WHOoPLA: Chapters 1 – 4
Chapter One
It was a call he’d feared might never come. After 14 cold days of camping out on a 21st story ledge, Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who was on the line wanting to talk to him. He knew what the news would be but was incredulous that the event was actually happening. The delirium that comes from floating above a city for days and nights lingered in his exhausted and frazzled mind. So he said the first thing that came into his head.
“Is it really you?”
Forgiving the apparent stupidity of the question, Daltrey muted a quick, short laugh.
“Yes,” he said.
“Is it really Roger Daltrey?”
“Yes, it’s Roger Daltrey!”
There was an exhale that could likely be felt in China. Then, after a short silent moment, they both just burst. Words and laughter stumbled out all at once until, finally, Tim The Rock N Roll Animal relented and let Roger Daltrey speak:
“You can come down now.”
The Who had always had a love for theatrics and The Animal’s performance was one for the ages because it wasn’t theatre. It was a sincere and honest plea from a dedicated fan.
But it didn’t start out that way.
Chapter Two
Sometimes we forget that it’s all about the music. Sometimes, in the course of going about our busy, hectic, stressful lives, we forget how much the rock and roll means to us. We fade from it. It dies. Or so we think. Then, in an unexpected moment, we hear a song. A warm, incandescent drug flows through our mind; it tumbles smooth the sharp edges of our jagged fears. Like a friendly stranger who we know loves us in the briefest of instances when we first meet, no matter what we have done, no matter what we will do, the music has always been there and will always be there. But sometimes we forget.
It’s been said that greatness can occur when people reach beyond their grasp in order to attain a worthy goal. Moreover, history has been made by groups of dedicated, competent individuals working above and beyond their abilities for a common, higher purpose. We all naturally seek those experiences that will take us to another place, another reality, an altered state. We thrive on our subliminal hope of being transported to somewhere else… anywhere else… but here.
But pursuit of those lofty dreams is a risky commitment that many are hastened to accept because this can also be the formula for a major fiasco if we’ve reached too far and it all falls through. Unfulfilled big promises are how fools are made.
Chapter Three:1982
The social and economic epoch in 1982 was a very different world than that of today. President Ronald Reagan was referring to The Soviet Union as the “evil empire” in the typical manner that politicians tend to do when they want to distract the general public from the difficult times. Unemployment was double that of today at nearly 10%. Mortgage interest rates had come down from an unimaginable 20% in the year before to 15%. The median income was $20,000 and a stamp cost 20 cents.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy
In Milwaukee, June of 1982 had begun with news that Schlitz,
“The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous,”
was headed out of town for good. After several tumultuous years that included a labor strike and plant closing the year before, both Pabst and Heileman Brewing had lost out to The Stroh Brewing Company of Detroit, Michigan, in the battle for ownership of the brand. Schlitz was now being referred to as,
“The Beer That Made Milwaukee Furious.”
The next month Cal Ripken played the first of his record breaking 2,632 consecutive professional baseball games.
Chapter Four:FM
There’s a common perception out there that when freeform radio died, rock radio died. It’s the subtitle to the well known book by Richard Neer. FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio
It’s time to throw that rap into the same dumpsters that all those mediocre Grateful Dead albums were tossed into. Fuck Dylan too.
I know it’s unhip to admit, but with 60’s Top 40 prepubescent radio roots, I never acclimated to the unfamiliarity of progressive radio. For me, rock radio BEGAN when freeform ended.
1979 heralded the end of a difficult generational transition in both the free world and the radio world. We were done being preached to by the Joan Baez crowd who were “united under a common purpose” against the Vietnam War and “the man.” We had lived under the shadow of the self absorbed, whiney hippie brats of the 60′s long enough and had summarily booted them out of the picture with loud, brash, in your face “punk” music that left no question about what we thought of the previous generation and their “sharing of feelings.” The tribal drum was forced onto a far off reservation. And while the heartland flew under the cultural radar because of the shocking appeal of the CBGB
“Shut the fuck up and rock!”
With the freedom that comes from a clear victory came exciting new music. And while the influences were many, the one commonality was the fast tempo that would be coupled with a hard, crunchy edge. The late 70′s/early eighties spawned Boston, Rush, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Metallica, Scorpions, UFO, Judas Priest REO Speedwagon, AC/DC, Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, Styx, Journey, Aerosmith, Asia, Ozzy Osborne’s solo tours and dozens of other so called “stadium rock” bands that grew out of a yearning to leave the apathy of the 70′s Nixon aftermath behind. They were a heard of thundering buffalo who demanded you to run along with them or step aside. The heartland leaped onto their backs and screamed,
“Weeeeeeee haaaaaa!”
And radio followed.
The free form “play what you want say what you want” idealistic, poopy, “thinks too much”, music authority, DJ centered radio genre was officially dead. A new, rigidly structured rock format was sweeping the country by storm because it tapped into the sentiment of the times. It had culled out the old slow shit of the past, muzzled the self absorbed, egotistical DJ’s and tightened the playlists to include fewer, but more popular songs rotated on a near Top 40 basis. It was called “The Superstars” format. It’s advent was demonized by the hip Rolling Stone crowd as being “corporate” and “research” influenced and thus, soulless and bland. But the radio listening public disagreed and lunged at it like a hungry lion to a wounded gazelle.
In Milwaukee, it was the Hearst Corporation who first decided to bring it in as they converted their little known FM frequency, 97.3, to WLPX, “The Superstar Cruiser.” The debut was stunningly successful in that they had caught the Milwaukee rock radio mainstay WQFM sleeping. “Sunshine Music 93QFM” had been slow to reflect the evolution of the music and the times.
The physical difference between LPX and QFM was striking. LPX was in a big beautiful broadcast facility that was corporate clean. There were three floors and giant studios. Lots of off limit places and big conference rooms. The interior design was contemporary, uncluttered and well lit. It was a startling contrast to QFM’s messy playboy 70′s cheaply paneled tiny downtown penthouse abode. It had but one floor that was no bigger inside than a two bedroom ranch house. It did have a city view out dirty windows and it’s closet-like, thin walled, spaces brought everybody closer together. Like it or not.
Hard rockin’ LPX was an uncomfortable fit for the Hearst facility that had a television station and a prominent AM station that were firmly “old school” broadcasting. But the investment had paid off for a few very strong years from ‘77- ‘81 as QFM cleaned house twice and struggled to regain its once dominant place. By ‘82 QFM was back in the battle having been christened the “1981 Billboard Rock Station of the Year” and turned the momentum their way. The stage was set for a classic radio war that would pit the “Darth Vader” rich corporate Goliath, LPX, against the independently owned pauper “David” WQFM. LPX was fighting to hold and QFM fighting to regain.
