98.6 WBOG - The Bog

When I was much younger (I'm talking 10 or 11 years old), I remember having my childhood friend Geoff sleep over pretty frequently. We decided one night to make our own radio show. We set up my old Panasonic boombox that had built in microphones and proceeded to record ourselves talking about anything and everything onto cassette tape. I can remember each of us flipping thru the JC Penny catalog looking for what we wanted to get for Christmas. There was even a whole part of the "show" where we did nothing but quote Cannonball Run. Even then I was obsessed with that movie. We'd also flip between us talking and the radio to see if there was a song on that we wanted to record. It was funny hearing us since our voices hadn't changed yet so we sounded so young.

As I got older and was almost old enough to drive, I made my own mix tapes so I'd have cool music to listen to once I got my licence. I mentioned my old "radio broadcast" to my friend Erik and we decided to make our own show. We got real hi-tech. We went to Radio Shack and bought a microphone and plugged it into my stereo shelf system. (You know the ones that looked like individual components, but were actually a record player, radio and dual cassete deck all in one.) We set up a playlist and recorded a real radio show. One of us would set up the music while the other introduced the songs. We called the station "98.6 FM WBOG", and our tag line was "Coming to you straight from the bog". (We picked an even numbered station because they don't really exist in the US.) We played mostly 80's rock like Whitesnake, Skid Row, Cinderella, Ratt, Scorpions, Ozzy and Metallica. At the end of each 45 minute side, we'd do our own paridy of whatever commercial was playing a lot on the radio at that time. We did one for Pizza Hut & US Army. I remember we got a little punchy on a some of them, to the point that we'd be craking up mid-recording.

I wish I could find a copy of that tape and transfer it to CD, MP3 file or something to preserve it. As I await the birth of my second child, I guess I can't help but look back on the memories of my life prior to marriage, kids, mortgage, and being an all around adult.

SLOW DOWN!!

This always cracks me up! Taxi was a great show.

Clemens' Decision

So this is how he decided to come back:

Van Halen Reunion

After watching the Van Halen "reunion" press conference, my wife and I got into a discussion about VH. She was never a real fan of them, especially Roth (she can't stand his screaming). Anyway, she said "Well, you were always more into the hair bands than I was." Umm............Hair band? I don't think VH is a hair band. There is no way I could put them into a category with Winger, Poison, Warrant, Ratt or Whitesnake.

Philip Francis Rizzuto: 1917-2007 (#10)

Phil (nicknamed Scooter) was one of the great Yankee shortstop's from 1941 to 1956, and won 8 world series titles with them. He was a broadcaster for 40 years and "Holy Cow!" was he a great color man. If you never saw or heard him speak, you have to watch his Hall of Fame induction speech to get a true feeling for his personality and what a great guy he was. Click here to read the story, watch his speech and see plenty of clips of Phil doing what he loved.................talking baseball. I grew up watching Phil and Bill White calling the games on WPIX in NY. I met him when I was a kid and worked baseball card shows. His signature is among the collection of signed baseballs I have. He was very friendly and always smiling.

For those of you that don't follow baseball, Phil Rizzuto is the play-by-play announcer in the MeatLoaf song, "Paridise by the Dashboard Light".

The Police: Giants Stadium 8/5/07

Almost a year to the day since I posted this, I finally got my wish to see The Police in concert last night at Giants Stadium. I have to say that I was very impressed with how the sounded. Sting's voice was right on, Andy Summers guitar sounded great, and Stewart Copeland never missed a beat. I was happy to see that it was just the three of them on stage and not a bunch of back up singers and instruments. This really impressed me since they sounded very full on every song.

I tailgated in the parking lot with a bunch of family & friends (Jenn unfortunately did not go. She's been having a difficult time walking in her last tri-mester of pregnancy). They opened the show with Message in a Bottle, followed by Synchronicity II (which is one of my favorites) and Walking on the Moon. There was very little talking going on between songs which I was happy about.

They also played (in no particular order):
So Lonely
Roxanne
Don't Stand So Close to Me
Voices Inside My Head
When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Invisible Sun
Walking in your Footsteps
Wrapped Around Your Finger
King of Pain
Can't Stand Losing You
Every Breath You Take
(I know I've missed two or three here)

The only song I wish they did was Murder By Numbers. It was surprising to look around and see how many people didn't know some of the songs though (Voices Inside My Head, When the World is Running Down & So Lonely for example). I guess they just went to hear King of Pain and Every Breath you Take.

My friend Matt drank so much that he actually missed half the show because he passed out. I have a picture of him sleeping in his seat, but I'll spare him and not post it. I took more with my camera phone, but they came out crappy, so I'll spare you the blurry light streaks I got.

If they come to a town near you, do what you can to see them. It was definately worth the $100, except for Matt, but that's a whole other story....