Tonight I heard Alphaville's "Forever Young." It is a song that fills my heart and mind with so many memories. Most of them come from 1991 and events that occured throughout that year. But another comes from the end of 2002 and a particular hour of music on the radio.
Back in the day, I used to listen to 107.7 The End in Seattle. The best part of the station was their flashback show, Resurrection Flashback Sunday. Jim Keller and Dick Rossetti were the men in my life from 8am - 12pm every Sunday morning. In November or early December of 2002 The End announced that they were turning over a weekend of music to the listeners. All we had to do was go online to their website, fill out the form listing 10 songs we would play if we could program 1 hour of airtime, and also mention when/what time block we'd choose to be on. I, of course, listed 10 "retro" songs and said I would want to program an hour of time during RFS.
To my surprise, I got an email saying I had been chosen to be on the air - from 9-10am during Resurrection Flashback Sunday! Talk about an exciting moment. I thought I would be on the air with Jim Keller, a dj I had been listening to since my early teen years when he was on the best alternative station Seattle ever had to offer, the short lived 1600am KJET. But then I found out I would actually be on the air with Dick Rossetti, who I gained a whole lot of respect for that day.
*There is actually a funny side story involved with this. After I left the station, my husband and I hopped in the car and immediately turned on The End so we could listen to the next guy. D-Ro, in mentioning me as having been the previous guest dj called me "Kathy" instead of Stacy. My husband gave Mr. Rossetti a call to give him a hard time about it. The next day, I got a call from Mr. Rossetti while I was at work and he was on air doing the Monday mid-morning show. He publically apologized to me for messing up my name. What a guy.
Anyway, back to the story at hand. It was not quite a week after we lost the great Joe Strummer. I had chosen to include The Clash on my playlist weeks before we would hear of his passing, so the hour started off with "London Calling" and a brief tribute to Joe by Mr. Rossetti and myself. I was nervous for the entire hour, but had so much fun. We took a few calls, talked about songs...all in all, I would go back and do it again in an instant.
Here is the playlist I chose for that day (I don't remember the exact order in which they were played, but this is pretty close...I think. It's a miracle I even remember the 10 songs):
The Clash - London Calling
The Pretenders - Brass In Pocket
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again
New Order - Pefect Kiss
Book of Love - Pretty Boys, Pretty Girls
Siouxsie & The Banshees - The Passenger
The Pixies - Wave of Mutilation
The Smiths - There is a Light That Never Goes Out
Alphaville - Forever Young
I had two other moments of programming fame on The End after that - both exclusively Depeche Mode playlists. I'm pretty proud of those moments too. Maybe those will be stories for another time.
Thank you for reading from Rdwnggrl's World.
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