Category: Radio

Kings Dominion

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 26, 2022

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Kings Dominion is a fun seasonal amusement park located between Washington D.C. and Richmond Virginia (much closer to Richmond) right along I-95. The 280-acre park opened on May 03RD 1975 – the same exact date that my little brother was born. Starting in the late-1970s and continuing into the mid-1980s me and my family would visit the park every few summers. We would actually alternate between Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens near Williamsburg Virginia (opened 13 days after Kings Dominion), and Hershey Park in Pennsylvania (opened 116 years ago this weekend).

Kings Dominion is generally open starting in mid-March – weekends only at first, and then daily from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend. The park returns to weekends only during the Autumn months. It’s also open during Christmas and New Year’s Week for festive displays and events known as #WinterFest.

Me and my brother always had a lot of fun roaming around the park and riding all of the rides. My parents were there for the shows, shops, and restaurants.

There are still some original rides from the 1975 opening including what used to be the “Rebel Yell” rollercoaster – now known as the “Racer 75”. It rises to a height of 85 feet, and it drops 81 of those 85 feet at a top speed of 56 MPH. That was perhaps the first rollercoaster I ever rode on. It was scary back then, and I wouldn’t ride it today because – well – it’s still scary. (And nowadays I get motion sickness very easily on those types of rides.)

That’s me as a teenager in the early-1980s atop the Eiffel Tower – a one-third replica of the real thing – standing tall at 314 feet. (The observation decks are 40 feet below the top.)

So 26 years ago this week (leading-up to Memorial Day Weekend) was my final visit with my brother to Kings Dominion. My brother won a radio contest on Washington rock station #DC101 – two free tickets to Kings Dominion – where you got to go there as VIPs before the park opened to participate in a “Mission: Impossible” scavenger hunt all throughout the park. (The Tom Cruise movie premiered at the box office that week.) Me and my brother drove down to the park on an unseasonably chilly and drizzly day, and we had lots of fun with the scavenger hunt and the rides on that day.

A lot of fun family memories at Kings Dominion. It’s good to see it still thriving with new generations of families 47 years later.

Next #TravelThursday we’ll visit Chicopee Massachusetts. Let’s keep traveling together.

Tags Kings Dominion, Virginia

Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio Television

My Top 10 Hits – Week 275

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 23, 2022

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back nearly 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday May 22ND 2022 – the 275TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW	LW	WKS	SONG TITLE	ARTIST / SITE
1	1	11	Egypt [2ND week @ # 1]	Cory Asbury
2	4	15	Sunday Sermons	Anne Wilson
3	5	9	Fill My Cup	Andrew Ripp
4	3	17	See Me Through It	Brandon Heath
5	2	9	Wonder Working	All Creatures
6	6	3	Honey In The Rock	Brooke Ligertwood Ft. Brandon Lake
7	7	3	Me On Your Mind	Matthew West
8	8	17	Brighter Days	Blessing Offor
9	9	2	For God Is With Us	for King + Country
10	–	1	I Will Carry You	Ellie Holcomb

# 1 This Week In:
2021 – “Help Is On The Way (Maybe Midnight)” – TobyMac
2020 – “I Will Fear No More” – The Afters
2019 – “Alive” – Big Daddy Weave
2018 – “The Way (New Horizon)” – Pat Barrett
2017 – “Oh My Soul” – Casting Crowns

MATTHEW WEST – My favorite singer over the past 275 weeks is on my chart with his 7TH single – “Me On Your Mind”. It’s a non-album single that may be on Matthew’s next album. (His previous album – “Brand New” – yielded 3 hit singles – “The God Who Stays” (# 1), “Truth Be Told” (# 2 for 5 weeks), and “What If” (# 1).

K-LOVE FAN AWARDS – I’ve voted, and I’m ready for another fun awards show from my favorite radio station on my favorite cable network. It occurs during this Memorial Day Weekend in Nashville – hosted by Matthew West. You can watch the 2-hour broadcast the following weekend on TBN. It’ll air twice in a row at 8 PM and 10 PM EDT on Friday June 03RD 2022. During the 8 PM broadcast I’ll be live-tweeting at my Twitter account @ChrisMDay. I’ll use the hashtag #KLOVEFanAwards so that you can follow along via your favorite Twitter app. You can also follow along at the bottom of this blog, and just keep refreshing every minute or so to see the latest tweets.

SUMMER OF 2022 – Summer begins with next weekend’s chart, and it continues for the next 14 weeks after that. On Tuesday September 06TH I’ll present a special chart featuring my Top 10 hits of the Summer (from U.S. Memorial Day Weekend to U.S. Labor Day Weekend). Maybe my # 1 song of the Summer is on this week’s chart ?

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 5 new entries – known as #TravelThursday, #RetroFriday, #SundayScripture, a special #MemorialDay, and #Top10Monday on Tuesday May 31ST.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends ! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Tags Blog, Chart, Christian, God, Jesus, KLOVE, Matthew West, Music, Radio, TBN, WGTS

1990s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1992

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 20, 2022

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday May 24TH 1992:

“Jump” – Kris Kross
“Live And Learn” – Joe Public
“Good For Me” – Amy Grant
“To Be With You” – Mr. Big
“Tears In Heaven” – Eric Clapton

Amy Grant was on a hot streak for a couple of years at the start of the 1990s. Her “Heart In Motion” album dropped in March 1991, and it went on to become a quintuple-platinum seller. It spawned 7 singles (out of 11 on the album). 6 of the 7 were hits at U.S. Christian Radio, and 5 of the 7 were hits at U.S. Mainstream Pop Radio.

The one single that failed to make an impact at U.S. Christian Radio was perhaps her hardest-sounding track – “Good For Me”. There were several versions / mixes of “Good For Me” at the time – a slower version for U.S. Adult Contemporary and Hot Adult Contemporary radio stations, and an edgier and more rock-sounding “Good For You” mix that was perfect for U.S. Top 40 radio stations. There were even dance remixes for weekend radio mix shows after dark and even dance clubs.

“Good For Me” was a bit over the edge for U.S. Christian Radio, but secular radio ran with it with excellent results through much of 1992. It was not a hit anywhere else in the world – just stateside.

On a final note – Eric Clapton’s “Tears In Heaven” continues in heavy rotation on my iPod Shuffles that play at my desk at my workplace. Every time it plays I sing along – and my eyes get wet.

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 35 years ago to the end of May 1987. It’s the week that a U.K. # 1 smash / U.S. Top 10 smash from 1965 – hit # 1 on my chart. How unusual.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

Tags 1992, Music, Radio

Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 274

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 16, 2022

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back nearly 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday May 15TH 2022 – the 274TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW	LW	WKS	SONG TITLE	ARTIST / SITE
1	3	10	Egypt [1ST week @ # 1]	Cory Asbury
2	1	8	Wonder Working	All Creatures
3	2	16	See Me Through It	Brandon Heath
4	5	14	Sunday Sermons	Anne Wilson
5	4	8	Fill My Cup	Andrew Ripp
6	9	2	Honey In The Rock	Brooke Ligertwood Ft. Brandon Lake
7	10	2	Me On Your Mind	Matthew West
8	6	16	Brighter Days	Blessing Offor
9	–	1	For God Is With Us	for King + Country
10	8	9	Fake It	Tauren Wells

EGYPT – Cory Asbury’s 4TH hit on my chart is my new # 1 smash. It’s an unlikely # 1 smash in that it spent its first 5 weeks on my chart struggling between # 10 and # 9 due mostly to lack of radio airplay. By Week 6 it was starting to make its move up my chart. It’s actually been around for a while. It was unsuspectingly conceived in 2017 at a church service. It was released as a 6:22 LIVE single at the start of the COVID pandemic. During the Summer of 2021 it was released again as a single – this time as a shortened 3:20 studio version. That version soon began playing on the radio, and now some 9 months later it tops my chart. Although officially identified as a recurrent nowadays – it’s still a Top 20 radio hit nationwide.

SUNDAY SERMONS – It was a Saturday night surprise. Just as I was getting ready to shut everything down and go to bed this past Saturday night I got several text messages all at once from my Pastor and his family asking if I could preach the next morning. And so I did – for the 3RD Sunday in a row. I preached a continuation of my sermon from the previous Sunday – “People & Places”. It was an unrehearsed, unwritten, and spontaneous-from-the-heart message on recent people and places on my journey. Praise & Worship consisted of 3 music videos – “House Of The Lord” (Phil Wickham), “Magnify” (We Are Messengers), and “Sunday Sermons” (Anne Wilson).

This is usually the end of another weekend of blog posts, but not this weekend. I’ll have another one tomorrow – a special #BonusTuesday post. The next day – a new weekend begins with a special #BonusWednesday post.

Be blessed my friends ! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.