" on tape, but I'm afraid it's in storage very far from where I am now. Someday, I'll try to digitize it if the tape doesn't fall apart and post it for those interested.

Want to say again that I'm really tickled people liked it and still remember it.

Thanks! Matt Walsh

I remember an earlier version, after the Murray line "Tell that slave-driver to shove that sweatshop right up his-" it cut to another line by someone else that said "DICK! YOU'RE FIRED!!!", instead of "Take That Job and Shove It". Know about that version? Anyone have that version?
 
jabba17 said:
I remember an earlier version, after the Murray line "Tell that slave-driver to shove that sweatshop right up his-" it cut to another line by someone else that said "DICK! YOU'RE FIRED!!!", instead of "Take That Job and Shove It". Know about that version? Anyone have that version?

I vaguely remember this. The guy with the collection updated his blog post ( http://jeremysands.com/?p=136 ) but I still don't see it in the listing. If anybody has it send it to him for heaven's sake.
 
Five O'Clock Whistle 96 Rock: THE MOVIE

I'm amazed The Whistle is still remembered fondly after all these years. I still get emails asking for a copy and am happy to oblige. I think there's an interesting story about how The Whistle came to be and evolve. So I was thinking..... something so powerful to a generation of us who lived in The South during those years deserves it's own documentary!

Now in production: "The Making Of: The 96 Rock 5 O'Clock Whistle". Why am I doing this? It'll be fun, the radio geeks will love it, it'll include the best version I can find, and it'll tell the story of how something so memorable came to be. Mostly I'm doing it for the fun of it.

I'm in touch with all the players but would like to hear from anyone who might want to appear on camera talking about the Whistle and what it meant for them, or where you used to listen to it. I'm also looking for pictures or video from those days as I'll be putting together a video to go along with the best version of The Whistle I can find. For instance, does anyone have a copy of the "Fat Kid" TV spot?

Contact me at [email protected].
 
Who's the dude on 96 Rock who, at the end of his show, would say, "Come get me mother, I through"? Was that John Boy Bryant?
 
L Mays said:
Who's the dude on 96 Rock who, at the end of his show, would say, "Come get me mother, I through"? Was that John Boy Bryant?

Correct me if I'm wrong Mitchell but I think that was Dean Clark who did the "come get me mother I'm through" sign-off.
 
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