R.I.P. Dobey Gray

 

 WTIT wants to acknowledge the death of Dobie Gray (July 26, 1940 – December 6, 2011). Dobie will always be remembered for on the biggest hits of 1973, "Drift Away" which sold over one million copies. It's still played daily on radio broadcasts and has been covered by many including Ringo Starr.

We Become The Dirty Half Dozen!

Recently we uncovered original copies of what we called WTIT Newsletters. We only did them for a short while in 1967-1968. We thought we’d share them. It might shed insight on how we really thought everyone listened to WTIT. Though you’d have to be in our studio (to this day) to hear it. But back then, we were in high school and we played a lot of tapes at parties.  Here’s a piece of trivia: We always note that our original DJ staff was Bud Weiser, Galloping Gary, Bouncing Billy, Johnnie Walker and Killer Joe. And that was the first true staff that carried the ball from 1968 to 1973. But in our first year in 1967, Bud, Gary and Billy tried out a ton of guys who were given a shot before we settled on Joe and Johnnie. (In today's re-post of this WTIT Newsletter Tiny Tim is introduced. He lasted just one show.) Johnnie and Joe literal joined WTIT on the same night in June of 1968. Johnnie and Bud are the only two original DJs that are still with the world's first and longest running Tape Radio Station.

FROM THE FUN TOWER: November 8, 1967

“What’s Terrific in T-I-T-Land”

Volume 1 Number 3

In Downtown West Hartford things are looking up. Bud Weiser just turned sixteen. It was “standing room only” at the WTIT party for Bud.

Warped Movies! WTIT has begun our parodies of film classics. We take no prisoners when we spoof Cleopatra on Tape 14 on Bud's show.

Ticker-Ticker-Ding-Ding-Ding! That's the sound our WTIT Time Machine makes while we become Travelers In Time. On Tape 1 check out our visit to see the Lone Ranger first put on the mask. Bud Weiser, Galloping Gary, Bouncing Bill and Dynamic Dick star in the bit.

WTIT DJs become The Dirty Half Dozen with the addition of Tiny Tim. The Travelers in Time hit again as we find King Author. Sid Schaefer brings his nasty Adam and Eve poem. He didn't write it, but it's a riot! It's all part of Tape 14.

To Dick With Love! Anyone have an extra girlfriend? Dynamic Dick has juggled two since he joined WTIT. Who could guess that if they found out about each other that they would both break up with him? Anyway, Dick begged so much, we felt compelled to tell our fans about his lonely dilemma.

Next issue? Galloping Gary is busy working on our next newsletter. That's it for this week. Come by the WTIT to hear our latest bits. As you know our tapes numbers are random. Gary speculates that WTIT might go from mono to stereo! We can only hope. We do take donations. That's the way it isn't on November 8, 1967. See you next time!

Please check out our comedy blog at WTIT.net!

Gone Too Soon: Amy Winehouse Dies at 27

Amy Winehouse dies at 27
RIP...

So Long Davey Come to CT

My son James was living with me in 2006 when he announced that he was moving to San Diego to find himself a rock 'n roll band that needed a songwriter and guitar man. Hewas 24. On Craig's List he found a singer and front man named David Vaughn. The dude has pipes. James basically signed up to be the guitarist in his back-up band. The move surprised me a bit because David's music on my space seemed too pop for James. James is an alternative guy. But, then something happened. David and James started writing music together. It gave the band a unique sound because of the blend of pop into the alternative. Instead of being "David Vaughn" the band became So Long Davey. They are still unsigned, but have played to open for bands like The Plain White T's. They regularly play at The House of Blues in both San Diego and LA. In these past five years they've recorded incredible music. I've never seen the band live. I keep meaning to go to San Diego, but $$$ has held me back. To surprise James, David booked them two gigs on the east coast. Wednesday the 27th they are in NYC and Friday an hour down the road inn New Haven. I am stoked. Here's a video of what could be their best song, Six Feet Down.

Midnight Confessions: RIP Rob Grill

Left: Dennis Provisor, Warren Entner, Rob Grill and Rick Coonce

We were very hip as DJs of WTIT. Ask us what groups were great in the 60s at that time and we'd say The Beatles, The Byrds, The Stones or Creedence. But, we'd wouldn't come forth with the fact that we all LOVED The Grass Roots. Killer Joe, Galloping Gary, Johnnie Walker and I once saw them do two shows on the same day at what is now known as Six Flags New England And we were in the front row at both shows. (the old Riverside Park). Rob Grill the lead singer, died this week. He was 67. Here is the story from The New York Times:

Rob Grill, the longtime lead singer and a very nearly original member of the Grass Roots, the immensely popular rock group of the 1960s and afterward, died on Monday in Tavares, Fla. He was 67.

The cause was complications of a head injury he sustained in a fall last month, his wife, Nancy, said. Mr. Grill was a longtime resident of Mount Dora, Fla.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-’70s, the Grass Roots were a fixture on the airwaves and a regular presence on “American Bandstand.” They sold tens of millions of records and had more than a dozen Top 40 hits. Among their best known are “Let’s Live for Today,” “Midnight Confessions,” “Temptation Eyes” and “Two Divided by Love.”

The band’s style married elements of folk-rock, soul, blues and R&B. Its songs, whose close-knit harmonies evoked the British pop groups of the period, were bouncy, accessible and eminently danceable, often backed by an upbeat brass section.

“The Grass Roots weren’t the hippest band on the block,” The Boston Globe wrote in 1989. “But they were — and remain — a sure-fire guilty pleasure, a blissful package of pure pop.”

The group’s longest-serving member, Mr. Grill appeared with the Grass Roots for more than four decades: first in the group’s heyday and again as the band has enjoyed a renaissance on the oldies circuit. His voice — high, sweet and supple — was memorably urgent and beseeching in the group’s many songs of love.

He also played bass and wrote some of the group’s songs, though the Grass Roots’ best-known material was written primarily by nonmembers.

The Grass Roots began life as a phantom. In the mid-1960s, two Los Angeles songwriters, Steve Barri and P. F. Sloan, were asked by their label, Dunhill Records, for songs that would capitalize on the growing appetite for folk-rock.

They wrote “Where Were You When I Needed You” and, as the Grass Roots, recorded a demo. When the song had some success on the radio, they cast about for an existing band to become the Grass Roots.

They enlisted a San Francisco group named the Bedouins, who recorded the first Grass Roots album, also titled “Where Were You When I Needed You.”

In 1967, after the Bedouins decamped, Mr. Barri and Mr. Sloan recruited the 13th Floor, a Los Angeles band comprising Creed Bratton, Rick Coonce, Warren Entner and Kenny Fukomoto. (Mr. Bratton, the lead guitarist, later worked as an actor; he is known for playing the eccentric quality assurance director — also named Creed Bratton — on the American sitcom “The Office.”)

Just as the 13th Floor was about to sign on as the Grass Roots, Mr. Fukomoto was drafted, and Mr. Grill was brought in as a replacement. He remained with the group through the late ’70s, when it faded from view, a casualty of changing popular taste.

Mr. Grill managed new incarnations of the band in 1978 and ’79, rejoining it in the early 1980s. He performed with the Grass Roots throughout much of the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s.

Mr. Grill appeared on many of the band’s albums and also recorded a solo album, “Uprooted,” released in 1979.
Robert Frank Grill was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 30, 1943. Intending to become a lawyer, he studied at California State University, Los Angeles, before pursuing a career in music.

Mr. Grill’s first marriage ended in divorce. Besides his wife, the former Nancy Pilski, whom he married in 1986, he is survived by a brother, James. A son from his first marriage, Christian, died of cancer last year.

Mr. Grill lived for years with chronic pain as a result of a degenerative bone disorder known as avascular necrosis and the multiple hip-replacement operations it entailed. In 2007, he was arrested on charges of having obtained the prescription painkiller oxycodone from multiple doctors, in violation of Florida law.

He entered a guilty plea, which was later vacated after he completed a pretrial intervention program, his wife said.

On the whole, however, Mr. Grill’s life — and the lives of his band mates — was so tame that it became, in some quarters, a professional sticking point.

“I asked one of the guys at VH1’s ‘Behind the Music’ why we weren’t on,” Mr. Grill told The Huntsville (Ala.) Times in 2005. “And he said, ‘Were you guys ever into heroin?’ and I said, ‘No.’ He said we just weren’t compelling enough.”

The New York Times gave this report.

The Big Man is Gone (January 11, 1942 – June 18, 2011)

 

Bruce Springsteen said the late E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons loved their fans and gave everything he had every night on stage.

"Clarence lived a wonderful life," Springsteen said on his Web site following Saturday's news that the 69-year-old Clemons died following complications from a stroke he suffered June 12. (From B.J. Hammerstein, Detroit Free Press.)

This Just in: A Football Score from 1967!

Recently we uncovered original copies of what we called WTIT Newsletters. We only did them for a short while in 1967-1968. We thought we’d share them. It might shed insight on how we really thought everyone listened to WTIT. Though you’d have to be in our studio (to this day) to hear it. But back then, we were in high school and we played a lot of tapes at parties.  Here’s a piece of trivia: We always note that our original DJ staff was Bud Weiser, Galloping Gary, Bouncing Billy, Johnnie Walker and Killer Joe. And that was the first true staff that carried the ball from 1968 to 1973. But in our first year in 1967, Bud, Gary and Billy tried out a ton of guys who were given a shot before we settled on Joe and Johnnie. They literal joined WTIT on the same night in June of 1968. Johnnie and Bud are the only two original DJs that are still with the world's first and longest running Tape Radio Station.

FROM THE FUN TOWER: October 30, 1967

“What’s Terrific in T-I-T-Land”

Volume 1 Number 2

Number 2? Not us! This is the second in our series of newsletters. The popular demand for these have been overwhelming. We think you are using the back for scrap paper.

Football: The Hartford Charter Oaks: Last Saturday Bud Weiser and Galloping Gary attending the Oaks football game. The announcer was fantastic. We are in negotiations to add him to the WTIT DJ staff. Bouncing Billy and his dad were pleased that Hartford beat Montreal 38-14. Why? Bouncing Billy's dad is one of the owners of the Charter Oaks. 

Soul Tape: On WTIT Tape 1, Bud and Gary hosted a Supremes' Hour!  What an hour! When fellow DJs Billy, Sid and Dick heard the show they suddenly got nauseous and left the studio. 

A new jingle player, please! Our last show had no jingles because our tape deck that we use for them crapped out! We asked for donations, but our fans say they hate the jingles even more than the shows. If you'd like to voice you opinion call the WTIT Fun Line at 232-1936.  

Please check out our comedy blog at WTIT.net!

WTIT NEWSLETTER 1

FROM THE FUN TOWER: October 21, 1967

“What’s Terrific in T-I-T-Land”

Volume 1 Number 1

What’s this department? This is the first in a series of newsletters prepared by the DJs of Tape Radio Station WTIT. Our aim is to let our fans learn more about The Big Station and our tapes.

Voila! We’ve started a new policy of cutting off a record if we don’t want to hear the rest. We always say “Here’s a WTIT Record Cut - Voila!” The first caller to WTIT wins whatever is left of the record.

Interpretation Songs! This summer Bouncing Billy, Sid Schaefer and Bud Weiser starting making up our own lyrics to the songs that we play. It tends to usually be the same song, Tommy James’ "I Think We’re Alone Now". It’s a honey of a disc!!

Mothers! For an interesting view on how to deal with your mother, check out Sid Schaefer’s take on Bud’s show on WTIT Tape 17.

And Fathers? Sid comes through again with the parent of the opposite sex on The Sid Schaefer Show on WTIT Tape 13.

Charlie and Boney! Check out the new additions to The Galloping Gary Garage Show. They’re the latest “engineers”. They are trying to rival Bud Weiser’s cast of Fats and Skinny.

Stop the Tape? Never! But if you phone should go - be in the know! Know how much cash is in the WTIT Jackpot.

Summertime 1967: Fun is the shows we did this summer! Check out WTIT Tapes 9, 11, 13 and 17 for summer fun on Tape Radio Number One!

The WTIT Weather Girl! Whether or not there’s weather, you will find up to the minute (perhaps “up to the year”) reports from our charming Weather Girl Leslie on WTIT Tapes 12, 14 and 17.

The WTIT Top Ten Songs of the Week!

1. The Beatles, "Penny Lane"

2. Aretha Franklin, "Respect"

3. The Rolling Stones, "Let's Spend the Night Together"

4. The Who, "I Can See For Miles"

5. Jackie Wilson, " Higher and Higher"

6. Sam and Dave, "Soul Man"

7. The Doors, "Light My Fire"

8. The Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth"

9. Procol Harum, "A Whiter Shade Of Pale"

10. Otis Redding, "Try A Little Tenderness"

RIP Gerry Rafferty

Gerry died yesterday at 63. While Stuck in the Middle with You was our favorite tune, he was best know for his solo hits Baker Street and Right Down the Line. (To watch the video, turn off the music at the bottom of this page.)