michaelmcdowell's Blog

I could not have said it better. I've heard the best DJs of the rock and roll era at their peak, from Alan Freed to Dick Biondi to Chuck Leonard to Dave Hull to Tom Shannon. And I would concur that nobody but nobody ever graced a microphone with more intelligence, innovation, personality, charisma and passion than did the great Scott Regen.

I have said that in my professional career that WKNR remains to this day my greatest inspiration. More specifically, their back to back to back slots by Bob Green, Scotty and J. Michael Wilson represent radio at its absolute peak. And although this is really, really splitting hairs (given the magnitude of talent at hand), of those three, Scott Regen is simply the best there ever was and ever will be.

God bless Scott Regen! And thank you, Scott for the indelible impression that you left upon all of us. More than 40 years after the fact, you remain the standard of excellence in radio.

You are of course right on the money with respect to point four about radio long having ceased to be a viable source for worthwhile new music. Everyone's perspective as to when that happened is of course subjective. But suffice to say that the days when stations like WKNR were blessed with an abundance of great new releases have long passed.

On the other hand, there's your "Music must be free or close to it" observation. I beg to differ. Music being free isn't going to do the artist much good when it comes time for them to pay their bills. Would you tell the person who paints your garage that you like their work, but that you aren't going to pay them? Would you tell your plumber that they did a great job putting in new pipes, but you don't feel the need to compensate them? Musicians have a right to a salary as does anyone else. I'm sure you wouldn't be too happy if your source of income dried up simply because the one who provides it doesn't feel like giving it to you anymore.

It's odd that so many of these sites omit information on Tino And The Revlons. Granted, the band was based in New York. But they recorded for Chet Kajeski's Dearborn label and played prolifically in the Detroit area.

Their "Little Girl, Little Girl" single on Dearborn remains a monster garage band classic. Ironically, Keener didn't seem to think too highly of it, though. It only charted for two weeks (31 to 28) and during the second week when it was #28, the last week's position in parentheses showed a blank instead of #31.

It definitely got lost in the shuffle, in view of the tremendous amount of great records all vying for one of those 32 spots on the Keener charts that month. An amazing record, nonetheless.

Micky Dolenz isn't old. He's timeless. The Monkees were definitely one of the best bands of the 20th century, as those of us who saw them live can readily affirm.