WLNG: Radio America Remembers (Video)

Summers by the beach -- the sun, salt, sand, and surf pounding to the sound of a scratchy transistor radio as it baked in the heat. Baby-oiled bodies burnished iodine-red by the summer sunshine of adolescence sizzling on the sand. The first summer drove I became intoxicated by "the shore". Jumping in my convertible I'd race 50 or more miles just for a quick afternoon in the sun. If I timed it perfectly, my Pioneer tape deck would be screaming The Styx's "Come Sail Away" by the time the scent of brackish air cocooned my car in its marshy magic. Once set up on the Brigantine NJ sand, my handy transistor radio took over as Philadelphia's WFIL sang new memories from its tiny speaker. Just down the beach, Atlantic City's stale smell of fresh casino gambling was wafting on the air. In 1979, gambling's promise of financial reprieve from urban blight seemed so possible. Those were the daze.

Like cigarettes a generation earlier, sensibility has heightened our awareness of UV's damage, but even still the heat of summer sunshine sears its seaside moments into our lives. Today as we race through our world we've all experienced glimpses of time's fragments lost long ago. It can be smell, a sound, or deja Vu second where we collide with ourselves in a flash of yesterday.

For an audio trigger back to the halcyon days of your father's generation, a click of a mouse, or a trip to Long Island's East End is a journey back to the good old days of the summer sound.

WLNG (92.1 FM) is American through and through. The sound is durable - top 40 from the fifties, sixties, and seventies, peppered with enough reverb-ed humanity to make even the most hardened city slicker feel hometown-yesterday-neighborly. WLNG is small town life with local deaths, births, lost pets, birthdays, anniversaries, and a call-in show called "Swap-n-Shop".

For nostalgia buffs, WLNG radio houses America's largest library of singing jingles. From Sunday's hopeful "Go to Church", to "More News any Moment", their vintage jingles are sung by a cross between WWII's Andrew's Sisters, the Dixie Chicks, and the Kingston Trio. Sadly, amongst all this benevolence and perfectly orchestrated sound, the nasty news of today seems even more shockingly vitriolic. But hey, nothing's perfect -- so back to the WLNG's doo-wop show and the sound of your Grand pappy's optimist and welcoming America.

Comments

[DanaMiller]

Hey Tom LOVE those old stations. There is a guy I'm known for years, Art Vuolo who has made it his life's work to capture radio through the ages. He is considered by many Radio's Best Friend. For more blast's from the past, google Art Vuolo!