KFRC was an AM radio station when I was 12 years old. Now it is an FM station, and streaming over the web as well. When I used to listen to KFRC. I did so on a portable radio, about the size of VHS tape, with a kazoo quality speak, an extending metal antenna that would only retract to the point where the last segment had been bent some years before, and a sliding dial tuner with faded frequency numbers. Yet to this day, "Radar Love" never sounds as genuine without the crackling static of broadcast radio.
My Saturday mornings were routinely spent doing chores, mainly the yardwork we grew to refer to as doing our "4 hours". If we expected to see the weekly payoff of a cash allowance, along with other tasks, it was mandated that both my brother and I would each spend 4 hours a week doing things like mowing, weeding, raking and any other general landscaping tasks. Of course at that age, we'd start at 9am and claim to have started at 7am. Our parents only challenged us on rare occasions although I'm sure they never expected it, and saw the 2hr net effort as the ultimate objective. Tricky. I'll be doing the same with our kids at some stage as well.
During these outdoor work-sessions, that portable radio would travel with me, and I'd always make a point of tuning into KFRC in order to hear Casey Kasem's "Top 40" countdown. All the pop hits of the day were counted down from 40 to 1, with Casey's tidbits and tangents intersperced along the way. It became a ritual of sorts to listen to it weekly, one that lasted for years. Yet this is something I've long forgotten as time has shuffled me along.
Clicking on the KFRC icon in the iPhone player for AOLRadio took me to their stream, which paused for a moment to load, and to my surprise and joy, Casey's voice was the first thing I heard! It turns out that every Saturday from 6-9, they re-broadcast his count down the top 40 hits from the 1970s, featuring a different year each weekend. The vault has been unlocked and you can hear the American Top 40 exactly as it originally aired!
I can smell the fresh cut grass. I can feel the warmth of the sun on my back as I pull weeds, I see our dogs "Bernie" and "Teagle" running about and playing, and I hear the torn-cellophane-speaker sound of Golden Earring once again. Through the technology of today, I'm taken back to yesterday. I'm listening to the show now, and it is as if the stream is not just an old radio show, but a direct feed from the recesses of my childhood memories as well.
The VCR and the DVD
There wasn't none of that crap back in 1970
We didn't know about a world wide web
It was a whole different game being played back when I was a kid
Wanna get down in a cool way
Picture yourself on a beautiful day
Big bell bottoms and groovy long hair
Just walkin in style with a "portable cd player"?
No, you would listen to the music on the am radio
Yeah, you could hear the music on a am radio.
- "AM Radio" by Everclear