was it special and magical, or just bidness.

[Silkie]

60's Top 40 radio seems like a magic kingdom from a lost era.The storied calls give me goosebumps. The names of the stations, personalities, and even ownership groups glitter looking back. <snip> I wonder if MTV holds the same memories for GenX? If Twitter will be a nostalgia trip in 40 years? ( in 4 years?). I hate to think that to some it was just bidness , but I guess it was just showbiz as it is today.

Much as the first generation of radio built a culture so did the radio generation of the 50's and 60's. It wasn't just the music, it was the personalities, the big booming sounds of those 50KW clear channel stations and the local Top-40 outlets as well. It created culture in dress, language, communication, dance and it tied teens and young adults together before there were internet social sites and mobile phones. It spawned a revolution, of sorts, on the new TV medium and showed musicians and performances as never before. The creativity of those times is still being felt some 50 years later....and those songs are still being played. The music of the 50's broke all manner of custom and lead directly to expressions, not only in music, but in all of American (and some would argue, worldwide) culture. That music created sub-cultures like surf, folk-rock, rockabilly, teen angst, and went on to become protest rock which altered the course of the Vietnam War and politics in general.

No, MsMusicRadio, it wasn't "just showbiz".

Well spoken! Just about sums it up.

To sum up the reality makes some just a bit uncomfortable, and they will avoid that reality like the plague. The Moody Blues bear me witness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WZZjXgJ4W8

 

[GridLeakBias]

To sum up the reality makes some just a bit uncomfortable, and they will avoid that reality like the plague. The Moody Blues bear me witness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WZZjXgJ4W8

Indeed, a moving performance. Wish that I had been in attendance.

 

[Silkie]

To sum up the reality makes some just a bit uncomfortable, and they will avoid that reality like the plague.  The Moody Blues bear me witness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WZZjXgJ4W8

Indeed, a moving performance.  Wish that I had been in attendance.

You and I lived a great deal of that magic - indeed most of those years.  Glad we were able to tell MsMusicRadio what she missed, either as a listener or as a jockette, and that it was not all just bidness, making money and having bling.  You never know who we might reach, who might still have the intellect as did those who went before.

At this point, it is best to recognize that the good ones who remain are few and far between, and they will soon fade away, as the poem, used as an outro of Days of Future Past by The Moody Blues would further suggest:

Breath deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room,
Bed sitter people look back and lament,
Another day's useless energy spent,

Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.

Cold-hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colors from our sight.
Red is gray, and yellow white,
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion.