Post by Travis on Jun 6, 2009 8:31:21 GMT -5
I was listening to a "skimmer" aircheck of Mason Lee Dixon's final show on WAKY. This was his final show on September 11th & 12th before leaving for KXOK in St. Louis, Missouri. On that night, Mason was throwing in records that were seldom, if ever, heard on WAKY (or anywhere else). The Theme from Fireball XL-5, Harmonica Fats, The Dregs, The Fifth Estate (remember "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" in 1967) were just a few of the oddities that he threw in.
At 5 minutes into the aircheck, you can hear the scoped intro & extro of Jerry Wallace's 1972 hit, "If You Leave Me Tonight (I Will Cry)." At first, I thought Mason was just throwing in another record from home because it was such a country song and he had dedicated it to all his friends down at the "radio ranch," WTMT (where he had once worked years earlier) but Jerry Wallace's song was actually a hit on WAKY, reaching as high as #14 on one of the WAKY surveys which can be seen on this site. The song had been heard, repeatedly, on an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallary ("The tune in Dan's Cafe") and became a hit, nationwide. It's interesting how WAKY was able to play such country songs alongside the pop music with such incredible success at that time.
Jerry Wallace died just a year ago last month (5/5/2008) at the age of 79. His song can easily be found on YouTube. In fact, just about any song can be found on YouTube. My favorite from Jerry has always been, "In The Misty Moonlight" from 1964.
Like many of you, I use Google as my search engine of choice and it's interesting to note that on Mason Lee Dixon's final night on WAKY (in '72) he asked the following question during Trivia on The Mason Dixon Line (WAKY's telephone call-in talk show):
What is the highest number for which we have a name?
I was on the show that night (I can be heard at the very end of the skimmer aircheck just before the tape runs out) and had no clue as to the answer to that particular question, but how ironic that nearly 37 years later I would be using something called a search engine, which would have a name based on the answer to that question, to write this post. The highest number for which we have a name is called a googol (spelled as shown).
Man, I sure could have used the net back in those days. I could have "Googled" and cheated at answering every single question during Trivia on The Mason Dixon Line.
LOL!
At 5 minutes into the aircheck, you can hear the scoped intro & extro of Jerry Wallace's 1972 hit, "If You Leave Me Tonight (I Will Cry)." At first, I thought Mason was just throwing in another record from home because it was such a country song and he had dedicated it to all his friends down at the "radio ranch," WTMT (where he had once worked years earlier) but Jerry Wallace's song was actually a hit on WAKY, reaching as high as #14 on one of the WAKY surveys which can be seen on this site. The song had been heard, repeatedly, on an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallary ("The tune in Dan's Cafe") and became a hit, nationwide. It's interesting how WAKY was able to play such country songs alongside the pop music with such incredible success at that time.
Jerry Wallace died just a year ago last month (5/5/2008) at the age of 79. His song can easily be found on YouTube. In fact, just about any song can be found on YouTube. My favorite from Jerry has always been, "In The Misty Moonlight" from 1964.
Like many of you, I use Google as my search engine of choice and it's interesting to note that on Mason Lee Dixon's final night on WAKY (in '72) he asked the following question during Trivia on The Mason Dixon Line (WAKY's telephone call-in talk show):
What is the highest number for which we have a name?
I was on the show that night (I can be heard at the very end of the skimmer aircheck just before the tape runs out) and had no clue as to the answer to that particular question, but how ironic that nearly 37 years later I would be using something called a search engine, which would have a name based on the answer to that question, to write this post. The highest number for which we have a name is called a googol (spelled as shown).
Man, I sure could have used the net back in those days. I could have "Googled" and cheated at answering every single question during Trivia on The Mason Dixon Line.
LOL!