COPYWRIGHT 2005
By Gary Shannon olid Gold Friends I have a great group of friends and I’m proud to say that that circle includes doctors, lawyers, mayors and senators. I don’t say that to impress you. I say that so that I can add that, within my circle of friends, I feel like the village idiot. And yet, most of my friends think I have the greatest job in the world. Maybe I do. I can identify with their line of thinking because I once thought the same thing about another radio personality. Back in the early 80’s I took a long weekend and drove to Woodville, Texas to visit relatives. Now, Woodville is a beautiful place but, there is nothing to do there on a Saturday night so I decided to check out the radio offerings. I had all but given up on finding anything but country music when I heard Bobby Vee’s “Rubber Ball” coming from the speakers. That was the first time I ever heard Dick Bartley. At the time, he was hosting the nationally syndicated “Solid Gold Saturday Night.” As I drove around listening to his show I recall thinking, “That guy has the best job in the world.” Not only did he have the best job in the world, he seemed to know and appreciate the fact. The music was great but what made the show was his obvious love and knowledge of the music. Listening to Dick was like listening to an old friend play your favorite songs just for you. I recall going to a high school reunion a year or so later and having more than one person ask, “Have you ever met Dick Bartley?” To my old high school buddies, Dick wasn’t just a radio personality; he was a friend with a great record collection. They were all quite disappointed to find that I didn’t know Dick and had never even spoken to him. A few years later all that changed. La 92.9 had just come into existence and we were planning to do an old fashioned record hop when my good friend and coworker Bryan Taylor said, “Call Dick Bartley and see if he does that sort of thing.” I recall thinking “Yeah, right, I’ll just pick up the phone and give Dick a call. When he hangs up on me, I can at least say to my high school friends, ‘Dick Bartley? Why sure, I called him just last week’.” Cutting to the chase, I called and found that Dick Bartley has no ego. None. He doesn’t think of himself as a celebrity or a radio
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star. He thinks of himself as a husband and father first, and a radio guy who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I think he “doth protest too much.” Dick is one of the best in the business and young people who are considering entering this profession need to tune in “Rock and Roll’s Greatest Hits” and hear how it’s done. Over the years, I’ve stolen from the best and I’d say that Ron Chapman in Dallas and Dick Bartley are the best this business has to offer. I have a reputation (foisted quite a bit by John Bridges on “7 News Sunrise” constantly suggesting that I be given a call to answer a trivia question) as being an oldies expert. Now, I will admit to knowing quite a bit about the genre but a lot of what I know I learned by listening to Dick Bartley. Not only did I steal some of his factual knowledge of the music, I also copied, to a certain extent, his delivery. Not that I compare myself to him, I just learned from him that the best approach is “just be yourself.” LA 92.9 recently brought Dick back to town to host our “Summer Bash ‘05” dance party. The listeners came out in droves to dance and just have a good time. As usual, there was a line of people wanting to take pictures with Dick Bartley. No one goes home disappointed. There was something in the air at the “Summer Bash” I can’t quite describe. There was a sense of unity, of belonging. It was like a High School reunion in that we all seemed to have a common bond and yet there was more to it than that. The dance was scheduled to end at 11 o’ clock but no one wanted to leave. We decided to stay an extra hour and the crowd seemed to love that. Here we are, all grown up and we get to stay out an extra hour! It was a great evening thanks to the music, Dick Bartley, and our incredible listeners. For those of us who love oldies, Dick Bartley is our “connection” or “dealer”, if you will (and even if you won’t). Week after week, he comes into our homes and plays the same songs we’ve all heard a thousand times and yet, just by being there he makes them come alive again. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Dick Bartley is my friend. I’m proud to say that. Plus, I do have a high school reunion coming up!
**Nextel also imposes a Federal Programs Cost Recovery (FPCR) fee of $1.55 or $2.83. The FPCR is not a tax or government required charge. Offers expire June 30, 2005. $25 Mail-In Rebate: Allow 8-12 weeks after new activation and mailing in of a complete and valid rebate form. Not available in all markets. Full terms and conditions on rebate form or visit nextel.com/rebates. Offer available only when new activation is purchased through Nextel Partners’ local direct, local indirect and Las Vegas Telesales. National Achiever Plan: One year contract required. Caller ID information is not available on all calls. Additional Fees: $200 early termination and up to $35 setup fee per phone. Shipping charge of $14.99/month may apply. Monthly bills include fees to cover our costs of complying with federal programs, up to 1.5% per bill and $2.83 per phone. Fees for state and local programs may apply (vary by area), plus government taxes/fees. Cellular: Overage($0.45/min.). Partial minutes charged as full minutes. Nights (9:00pm to 7:00am), Weekends (Fri. 9:00pm to Mon. 7:00am). Bonus minutes do not share. Walkie-Talkie: Nationwide walkie-talkie ($0.10/min.) times number of participants. Offer available only when new activation is purchased through Nextel Partners’ local direct, local indirect and Nextel Partners’ company stores. Unused minutes do not accumulate to the next billing cycle. Cellular minutes share with same plans on the same account only. Direct Connect minutes are available in your local calling area only. TeleNav: First 60 days of TeleNav service are free with new Nextel service activation. After the initial 60-day trial period, a monthly fee of $9.99 will apply unless you cancel by contacting Nextel Customer Care at 1-888-566-6111. TeleNav offer includes 0.5MB of data (@ 10 routes per month). An overage rate of $0.01/kb applies. Service available only on GPS, Java-enabled handsets. Not available to Major w/VPL, corporate, strategic accounts and public sector customers. TeleNav service available only in the United States. Terms and conditions of use will apply and must be agreed to prior to activating the TeleNav service. Additional restrictions may apply. Please call your Nextel Customer Care Representative at 1-88-566-6111 for plan details and requirements. Nextel reserves the right to cancel/extend offers without notice. Offers may not be available in all markets. Nextel’s Nationwide Network serves 297 of the top 300 markets. ©2005 Nextel Partners, Inc. Nextel, Direct Connect and the Driver Safety logo are service marks, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Nextel Communications, In. MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
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