Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Fake THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Playlist: As Heard On Buffalo's WBNY-FM In The 1980s

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl is simply too large a concept to be neatly contained within a mere three-hour weekly time slot. Hence these occasional fake TIRnRR playlists, detailing shows we're never really going to do...but could.

Yep. I was there. Green Jello played, too.

I lived in Buffalo from late summer of 1982 until not-quite-spring of 1987. The story of my life in Buffalo is told in a memoir called The Road To GOLDMINE. And one of its highlights was listening to WBNY-FM.

BNY was the student-operated station at Buffalo State College, but its adventurous New Music Radio format was fascinating to this twenty-something non-student. When I look back at the radio stations that influenced my half of the gestalt and pepper that sparked This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl, I can still see and appreciate the ongoing impact of WBNY. 

Tina Peel's Hullaballoo au Go-Go. Cal Zone!'s Down At Lulu's. The Tom Calderone Variety Show. Heather Holland-Hyphen, aka the Coffee Orphan. I listened to WBNY all the time. I remember calling in when Tina Peel was attempting to play Mad Libs on the air, and I contributed answers like Micky Dolenz and Rock 'em Sock 'Em Robots. I remember making too-frequent requests for Translator and X, prompting the jocks to beg me to please request something else. I won tickets to see the Waitresses and the Bangles. I turned on that Buffalo station, and couldn't believe what I heard at all.

This was great radio, served up by a great radio station. WBNY even gave the world my own first-ever attempts at hosting radio shows, when I did a pair of guest appearances on WBNY's amateur DJ series Ha! Ha! I'm On The Radio. The roots of 50% of TIRnRR.

If I had to specify the radio stations that had the most significant influence on whoever the hell I am and whatever the hell I've done, WBNY-FM would be lodged alongside the formative impact of Syracuse's WOLF-AM and WNDR-AM Classic Top 40 in the early to mid 1970s and the freer-form vistas of Utica's WOUR-FM circa '76-'78, with an honorable mention to WBSU in Brockport. Yeah, WBNY was that important to me.

So here's a playlist built with tracks my rock or roll memory bank--that's an in-joke--insists I heard on WBNY. I am not under oath, and I concede the possibility/probability this includes stuff I heard on other Buffalo stations, from WUWU-FM to 14 Rock AM to 97 Rock

But it's mostly WBNY. And together, it all sounds like a time capsule of my experience as a WBNY listener in the '80s. 

New Music Radio. 

Decades later, it still feels fresh to me.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl--y'know, the real one--airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download
Volume 5: CD or download

PS: SEND MONEY!!!! We need tech upgrades like Elvis needs boats. Spark Syracuse is supported by listeners like you. Tax-deductible donations are welcome at 
http://sparksyracuse.org/support/

Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! 

You can follow Carl's daily blog Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) at 
https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/

FAKE TIRnRR PLAYLIST:  As Heard On Buffalo's WBNY-FM

LYRES: Really Want You Right Now
ROKY ERICKSON: Don't Slander Me
X: True Love
RUN DMC: Rock Box
THE BANGLES: All About You
THE TIME: Ice Cream Castles
--
THE LONG RYDERS: Looking For Lewis And Clark
R.E.M.: Driver 8
UB40: Red Red Wine
GRAHAM PARKER: Life Gets Better
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN: The Cutter
THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR: 25 O'Clock
--
GRANDMASTER AND MELLE ME: White Line (Don't Don't Do It)
THE LOLLIPOP SHOPPE: You Must Be A Witch
LET'S ACTIVE: Blue Line
INTERGALACTIC BURNT TOAST: Butter Me Baby
HAWAIIAN PUPS: Baby Judy
THE CURE: Let's Go To Bed
--
THE FUZZTONES: Bad News Travels Fast
BLACK FLAG: TV Party
HERMAN'S HERMITS: I'm Henry VIII, I Am
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES: Institutionalized
ROBYN HITCHCOCK: Uncorrected Personality Traits
THE SMITHS: How Soon Is Now
--
HÜSKER DÜ: Eight Miles High
TOY DOLLS: Nellie The Elephant
THE CHESTERFIELD KINGS: I've Gotta Way With Girls
THE WAITRESSES: No Guilt
THE RAMONES: Street Fighting Man
DIVINE SOUNDS: What People Do For Money
--
TEENAGE HEADS: Tornado
HILARY: Drop Your Pants
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES: Christine
VIOLENT FEMMES: Blister In The Sun
DOMINATRIX: The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight
THE B-52'S: Legal Tender
--
TRANSLATOR: Everywhere That I'm Not
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK: Genetic Engineering
DIVINYLS: Boys In Town
ALISON MOYET: Love Resurrection
THE dB'S: Love Is For Lovers
ULTRAVOX: Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
--
THE HOODOO GURUS: Let's All Turn On
THE DEAD KENNEDYS: MTV Get Off The Air
SCRITTI POLITTI: Perfect Way
OH-OK: Such N Such
RED ROCKERS: China
JOAN ARMATRADING: Me Myself I
--
RAINY DAY: I'll Be Your Mirror
THE THREE O'CLOCK: Jet Fighter
WIRE TRAIN: Chamber Of Hellos
X: Wild Thing
THE STRANGLERS: Skin Deep
THE NOMADS: Have Love Will Travel
THE REDUCERS: Let's Go
THE FLESHTONES: American Beat '84
--
JON AND THE NIGHTRIDERS: Charge Of The Nightriders

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