Dan’s Classic Rock FM blog, a regular stop in my browsing travels, led me to the following Springsteen item today, which comes from my radio friend Jay Philpott.
Jay shared the following Springsteen story and audio in a recent blog entry:
Here’s a very revealing story about what a great guy Bruce is, and to what length he will go to reach out to his fans. In 1985, I was working at a radio station in Seattle/Tacoma and Bruce was scheduled to play two nights at the Tacoma Dome*. As you can imagine, anything regarding Springsteen in 1985 produced hysteria – he was THE music artist of the time having just released “Born In The USA” a year earlier and putting out one of the first-ever boxed sets “Live 1975-1985”.
Bruce was ill the first night and was forced to postpone that show. Around lunchtime on that day, one of our listeners came to the station with a bunch of hand-drawn Get Well cards from the kids at Roy Elementary, the school where she taught. She asked if we could get them to Bruce.
We delivered the cards to his hotel, and the next morning, one of his representatives brought us a cassette tape from Bruce himself! On the recording, he and Roy Bittan thank the kids.
Click on the audio tab above and listen to the way he thanked those kids! I’ve saved this recording all these years, and hope you enjoy it!
Hear the audio here.
The above audio is just about the coolest thing I’ve heard this week!
Speaking of radio….
Also from Dan’s blog, here’s some interesting vinyl-related radio news for any ATV readers that might be within earshot of Normal, IL:
Scratch. Pop. Click. Vinyl on the air. Randy Raley’s doing it once a week…tracking an album on his classic rock station in Normal, Illinois.
The details from Randy’s blog (posted October 4th):
One of the additions we’ve added to our weekly programming schedule on the Eagle is an idea I stole from a friend of mine. “Off The Record” is a show we air every Sunday night at 6:00pm. It is the playing of a great, classic release off of vinyl. That’s right, we actually play a “record”. Ken Dillon did this at his station in Sedalia and I though it was a great, cool tribute. So, we have set aside some time to play a great old record, starting with the needle dropping on the side, playing side one in it’s entirety, stopping for a break, then coming back and dropping the needle on side two. I think it sounds great and even through my sh*tty car radio, I can still tell the difference between digital and analog. It’s the debut Boston release this Sunday night at 6. Thanks, Ken for the idea.
You can find the above feature on the air Sundays at 6pm Central on 99.5 The Eagle, in Normal, IL.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they list upcoming albums on their website, but there is a live stream, so that you can listen live!
Visit Randy’s blog
Cool stuff!!
Thanks for the kind words on my little corner of the worldwide blogosphere!
Dan