2023 rewound: voices we lost last year

(Above: Dick Biondi - front left - was the last surviving member of the WCFL airstaff in this photo.) 2023 is in the books. As we have seen in recent years, many parts of our pop culture, as they age, leave us each year. This past year saw some big names pass on. As it …

Rest in peace, Tom Smothers: The Smothers Brothers, “My Old Man” (1963)

(Above: The book I had my Media History students read during the 2022-23 year. They loved it - and the show as well, since I brought video.) Tom Smothers, one of the most important figures in American television comedy, passed away today after a brief illness. He was 86. I don't think I am overstating …

Rest in peace, Dick Biondi: “The Pizza Song” (1961)

The longer you stay around radio, the more your friends leave it - either by finding new jobs, or by passing on. I've seen a lot of both over the past few years. Word came to me tonight that Richard O. Biondi passed away on June 26, 2023 at the age of 90. There's a …

The last “summer vacation” begins: The Billboard Hot 100, May 28, 1988

(Above: Some of the management team of WLRA/Lewis University, April 1988, just before summer vacation. The author is on the left in clashing Hawaiian shirt and shorts. We all went back to work that fall, and that was it.) I got a chance to see some family members that I haven't seen in a while …

Rest in peace, Ed Ames: “Who Will Answer?” (1968)

Ed Ames passed away on May 21, 2023 at the age of 95. He was the lead singer of the Ames Brothers, who were a force in the pre-rock and roll days. Between 1948 and 1954, before the chart we know as the Hot 100 took form, the Ames Brothers charted 23 hits, including three …

Rest in peace, Tina Turner: “Better Be Good To Me” (1984)

Anna Mae Bullock passed away this week after an illness. She was 82. Those sentences technically tell a story, but the story is much more complicated than that. Much has been written - better than I will or could be able to - about the story of Tina Turner, the stage name that Anna used. …

Rest in peace, Burt Bacharach: A celebration of his greatest songs

(Above: Burt with Dusty Springfield on his television show, 1969) In terms of loss to the Great American Songbook, this is a big one. Burt Bacharach passed away yesterday at the age of 94. Just the numbers on Bacharach's career are staggering. He won a Grammy award six times, which was a much lower number …

2022 in review: acts that we lost this year

(Above: The Killer, ironically, passed on in October.) 2022 was, by all accounts, a difficult year once again in terms of popular culture. For the last several years we've been seeing more and more of the acts that we grew up with aging and passing on. During more "normal" workload years for me - when …

Pop goes to college: The Billboard Hot 100, September 19, 1987

(Above: Lewis University's Fitzpatrick Hall, where I spent my Saturday afternoons in the fall of 1987. Watch this space for the FitzHall story, coming soon.) September 19, 1987 marked my third Saturday on the radio at Lewis University's WLRA. There's nothing significant about the show. Oh, sure, I have the tape of it somewhere, but …

Rest in peace, Ramsey Lewis: “Wade In the Water” (1966)

Jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis, perhaps best known for his take on Dobie Gray's "The In Crowd," passed away at his home in Chicago today. He was 87. Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis was born in Chicago and started his musical career at approximately four years old by taking piano lessons in his neighborhood near Cabrini Green. The …