Category: Radio

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Monday Night Countdown

This Just In:  In the dark of the night it was revealed earlier today that ‘The Major’s Tweets’ had been temporarily removed from the weekly blogging schedule. It is now on hiatus – which is usually not a good sign. Anyone remember the ‘Lipitor Moment Of The Night’ ?  Anyone ?  Anyone ?  I didn’t think so.

Returning to Monday nights here on the big blue blog it’s the venerable former hit series ‘Monday Night Countdown’ !  LET’S ROLL !

This week it’s the TOP 7 Persons, Places, and Things that randomly come to my mind at this precise moment:

1.  Behnke – My brother will appreciate this one. As little kids in the late-1970s this was a fairly regular place that we (our family) used to visit to buy plants and mulch. It’s located on U.S. 1 in Beltsville Maryland. Me and my brother always pronounced it as ‘Bing-kees’.

2.  Rick Dees – ‘Alex, I’ll take ‘Famous People Who Have Influenced My Life Over The Years’ for $1,600 please.’

3.  2032 – It’s the year that I turn 65-years-old. Can I get a what-what ?

4.  Joo-Joo-Bee – It’s one of the many crazy nicknames that I had for my little feline buddy Boots (1993-2007).

5.  Hialeah – In my nearly 22 years of living here in America’s Riviera I don’t believe that I have ever stepped foot in that city.

6.  Royal – They used to totally rule the world of typewriters back in the day, and can you believe that they still make and sell them today ?

7.  Dude Walker – He was a crazy morning deejay on TOP 40 Q-107 in Washington D.C. about 30 years ago. He was teamed-up with legendary news man Doug Limerick back then.

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God History Life Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

It’s the music of my life – and Life. There’s the life that I used to know prior to the Summer of 2006, and then there’s the Life (always capitalized) of today. The soundtrack of today sounds far different than that of yesteryear. The soundtrack of today is inspired by the center of my heart and soul – my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The soundtrack of yesteryear was inspired by the world around me – a world that told me what to do, where to do it, when to do it, and how to do it. That era may be long gone – a distant memory – but it is certainly not forgotten. That era existed, and then it died.

This week’s featured song is what I refer to as a ‘Melbourne song’. It was part of the soundtrack of my life back during the wild and crazy Spring of 1993 in Melbourne Florida. A lot of good came out of that era. This blog is an offspring of the original MANx CAT BBS (dial-up bulletin board system) that was created back then. This song kept me dancing into the night. It’s AB Logic featuring singer Marianne and rapper K-Swing. Here’s their long-running International dance smash entitled “The Hitman” !

Let’s kick it:

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History Humor Movies Music People Radio Television

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

Once upon a time in the land of broadcast network prime time television there existed an abundance of good old-fashioned situation comedies with 24-minute storylines and active laugh tracks from start to finish – sometimes canned – and sometimes ‘recorded LIVE in front of a studio audience’.

The start of the 1978-1979 television season contained no less than 25 such half-hour sitcoms on the three networks at the time, and that season had 9 sitcoms occupy the TOP 10 spots in the ratings.

Sitcoms totally ruled the roost back then, but not every single one was a smash. Here’s a flop – one of the biggest of its generation. It lasted a mere 8 episodes during the Spring of 1979. It was a blatant rip-off of the box office smash “Saturday Night Fever” starring song-and-dance man David Naughton in John Travolta’s role as a disco dancer by night – and an ice cream parlor man by day. Critics trashed this show from the very start, and viewers had enough of disco music in the movies and on the radio. It just didn’t make sense to watch a disco sitcom on TV. Perhaps the most entertaining part of this show was its extended opening theme song and credits that stretched out over the course of nearly two whole minutes !  After the show was cancelled its standard-length theme song became a gold-certified TOP 5 disco smash on the radio.

Check it out – it’s the original opening theme song and credits for “Makin’ It” !

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Driving God Music Radio Travel

My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics

Last Saturday night up in Lehigh Acres Florida I went to a rock concert featuring Jubilee, Horizons Fall, and Manic Drive. All 3 bands rocked the joint hard and heavy. Jubilee screamed to the Lord Almighty, and they sounded pretty good too. Central Florida’s own Horizons Fall belted out a bunch of cool purpose-driven tracks including their emerging radio smash hit “Broken Man”. Manic Drive headlined the night. They also headlined a very special night for me nearly 33 months ago on the 20TH of January of 2007. It was the night of my very first Christian rock concert – and the very next morning I went to church for the first time in over 30 years !

Manic Drive put on a fantastic set – although it was shortened just a bit due to the fact that the lead singer was a day or two removed from being sick in bed with the flu. You could tell that he was slowly recovering and struggling just a little bit, but he was still a class act about it all. He performed admirably through the adverse conditions, and he and his bandmates made up for the lack of song performances by talking with us in-between the songs that they did perform. Good Stuff !

Here’s one of their great hits that they did NOT perform that night because it was admittingly too ‘hardcore’ for a dude that was on NyQuil. It is perhaps my all-time favourite Manic Drive song EVER !  It’s “Memories”:

I saw piercings galore, tattoos everywhere, spraypainted hair, and some other interesting creatures of the night, but through it all I saw The Holy Spirit shining through His creations as bright as can be. When it came time to speak directly to God through prayer you could hear a pin drop in that place. It was truly miraculous – like only Jesus Christ can deliver to the masses here on Earth !