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So it's been 30 years, eh?

R

robgrayson

August 16, 1977. I was a newly-wed 19-year old. Normally, I would have been on the 10PM to 2AM shift, following Dickie-Doo Edwards on WHBQ; but on this day I was filling in for the vacationing Bob Landree. The first indication anything unusual was up was a call on the request line. A listener, citing their roomate who was a nurse as the source, said Elvis had been taken to Baptist Memorial Hospital. Then my wife called from her office at City Courts, with a similar report circulating at the police station.
 
I was on the air at a little AM daytimer somewhere in West Tennessee. People began calling the station asking me if Elvis had died. There had been many rumors prior to that a bout Elvis' death.....I just laughed it off and said....NAAAAAHHHHHH. The calls continued with people saying they had heard it on TV...I checked the AP wire....nothing. Finally about 15 or 20 minutes after the calls started coming in, the news hit the wire....the next three or four days were almost surreal.....especially the attempt to steal his body from the cemetery.
 
I recall that was my initial reaction at the time also. It was not unusual to hear a rumor about Elvis on the phone, or indeed, for Elvis to check into the hospital for "exhaustion"
Continuing from above...
At that point, PD John Long and midday jock Stu Robb were getting calls from insiders. We all converged at the news room about the same time. IIRC it was Terrence McKeever who made the announcement, although Janice Gordon (Fullilove) would have been on duty in the news room also.
For some reason we were broadcasting from the standby control room (maybe that was when they were rebuilding the main room), so in the confusion we didn't roll tape!
Calls poured in from literally all over the world. We all became instant "Elvis experts", and fielded interviews right and left.
At that time, I was living around the corner from Graceland (maybe Dove Creek?), and I remember Elvis Presley Blvd. as being total gridlock. A couple of fans were run over by a car driving through the crowds.
Q was doing a ticket giveaway for an upcoming Elvis concert booked at the Coliseum, and I still have the liner card I removed from the control room window.

At the time of the funeral, we observed a minute of silence. I told John to be sure the engineers disabled the automatic backup at the transmitter, so it wasn't punctuated by Dude Walker playing Kung Fu Fighting or Philadelphia Freedom. Out of the silent tribute we played "Peace In The Valley".
 
I had just gotten off the air at WSUH Oxford and gone back to my apartment. As I remember, I was watching Bewitched or some other oldie rerun on WMC-TV and there were a couple of news break-ins reporting that Elvis had been taken to the hospital. It didn't really mean a lot to me at the time because he had been in and out of the hospital several times in the previous week or two, so it didn't seem like real big news. Then another break-in, and the woman in front of the camera simply said in a very stone cold delivery, "Elvis Presley is dead." It was just so cold and matter of fact the way she said it and it was like being hit by a ton of bricks.
 
I was in Panama City, FL. They broke in on all the TV stations. I came back to Memphis a few days later and it was like a different city...the whole town was almost in a stunned silence.
 
My pop said he remembered it big time...he was
oops my song just ran out while I was typing my message.
My pops was on the air at wlok and said they even played a gospel song or two from the king.
Where would mempho be without the king and stax and BB and aretha and raifords? pass me a forty.
stay inside cuz its crispy. rm
 
I was 9 at the time and had been outside playing with some friends in the vacant fields behind their house that is now THE Wal-Mart in West Memphis. The 3 of us came in all wet and muddy and their mother would usually yell at us to clean off before we came in the house, but we saw her crying in the den. Of course we were curious and went in to ask what was wrong and she said that Elvis Presley had jsut died.

We were like "Who?"
 
I figured most of our posters on here weren't even born then. I am happy to find out there were some around. Now, about the JFK assassination... (I was in 1st grade)...
 
OK, I was 23 at the time of JFK killing, and was on the air near noon at that day. We were on a network feed from ABC "On the line with Bob Considine"...Suddendly the feed went silent...there were several whispered words, and Bob said "The president has been shot"...and broke down in sobs...the network went silent for a few minutes, and returned with "funeral music" That was Bob's last broadcast...
Thanks JBI
 
Back on topic:

Ok, Memphis radio folks...your favorite Elvis song? and why?


I'll start:

"American Trilogy"...because it never fails to bring me to tears and that incredible note at the end.
 
Was like 2 when JFK was shot...
15 (and outside mowing the lawn as per my dad's ORDERS) when Elvis died.
"In The Ghetto" or "Hurt"
 
I have a lot of Elvis favorites...but I think his most poignant recording was Separate Ways because I thought it was one of his ways of trying to deal with his break up with Pricilla....which he never completly overcame.
 
I can't prove this, but I may be THE original Elvis tribute artist f/k/a "Elvis impersonator" I was about 4 or 5 years old when Hound Dog was released. One Christmas, my sister had gotten a phonograph and about thirty 45 records. The 45's were about 25% Elvis (on RCA by now), 25% Jerry Lee Lewis (still on Sun) and about 50% Glenn Miller. Among the Elvis tunes were Love Me Tender, Teddy Bear, Loving You, Jailhouse Rock Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, and a few more.

When I would tag along with Daddy to the little country store in our small community, the men would always ask me to sing Houng Dog...complete with the hip and leg movement. When I finished, some of the men would give me money....a penny, nickle, or something. The same happened when we would carry a load of cotton to the cotton gin in Halls, Tennessee.....They'd want to see me perform Hound Dog. On one particular trip, I made sixty-five cents in tips when I sang Hound Dog. On the way home later that night, I must have had an unfocused starry-eyed look on my face because Daddy asked me "What are you thinking about son?" I was thinking about that 65 cents...I looked back at him and said "Shoot, Daddy, I can make plenty of money!"

My Daddy would tell that story and laugh about it until the day he died. I wish he were still around to tell it some more. (I also wish I still had those old Jerry Lee Lewis records on the Sun Label.)
 
I beg your pardon, but, no you didn't. That gin has been gone for years. At that time there 3 maybe 4 cotton gins in Halls. I still have a set of steak knives still in the box that they gave away as "thank you" gifts one year.
 
Well...you may have my pardon.
Let me rephrase..I drove by the GIN IN HALLS a few days ago!
Sheesh! ;)
 
I still have a set of steak knives still in the box that they gave away as "thank you" gifts one year.
Click to expand...

Did that box come in a Mason jar?
 
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