doug — off the record

… call in radio show requests?

I was feeling a bit nostalgic and was checking out my stereo that I still have from days gone by. There’s no internet connection but I could easily switch from AM to FM depending upon my mood. There is an antenna on the back.

Back in the day, I didn’t have a television in my bedroom but certainly did have a radio for entertainment.

Growing up, the radio was constantly set to CKLW, The Big 8 for the music, the chatter from the radio hosts, and the ability to call in a song request. It didn’t always get honoured and I get that – I’m sure they got so many requests but I always felt that it gave a bit of a vote that someone was listening. For the most part, we listened in our cars and we certainly didn’t have mobile phones so the opportunity to call in was limited to somewhere with a land line. It wasn’t a big deal but often a song would be introduced as “a request from…”.

I still remember a personal call in when I was at university. I wanted a Rod Stewart song but none of the stuff that was constantly played like “Maggie May” or “Country Comforts”. I called into the university FM station and asked the person on the other end to “play me something from Rod Stewart that I’ve never heard”. How’s that for a request?

I still remember the reply – “Have you heard Cindy Incidentally?”

“Why no, I haven’t.” And the rest is history. Technically, it was Rod Stewart and the Faces but I still give it a click every now and again to reminisce.

I’m still a listener of FM radio in the morning but stream my stations (Wingham, Goderich, and Windsor) over the internet. Calling in song requests isn’t part of what happens here anymore.

So, for a Sunday, what are your thoughts?

• do you listen to a radio station that takes sone requests?
• did you listen to a station years ago that did requests?
• do you listen to streaming services instead of over the air stations?
• did you keep a playlist on cassette for your car? Where are those cassettes now?
• do you prefer to listen to music with video like you’d find on YouTube?
• do you curate your own playlists?
• is the idea of song requests just a fond memory as a listening world changes?
• do you know who Rosalie Trombley was?

As always for a Sunday, I’d be most interested in your thoughts on this topic. Please share them in the comments below.

This is now an irregular Sunday morning themed post. You can check out all the previous posts here.