Roundtable Radio

 

February 9. 1979 -

Look it up if you have never heard Michael and George on the Roundtable program.   The show is like"Juke Box Jury," and they listen to songs and give their opinion on their songs.   It is pretty interesting. 

Say Pepsi Please

 

When the Beatles arrived in the United States in February 1964, the boys were given transistor radios that looked like a mini Pepsi Cola vending machine and said "Say Pepsi Please."    I believe all 4 of the guys were handed one, but photos and film of Paul holding his up to his ear are well known.    It was great advertisement for Pepsi and even to this day, they are called "The Beatles Pepsi radios." 

Ringo on Flo and Eddie

Much thanks to the John Lennon Lost Weekend Group on Facebook for sparking my re-interest in this story and sharing the photo.

On April 14, 1974 Ringo Starr along with Keith Moon and others appeared on the radio program known as "Flo and Eddie."    Flo and Eddie were really Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan who were part of the 1960's band The Turtle (Happy Together was their biggest hit).    When the Turtles ended, they joined Frank Zappa and worked on the film 200 Motels--with Ringo.    They discovered along the way that  for legal reasons they couldn't use the name "The Turles" or even their own names when recording music.   And so they became known as "Flo and Eddie."  

In the mid 1970's they had their own radio show with DJ Rodney Bingenheimer (who you will remember as the groovy guy that hung out with George Harrison in San Francisco in 1967) on KROQ in Pasadena, California.      42 years ago Ringo appeared at Midnight on the show  (right around teh time it was scheduled to go end) and started to take phone calls from listeners.    However, Ringo was quite drunk and uttered the F-bomb at least 15 times in a 90 second period while the pair was attempting to interview him.    Besides that Ringo caused the program to run over by 40 minutes.  The FCC got complained and looked into the matter and that was the end of the "Flo and Eddie" show.  

Beatles New Year Cake

I have to give a big thank you to Ted Hutchens who did ALL of the research on this story!   He kindly sent me the information that he found as he was researching it.    I would like to point out that Ted has a really neat Beatles display currently available for viewing at the Springfield, Missouri Library.   It has some one of a kind items, including the clarinet case that three of the Beatles autographed for a young fan while they were at Reed Pigman's ranch.    If you live in the area, it would be well worth your time to go see the exhibit.  I hope I can make it out there before it is taken down.  

Ted also runs a facebook page called "MO Beatles" which is about the Beatles in Missouri (a topic that I love---since I have written an entire book basically on this topic!)   

On New Years' Eve of 1964, a radio station from KICK radio station in Springfield, Missouri decided the best way to get the Beatles' to perform a concert in their area in 1965 was to send a cake to Liverpool.    Now I am not sure what they really expected to happen since the Beatles themselves hadn't lived in Liverpool for at least 3 years by 1965, but maybe they thought the fan club located in Liverpool would eat the cake and spread the message to the Fab 4.   Or maybe it was just a publicity stunt for the radio station....

But anyhow....a cake that was 8 foot 3 inches was baked and decorated in what was called a "Kaleidoscope of pastel colors"   It appears that the cake had drawings of each of the Beatles in circles and wished the guys a Happy New Year for 1965.     It was then put into a gold painted wooden box with Red letters that once again wished the Beatles a Happy New Year and had the names of the DJ's from KICK.    It was locked up with 7 padlocks and the keys were mailed to Liverpool separately from the cake. 

It then was loaded onto a Campbell 66 truck and was taken to the airport in St. Louis.

From St. Louis it flew on a T.W.A. flight to New York City, where it was to be put on the Queen Elizabeth and float over to Liverpool.    However---the Beatles cake never left the dock in New York.  At the time, people were told that a "shipping technicality"  stopped it from boarding the liner and that it would be kept in "cold storage" until the ship arrived back in New York on January 20th.   However, one person from that time recalls that there was a shipping strike going on during that time period and the Beatles cake "wasted away on the docks there and never made it to Britain."

Listen to me live on the wireless machine.

You all may or may not realize it, but this Sunday (March 9th) marks the 5 year anniversary of this blog!    It totally blows me away that I have been doing this for 5 years!   Think about that---it is the  same amount of time from Please Please me to the White album.  One of the things I am doing to celebrate this milestone is appear as the guest on Jude S. Kessler's online radio program, The John Lennon Hour.

I will be telling some of the stories that have appeared on this blog (ones that sway more towards John) and talking about photos and this blog!      I have never, ever been on the radio before.  So if you tune in, please keep in mind that I was nervous and little flustered, but I did my best.    I recorded the program tonight, and  I know I made some mistakes and tripped up a bit, but overall I think it will be good and it was a fun time.  

The program is on Beatles a-rama radio station.   If you don't listen to Beatles-a-rama, I high recommend it.   I like to put it on when I am doing things like cleaning the house or folding laundry because it makes the time go by faster and you get to hear a variety of Beatles music.  There are also some great programs on there, such as Jude's "John Lennon hour."

So tune in at 8:00 eastern/ 7:00 central on Sunday, March 9, 2014 to hear me on the John Lennon Hour!

If John Lennon was at the recording of the John Lennon Hour, I would have been much more nervous! 

Beatles or Bust!

A radio station van ready to head out to see a Beatles concert in 1964!

Ringo radio

Serena Torz and Ringo.  copyright Serena Torz  posted here with permission

In the mid 1980's (most likely 1984), Serena Torz met Ringo Starr at a radio station where she worked at the time.   By the look at the smile on her face in this photo, it was a great event!   I think Ringo is looking particularly handsome here.   I guess it is because it is a rare photo of him without the sunglasses!

WOKY radio DJ

John in a coon skin cap

In February of 1975, not only was John back with Yoko at the Dakota (or as John put it 'our separation was a failure'), but he was also was hitting the circuit to promote the Rock n Roll album.    On February 13 he found himself at WNEW in New York on air with Scott Muni.   You can hear John on the radio that day right here.   
The two photos from the radio station come from the book "ticket to ride" by Denny Somach and the one with the fans is from the March/April 1975 issue of  "the Write thing."     Michael Stanikowits wrote a short paragraph about meeting John after the radio show for The Write Thing.  Here is what he said:

Guess what?  Karen and myself met John again outside Yoko's apartment (Feb 13).  He gave an interview on the radio, and of course we went down there.  He was dropped off by a limo by himself and we jumped out of the car and talked and took pics of him.  We have one of John, Karen and myself, taken by another friend.  He looked really fine - wearing a Davy Crockett type of hat and jeans and all.  We told him of June 12th (the write-in campaign) also.

Photos of John at WFIL

I just posted some video footage of when John Lennon was at the Philadelphia radio station, WFIL in 1975 and now here are some photographs of the occassion. I have previously posted pohtos from the Helping Hands Marathon that were taken of John with fans outside of the radio studio. Here are some taken on the inside.

I wish I could have been there. Was anyone who reads this blog there the day John co-hosted the radio station?