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Post by 80sat40fan on Mar 8, 2021 14:52:40 GMT -5
With Michael Stanley's recent passing, I remembered that my then local Top 40 station, KHTR/Hit Radio 103 played a version of his "My Town" in which he sang in the refrain, "Oh and this town / is my town / St. Louis! / alright..." They simply inserted "St. Louis!" where there was a pause in the lyrics. It was kind of cool to hear that!
There are two other songs which were customized for St. Louis that I remember. On "The Heart Of Rock & Roll" by Huey Lewis & The News, right before the harmonica solo near the end of the song, KHTR played a version in which Huey shouted, "St. Louis! ... Champaign, Illinois!" That may be the only time Champaign, Illinois made a Top 40 song! The other song was "We Built This City" by Starship. While KWK/106.5 played the regular version with the San Francisco DJ speaking, KHTR had their program director, Dave Robbins, say some things about St. Louis during that part of the song.
Have there been other Top 40 songs which were customized for your local area or radio station?
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Post by doofus67 on Mar 8, 2021 15:08:12 GMT -5
In "My Town," it was "Milwaukee!" And in "The Heart of Rock & Roll," it was "Minneapolis! Milwaukee!"
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Post by Hervard on Mar 8, 2021 15:10:03 GMT -5
"Mr. Jaws" by Dickie Goodman ("This is Dickie Goodman, WLS")
"Life Is A Rock" by Reunion ("Life Is A Rock But WLS Rolled Me")
"Fire" by the Pointer Sisters ("I'm riding in your car/You turn on WLS")
"I Wanna Go Back" by Eddie Money ("I was listening to WLS") There was another version when he sang "listening to Z95", WLS AM 890's sister station.
There is a version of the "Heart Of Rock & Roll" that gave a shoutout to Chicago and Kansas City, right after "Detroit! Ooh, Heart Of Rock & Roll".
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Post by OnWithTheCountdown on Mar 8, 2021 15:55:31 GMT -5
In late summer/fall 1988, the Beach Boys' "Kokomo" was parodied into "Orono", a town just WSW of the Twin Cities.
ETA: Also just remembered Eddie Money's "I Wanna Go Back" was also customized for the Twin Cities. Same with Calloway's "I Wanna Be Rich". (Both were for 101.3 KDWB, which carried AT40 from 1974-about 1993, then picked AT40 2.0 back up in 1998, and still broadcasts it today.)
I'm sure there's others...will edit if I remember more.
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Post by chrislc on Mar 8, 2021 16:03:48 GMT -5
Voice Of Freedom peaked at #71 in 1980 but it might have been the #1 example of this if it had made the Top 40, since TM later created localized versions. Then again, if it had made the Top 40 it might not have been so acceptably customizable. I remember WPTR in Albany playing a computer "singing" the call letters over some intros, including My Melody Of Love. The computer singer would hit the post every time!  Also, on a somewhat related note (?), the WMCA Good Guys booed whenever Len Barry sang "ABC" in 1-2-3, but I don't remember WMCA doing the same with the Jackson 5 in 1970. |
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Post by dth1971 on Mar 8, 2021 17:17:35 GMT -5
"Mr. Jaws" by Dickie Goodman ("This is Dickie Goodman, WLS") "Life Is A Rock" by Reunion ("Life Is A Rock But WLS Rolled Me") "Fire" by the Pointer Sisters ("I'm riding in your car/You turn on WLS") "I Wanna Go Back" by Eddie Money ("I was listening to WLS") There was another version when he sang "listening to Z95", WLS AM 890's sister station. There is a version of the "Heart Of Rock & Roll" that gave a shoutout to Chicago and Kansas City, right after "Detroit! Ooh, Heart Of Rock & Roll". I even remember on WLS AM 890 a version of Jim Stienman's "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" where the line "We've been listening to the radio so loud and so strong" was replaced by "We've been listening to WLS so loud and so strong". |
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Post by mga707 on Mar 8, 2021 17:53:21 GMT -5
Have there been other Top 40 songs which were customized for your local area or radio station? Billy Idol, "Hot In the City". Billy shouts out "Tucson!" instead of "New York!" I remember reading, probably in 'Billboard', that Billy made dozens and dozens of these customized shout-outs for various radio markets. |
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Post by matt on Mar 8, 2021 18:12:04 GMT -5
Have there been other Top 40 songs which were customized for your local area or radio station? Billy Idol, "Hot In the City". Billy shouts out "Tucson!" instead of "New York!" I remember reading, probably in 'Billboard', that Billy made dozens and dozens of these customized shout-outs for various radio markets. I was going to mention "Hot In the City" -- apparently Billy's record company had him record a different city name for the top 100 or so markets in the country (Slammin' Sam Meyers told the story on one of his countdowns in the past few years). So instead of "New York!", it would be the city for the market in which the song was played. For us at the time it was "Omaha!" ... even though we thought it was pretty cool back in the day, it didn't take too much to assume that Billy wouldn't have written that into the original song. |
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Post by mga707 on Mar 8, 2021 19:35:05 GMT -5
Billy Idol, "Hot In the City". Billy shouts out "Tucson!" instead of "New York!" I remember reading, probably in 'Billboard', that Billy made dozens and dozens of these customized shout-outs for various radio markets. I was going to mention "Hot In the City" -- apparently Billy's record company had him record a different city name for the top 100 or so markets in the country (Slammin' Sam Meyers told the story on one of his countdowns in the past few years). So instead of "New York!", it would be the city for the market in which the song was played. For us at the time it was "Omaha!" ... even though we thought it was pretty cool back in the day, it didn't take too much to assume that Billy wouldn't have written that into the original song. Top 100 radio markets--wow! Gotta give Mr. Idol credit...he wasn't 'idle' at all in wanting to break through in the USA! |
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Post by saltrek on Mar 8, 2021 19:44:29 GMT -5
I was in South Florida when "Heart of Rock and Roll" came out and they had a version shouting Miami, Fort Lauderdale.
I was living on Long Island when "Almost Summer" by Celebration was out in 1978, and one radio station played a version that went:
We'll be cruisin' 'round the tri state
Lookin' good and soundin' great
On 99-X FM
It's almost summer
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Post by retrodaddy on Mar 8, 2021 20:21:57 GMT -5
I was in South Florida when "Heart of Rock and Roll" came out and they had a version shouting Miami, Fort Lauderdale. I was living on Long Island when "Almost Summer" by Celebration was out in 1978, and one radio station played a version that went: We'll be cruisin' 'round the tri state Lookin' good and soundin' great On 99-X FM It's almost summer I grew up in South Florida. Don't remember the Miami or FtL shout outs in Heart of Rock and Roll. I don't remember any other songs with a customized Miami mention, either. Perhaps I just wasn't paying close enough attention. |
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Post by dth1971 on Mar 8, 2021 21:18:45 GMT -5
I bet you don't remember the 27 version (each custom made for a city with different high school names mentioned) "High School U.S.A." by Tommy Facenda in the late 1950's or early 1960's.
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Post by pb on Mar 8, 2021 21:28:44 GMT -5
The other song was "We Built This City" by Starship. While WKBQ/Q106.5 played the regular version with the San Francisco DJ speaking, KHTR had their program director, Dave Robbins, say some things about St. Louis during that part of the song. In Ohio I remember hearing the version of the song once where they left an instrumental gap for the local dj to talk. |
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Post by dth1971 on Mar 9, 2021 6:53:30 GMT -5
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Post by 80sat40fan on Mar 9, 2021 7:47:07 GMT -5
Also just remembered Eddie Money's "I Wanna Go Back" was also customized for the Twin Cities. It was for the two Top 40 stations in St. Louis as well... thanks for the reminder! Eddie Money nailed the rhythm for, "I... was listening to KHTR." The other station was KWK... which while only three letters is five syllables. Eddie didn't sing it in rhythm so the "u" sound of W was on beat one, and he elongated the second K of KWK... it was odd. Why I recall that.... I dunno  . But if Eddie can recall hanging out on Friday night, then I can recall him singing KHTR and KWK in his songs  . |
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. But if Eddie can recall hanging out on Friday night, then I can recall him singing KHTR and KWK in his songs 
.