November 5, 2007
The Danger of Recorded Material
I was reading a post over at J’s place about making mix tapes today. I doubt kids these days even know what that means. These days, kids just make play lists on their MP3 players, something I’m still trying to figure out how to do. They don’t have to worry about missing the beginning or ending of songs, or about some DJ screwing up the last couple lines for you. Making a good mix tape off the radio was a major accomplishment back in my day.
Sometimes, if I was drowning in algebra homework, I’d just put a tape in and record the entire Top 9 at 9 (or something like that) program on my local radio station, while I sat at the dining room table with my dad and rolled my eyes a lot. Sure, the recording had commercials and lots of DJ talking but I could get the top songs, listen to them later, AND get to hear if any random boys were dedicating "Please Don’t Go Girl" (New Kids on the Block) to me. (Just in case you have no clue what I’m talking about, and for your listening pleasure, because I swear it is still a good song. . .)
On one particular occasion, my mix tape was awesome! The Top 9 at 9 had featured all of the coolest songs like "Toy Soldier" for example. I was hanging out in my bedroom, listening to the taped program after school, when the DJ said that it was time for listeners to call in for a chance to win New Kids on the Block tickets. They were looking for the 102nd caller.
I frantically rushed to my parents bedroom and started dialing the radio station’s number. I knew it by heart from requesting stupid New Kids on the Block songs on a regular basis. If speed dial had existed back then, they would have been my #1. When calling during a contest such as this, it was quite common to get a busy signal until the DJ announced there was a winner; but my call went through and before I knew it the DJ had picked up the phone!
"Oh MY GOD!" I screamed. "AM I THE 102ND CALLER?????"
I was leaping for joy and imagining meeting and marrying Donnie Wahlberg when the DJ wrecked my fun.
"What?" he said with complete confusion and a dash of attitude.
"AM I THE 102ND CALLER?" I yelled again.
And it was at that very moment that the tape player in my bedroom next door clicked to signal that I needed to flip the tape over. I needed to flip the tape over, and I really needed to hang up the phone. I slammed down the phone and died a little bit of embarrassment.
Since I wasn’t listening live that day, I’ll never know if I was on the radio live or not. I really hope not. If I was, I’m sure that the DJ and the listeners got quite a treat that day, and I don’t think I ever called into another radio station again.
MP3 Players are society’s way of making sure teenagers don’t suffer any unnecessary blows to the ego. Kids these days don’t know how good they have it.
What’s something dumb that you did as a kid?
Comments
Copyright
© Copyright 2006-2019 blackbeltmama dot com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Follow Me
Blog Designed By
My Creations
Things You Could Care Less About
Oh, I remember the week that the New Kids on the Block were popular! I think I was only 10, and our next door neighbors had four daughters ranging from 11 to high school. I think the middle two girls liked those kids. Now that I see the video, I can really see that the lead singer was like 12. Geez! That kind of disturbs me to see a little boy singing a song some adult wrote about loving and being best friends with a girl. It would be a little early for that kid to be looking at girls in that way. Somebody was pushing him to use his pre-pubescent voice to make little girls swoon so the kids’ managers could bank. Popular music does tend to suck, in my humble oppinion. Those boys fell out of fame much faster than Hanson and the idiots who did the Macarena and Who Let the Dogs Out. Back in those days, it was all about Mr. MC Hammer!
that is HILARIOUS!!
Hey, my hard work went into building the tapes off of vinyl.
I didn’t pull much off the radio, but I still have tapes floating around somewhere that are all full of the lovely scratches and pops that only an LP can provide :-).
I have to admit that I do like the playlists a lot better (especially since I can just burn them to CD if needed), but there was something about trying to get just the needle at the right point on the turntable to record your song that was so satisfying (because nobody wanted to listen to the song ahead of what you wanted to tape).
Hope the knee is doing better today.
🙁 I tried and tried to comment…had a big long one, and it never posted. Grrr.
The gist was that there is something lost without tapes, I think…I like finding a tape that I made 10 years ago, in the bottom of a drawer or something, and playing it and being transported back in time. The playlist can’t compete.
I am a HUGE Sammy Hagar fan. (Even have a self-designed tattoo to prove it. When I first became a Sammy fan, I went to a concert at a huge stadium in my city for a “SUPERJAM” concert. I was about 12 or 13 and at the time, he had an album out titled “All Nite Long” Well, I made a red (of course) tshirt – very form fitting that said “I want Sammy Hagar All Nite Long” across certain well developed assets. I got MANY comments (I always looked older than I was – thank God that trait seems to have reversed with age! LOL
That was so funny! I do remember making tapes from the radio. I still have some of them, too. I don’t really remember NKOB. I was in my 20s when they came out, and was too old to be interested.
I remember mix tapes well. A well put together mix tape was the best way to tell a girl how much she meant to you! Natalie was like putty in my hands when I gave her a mix tape with nothing but slow songs. 🙂
Then when CDs came around, making a mix tape took on a whole new meaning… giving rise to boxes full of tapes called things like “Steve’s Funk Mix” or the “Mine goes to 11 Mix.” I still have some of those tapes in a box somewhere. 🙂
Stuck scissors in my eye? No, that was more frustration than stupidity. Fell out of a tree and got a concussion and six stitches while losing all memories from the remaining half of the day? No, that was the tree’s fault; that was a defective branch I was standing on. Hm. I guess I didn’t really do anything stupid then.
Oh dear oh dear, what did you do BBM? 😀
Now to see if I can come up with something equally as stupi…. ‘quirky’ today.