Frank Gutch Jr: Before Radio Was Radio, It Was Television (Plus Notes)

In a way.  In a very meaningful way, too.  It changed the world.  More specifically, it changed the United States.  I’m convinced.  I studied it in college.  I have been studying it ever since, though now it is called communications (or do they have some other newfangled name) and includes the Internet and God knows what else.  As much as some of my friends think I was there at the beginning, I was not.  I was there when it was forced to adapt to the new kid on the block, television, though, and I hung on as long as I could.  The idiot box was unfortunately too strong and kicked radio to the curb where it reinvented itself into a provider of music, sports and talk— mostly music.  Without the radio, the music business might have been just another part of the entertainment conglomeration, but for awhile, in spite of the attempts to push it into the background, it ruled the roost.  There were reasons and it was regional, at first, but it did.  More on that later.

Frank Gutch Jr: My Music Bubbleth Under

It should be no secret by now that when it comes to music I am drawn to the non-hits, the non-charters, and the obscure.  Some of the most beloved music of my past have consisted of  artists and songs only the most avant of the garde have treasured— the Little John & The Monks and the Cargoes and, until their fairly recent deification, the Big Stars.  It started innocently enough— the placement of Jimmy Bowen‘s By the Light of the Silv’ry Moon on radio station KEX‘s Barney Keep‘s playlist, but it was enough.