Tag Archives: Music

You Had Your Time, You Had the Power. You’ve Yet to Have Your Finest Hour.

Posted by MaskedSanity on

Talk radio has always been a big part of my life. Even before I started listening to it on my own, it was playing in my house. I don’t remember if my mother was the one listening to him, or if it was when my grandmother would visit, but I remember hearing Bernard Meltzer’s call-in advice quite a bit. He was most famous for asking his callers “What’s your problem?”

I was aware of Meltzer and some other names that were big in the New York area such as the obvious ones like Don Imus and Howard Stern. But, I wasn’t listening. Maybe because I was too young, but I just wasn’t listening on my own. But, that changed for me in August of 1989. My dad was aware that SportsRadio 66, WFAN in New York had a one hour show late on Saturday mornings that discussed professional wrestling. And he let me stay up one weekend shortly before WWE’s SummerSlam ’89. His hope was that I would hear spoilers and not want to order the show on pay-per-view. Well, I listened to the show, I heard some speculation as to what was going to happen, and we still ordered the show.

But, something happened that night while listening to WFAN. Or more specifically, something didn’t happen. I never changed the frequency.

The host that I listened to that night was Jody McDonald. His shows were overnights on weekends. But, it was the weeknight overnight show ,that really became my favorite. The host of that was Steve Somers. While having a very good amount of sports knowledge, he had a unique delivery and show. He blended humor, inside jokes, and production to the broadcast, which was from midnight until 6am. Being that the overnight show was longer than most of the other shows on the air, callers were able to get a bit more time to talk on the air, and many of them became regulars and developed cult-like followings.

I used to listen to WFAN any chance that I could. I knew the station’s entire schedule. I knew all of the hosts. I even called in a few times and made it to the air three times. Once with Jody McDonald where I discussed the Yankees not using a pitched that I liked (Chuck Cary), once with Steve Somers where I talked about the Mets’ fans needing to get over losing Daryl Strawberry to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and once with WFAN’s flagship show Mike & and the Mad Dog where I talked about the Yankees not needing to sign Jason Giambi since they didn’t need a big name to boost ratings.

If I wasn’t listening to WFAN late at night, I was watching movies. And two movies that also had an impact on my fascination with radio were Pump Up the Volume and Talk Radio. Pump Up the Volume spoke to Gen-X and the angst we felt. It also made “pirate radio” look really cool. Talk Radio showed how powerful the medium can be. It also showed the danger of it, which I’ll get into a little later.

In the mid-90s, while riding in a bus or driving to college, I would listen to Howard Stern in the morning. It was some of the funniest stuff that I ever heard. In fact, I remember one time when I was late for a class because I was listening to Gilbert Gottfried on Stern’s show appearing as Rabbi Farrakhan and I would not leave my car until it was done. I’m not going to explain that bit, but it’s on YouTube. The irony is that the class that I was late to was a radio production class. Yes, I went to school for radio.

After I got my associates degree in communication, I went to the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. While I was there, I got more of education in TV and radio production. I also heard horror stories from many of the schools guest instructors, who were all working in TV and radio somewhere. Some of them would talk about how great the business was and some would talk about how difficult it was to make a career in it. It was also a weird time in the radio industry just as Satellite Radio was about to start. There were also a lot of corporate mergers and radio jobs were becoming more difficult to find. I never had dreams of being a personality, I preferred the behind-the-scenes production.

Just about one week after I graduated from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, I accepted a job with a retail company that offered me a lot more stability than I thought would have in the world of radio, and I never really looked back.

Talk radio, and now podcasts, are community building. The listeners can feel bonds with the hosts. It’s like we know them personally. Sometimes, they feel like family. Talk radio can also be very dangerous. The power of political talk radio is very obvious. Check out the great documentary called the Brainwashing of My Dad and you’ll see the impact of someone who spends all day listening to hate speech of a particular ideology and you’ll see what it can do to people.

While WFAN is still the pre-set on the radio in my room, and I use it as one of the (many) alarms that I use in the morning to (attempt to) wake up, I don’t listen to it as much. My radio listening is mostly podcasts, but I’m getting the same experience. I get the entertainment and the community.

This entry was partially inspired by the Steve Somers’ memoir that I just read called Me Here, You There: My Three Decades Overnight, Under the Covers, Schmoozing S-P-O-R-T-S as Captain Midnight for WFAN.” If you are familiar with him, you understand all of that. The book reminded me of how much I enjoyed listening to him and the rest of WFAN’s lineup. It also reminded me of how much I enjoy radio and podcasts now. At times, they’re a lifeline. A distraction from reality. They’re a in-depth entertaining history lesson of a whatever subject I’ve chosen to learn about it. Talk radio will never go away. It may evolve, but it will survive in one form or another. It’s a valuable thing and I’m grateful for what I’ve gotten out of it.

Don’t Tell Us What’s Right, Don’t Tell Us What’s Wrong.

Posted by MaskedSanity on

Like many people of my age, I spent many days after school watching G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero on TV. Along with Transformers, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Voltron, and Robotech, it was of my favorite cartoons. I always knew the cartoon was a little bit cheesy and the animation was cheap, but none of that mattered. I was fully entertained for the 30 minutes that I spent watching it.

There were a few episodes that stood out to me as favorites or very memorable. I even learned what deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is from the 1986 mini-series in which Doctor Mindbender created a super human to lead Cobra by extracting DNA from the unearthed remains of some of the greatest generals and conquerors of all time as well as other notable historic figures. I was in 4th grade when I saw that and I very clearly remember being excited and proud that I knew the answer to “Does anyone know what DNA stands for?” when it was asked in my high school biology class. I knew the answer, and remember kids, knowing is half the battle.

But, when it comes down to just one episode that I say was my definite favorite, the one that I remember the most, it would be the one that aired on Tuesday, December 2, 1985. No, I didn’t know that date from memory, I went to IMDB.com to find it. The episode was called “Cold Slither” and in the episode Cobra Commander is informed that his organization is broke and he needs a quick scheme to make money. He comes up with the idea go have a gang that he often works with, Zartan and his Dreadnoks become a rock band to they can control the masses with subliminal messages, make money, and take over the world. It seems like a good scheme, right?

The band that they create is called Cold Slither and their eponymous song was a big hit, until GI Joe put a stop to all of, as they do.

I’m not going to spend this entire entry going over the plot of that episode, although, I could. But, if you want to see it, you can just click the link right after this sentence and enjoy its greatness for yourself.
https://youtu.be/NGBpP2B83E8?si=X2N_YNay_UufKCsS

As I said, this episode was the most memorable of the series for me. For 40 years, the “Cold Slither” song was in my head. Occasionally, I would go back and watch it for fun. Last year, I even bought a Cold Slither t-shirt from 80stees.com, which does not sponsor me, but I’m plugging them anyway. So, as you can tell, I am a fan of that episode.

Earlier this year, I saw a post that there would be a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive 40th anniversary collection of Cold Slither action figures, featuring Zartan and the Dreadnocks in their Cold Slither attire. I thought that was pretty cool, and was glad to see this great episode getting some attention.

Just about two months ago, YouTube suggested a video to me, it was called “Cold Slither – Official Lyric Video, The Anthem That Shook the World.” Naturally, I clicked the link (and you can too, right here) and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, it was a new recording of the classic Cold Slither theme song. I immediately went to the Google and discovered that there was a real band going around as Cold Slither now and not just that, they had played a show in conjunction with the San Diego Comic-Con, and were going to be playing a show when the New York Comic-Con would be happening just about on month later. Being that I live near New York City, I had to know more.

After confirming the date of the concert, I informed my girlfriend about the show and how much I wanted to go. She agreed to go with me, so I got the tickets. I listened to their full-length album a few times before going to the show. Yes. They have a full-length album, and it’s good. Is it good enough to appear in my Top 10 Albums of the Year blog that will be posted in late December? You’ll just have to wait to find out.

The show itself was loads of fun. They start off with the GI Joe cartoon intro, and then Cobra Commander appeared on a screen to discuss how he didn’t like being in New York, due to that incident on the Statue of Liberty in 1987 (see the opening of the 1987 GI Joe movie for that reference). From there, Cold Slither took the stage and played all of the songs from their album. The final song of their set was “Cold Slither.” The song from the episode. I sang along. Every word. I had a huge smile on my face, and I felt emotional. I’ll explain more about that in a minute.

The encore for the band was them coming back and singing “Cold Slither” again, but this time with more audience participation. At their San Diego show, the encore included an appearance by Jem (yes, the actual singer from the 1980s Jem cartoon) to sing the Jem theme. We didn’t get that, unfortunately. That would have been truly outrageous. Yeah, I said it.

When the show was over, the band did a meet and greet downstairs. They were all in character. Ripper handed out donuts while talking about how he wanted some grape soda, while Torch and Buzzer talked about how much they wanted some as well. As someone who knew the characters, I was loving every second of this. I got to speak to Zartan, the singer for a moment. I said “this may sound weird, or it may make a lot of sense, but I can’t thank you enough for tonight. I’ve been singing that song for 40 years and to be able to do it tonight was so much fun. Thank you. As you can probably tell, I’m a fan.” Zartan rolled down his arm band a bit to show me a GI Joe themed tattoo and he said “So am I. Thank you.”

While, on the surface, my conversation with Zartan was nice and it was just two people showing their appreciation for the legacy of the cartoon and the franchise, as a whole, it was a lot deeper than that. Being that I liked the band so much, I wanted to know more about the individual members and the bands that they’re in. Zartan is portrayed by Gus Rios. He’s played drums in bands such as Malevolent Creation, Gruesome, and Left to Die. That’s a good resume, but that it isn’t what made an impact on me. It was his story about depression, his attempt on his own life, and how as a child, his toys such as GI Joe and the Transformers were his friends.

I found that to be very powerful. I often locked myself away in my basement and played with the GI Joe and Transformers toys that I had. I would sometimes mix in the Star Wars toys too in a massive intergalactic war, but I digress. I don’t know if playing with the toys and feeling connections to the characters had as deep of an impact on me as it did with Gus Rios, but I could relate to his story. I’m glad that he was able to share it. Not just because it’s a good story, but because he’s with us and he got to enjoy being a part of the lore that he enjoyed so much as a kid.

You never know what someone is going through. You never know how much something as simple as attending a concert, even one that is featuring a band based on one episode of a children’s cartoon from 40 years ago, can mean to someone. I had a great time at that show. It was a very memorable experience. By no means did the show attract a large crowd, but it attracted people who were very passionate about what they were about to see (and some significant others that were with them to support them). And the people that bought the tickets enjoyed 60ish minutes of nostalgia in the form of heavy metal music, and some videos in which I’m pretty sure Cobra Commander indoctrinated all of us into his “ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.”

Was this a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me? It very well could have been. Yes, it meant that much to me, and others. The GI Joe and Transformers universe mean that much to me. Their recent co-existence in the new Energon Universe comic books is what brought me back to the world of comics. So, as I said those 60ish minutes were magical. And for the time that I was there, I felt like I was (said in Destro’s voice from the “Revenge of Cobra” mini-series) “on the roof of the world.”