I actually discovered good old 99.5 out of curiosity--by turning the knob and scanning the FM dial. I wanted to find out what was on it, because nobody in our house listened to anything but AM radio. So on a spring day in 1968, I caught the Doors' "When the Music's Over" in progress. An eleven minute song on the radio! And I believe it was ABX Air Ace Dave Dixon who spoke afterward and ran down everything he'd played. He started talking about FM, saying it was "the future" of radio. I didn't believe that;
look how wrong ya can be.
A few more unusual WABX items ('til the next post):
If you heard Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg on WDIA/Memphis in the 1950s or on WCHB/Detroit in the '60s, then you were used to hearing a female disc jockey. But in Detroit rock radio (whether on AM or FM), it wasn't happening. Until Ann Christ (pronounced like "crisp"), that is. She sounded fantastic, and WABX had her for a couple of years before she returned to her home state, Wisconsin. Talk about breaking down barriers.
I recall Roger McGuinn doing some live songs and an interview on the X--he was promoting his Roger McGuinn solo album in 1973. He was asked if he knew Paul Simon, since both were on the same record label. McGuinn said that when he first met Simon,
Paul was annoyed about something. "You're stepping on my cape!" he told McGuinn.
Hearing new music on ABX was often exciting, and so were those bits of Rock'n'Soul history I may have read about but didn't know first hand. Like hearing Them's "Mystic Eyes" on an overnight show; the same with Sam Cooke's original "Twistin' the Night Away." Or Captain Beefheart. Or Traffic. LaVern Baker or Leon Thomas, anyone?
Not sure who the DJ was, but he quickly got to the mic and apologized to listeners and said he thought he had the original song, but the record was actually a re-recording of the classic doo wop song he wanted to play. "That will never happen again," he said, and yes, you could hear the sound of a 45rpm record being smashed.
Then there was that incredible night in June 1972 when a "rap" between two DJs on a weeknight changeover (when one would be exiting and one would be taking over the controls) turned into a full scale, heavy discussion about commercial vs. free form radio. What's more important, art or having a paycheck? Jim Dulzo and Larry Monroe quit right then and there (on the air), while others made their way to the station to join the argument, which escalated from interesting to boiling. I remember that exchange becoming so intense that they put on a side of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde for listeners and kept their discussion off the air.
I've mentioned some music that might be deemed "commercial," but it qualifies as free form because the WABX Air Aces were playing what they felt like playing. I wish I could have been a part of that kind of groundbreaking Detroit radio from 1968-74, but at least I've been allowed to make my own programming decisions on KAOS-FM in Olympia, WA since 1994. Nobody tells us what to play (or say, or not say), and the freedom is exhilarating.
Our station membership drive starts this Saturday (see www.kaosradio.org), and I encourage you to support whatever station is in your area, whatever station floats your boat. Don't give up the ship.