Ross On Radio
@rossonradio.com
Writing about radio and music, from then and now.
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For the free, weekly Ross On Radio newsletter, sign-up here. tinyurl.com/mhcnx4u
When Casey Kasem called Michael Jackson "one of the most successful lead singers in the history of popular music," they had just hit their second anniversary as a hitmaking act. #AT40
December 6, 2025 at 6:59 PM
When Casey Kasem called Michael Jackson "one of the most successful lead singers in the history of popular music," they had just hit their second anniversary as a hitmaking act. #AT40
My personal "greatest single of all time" changes several times a week, but it always changes when I hear "Respect Yourself" again. #AT40
December 6, 2025 at 6:19 PM
My personal "greatest single of all time" changes several times a week, but it always changes when I hear "Respect Yourself" again. #AT40
Always listening for great new music. Here's the latest installment of my hits/should be hits playlist--Big Hits Energy! Shares welcomed/appreciated. #AT40 open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...
Big Hits Energy 2025
open.spotify.com
November 29, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Always listening for great new music. Here's the latest installment of my hits/should be hits playlist--Big Hits Energy! Shares welcomed/appreciated. #AT40 open.spotify.com/playlist/0Hg...
The best radio station name that I've heard in a while is a Wyoming station that was just sold today. It's not just Classic Rock. It's "Vintage Vinyl." #AT40
Wolf Creek Radio Broadcasting Expands In Laramie
Shawn Faxon's Wolf Creek Radio Broadcasting is acquiring three stations from affiliates of Northeast Digital & Wireless in Laramie WY.
Shawn Faxon's Wolf Creek Radio Broadcasting is acquiring three stations from affiliates of Northeast Digital & Wireless in Laramie WY.
Wolf Creek Radio Broadcasting Expands In Laramie
Shawn Faxon's Wolf Creek Radio Broadcasting is acquiring three stations from affiliates of Northeast Digital & Wireless in Laramie WY.
radioinsight.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:12 AM
The best radio station name that I've heard in a while is a Wyoming station that was just sold today. It's not just Classic Rock. It's "Vintage Vinyl." #AT40
I don't do a lot of interviews with artists or radio people. I was particularly proud of this one. #AT40
Tommy Roe On “Bubble Pop Rock” by @RossOnRadio.com
Tommy Roe On “Bubble Pop Rock”
When the No. 1 success of “Sheila” launched Tommy Roe’s career in 1962, it did so with the help not just of radio, but two of radio history’s biggest names. In 1960, Roe promoted his first version of “Sheila” on Baltimore’s Buddy Dean Show. Two years later, then-WGST Atlanta DJ Paul Drew booked him for a local dance party that led to meeting producer Felton Jarvis, signing to ABC, and re-recording “Sheila,” initially the B-side of “Save Your Kisses.”
radioinsight.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:49 PM
I don't do a lot of interviews with artists or radio people. I was particularly proud of this one. #AT40
In advance of the Stranger Things premiere, one of the UK's major broadcasters has launched an '80s radio channel based on the station in the TV show. #StrangerThings
November 25, 2025 at 2:08 AM
In advance of the Stranger Things premiere, one of the UK's major broadcasters has launched an '80s radio channel based on the station in the TV show. #StrangerThings
There's always somebody who doesn't like any song, but the first hour of today's #AT40 is going to be pretty solid all through the not-so-dirty-thirty.
#AT40 crew: this weekend’s countdown is 11/17/1973. Enjoy and I’ll look for your posts!
November 22, 2025 at 3:06 PM
There's always somebody who doesn't like any song, but the first hour of today's #AT40 is going to be pretty solid all through the not-so-dirty-thirty.
You can't tell from just the snatch of artwork below, but somebody finally wrote a (pop/punk) Christmas song called "Merry Xmas, You Filthy Animals." You can hear it, and other new holiday songs, through the article below. #AT40
What’s Underneath the Tree in 2025? by @RossOnRadio.com
What’s Underneath the Tree in 2025?
We know it’s hard to write a new holiday classic or even get traction at holiday radio with a new version of a standard. Even so, holiday music rewards those who do want something new every year with a steady stream of new releases that would be the envy of any contemporary format.
radioinsight.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:09 PM
You can't tell from just the snatch of artwork below, but somebody finally wrote a (pop/punk) Christmas song called "Merry Xmas, You Filthy Animals." You can hear it, and other new holiday songs, through the article below. #AT40
"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" is so versatile that it was also the Floaters' follow-up to "Float On." #AT40
www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcP...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcP...
The Floaters - You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
YouTube video by Granuhha
www.youtube.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:46 AM
"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" is so versatile that it was also the Floaters' follow-up to "Float On." #AT40
www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcP...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcP...
Before I heard this episode of #AT40, I learned "Patch It Up" from Australian oldies stations, where it was a much bigger hit. Another one that Eddie Rabbitt wrote for Elvis.
November 21, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Before I heard this episode of #AT40, I learned "Patch It Up" from Australian oldies stations, where it was a much bigger hit. Another one that Eddie Rabbitt wrote for Elvis.
What you're hearing on #AT40 -- Casey going into "Abraxis" to play "Oye Como Va" as an album cut is typical of what Top 40 radio was going through then. For a few years, AM radio struggled to figure out what rock records to cross over, not unlike Top 40 trying to choose music from TikTok now.
November 21, 2025 at 3:24 AM
What you're hearing on #AT40 -- Casey going into "Abraxis" to play "Oye Como Va" as an album cut is typical of what Top 40 radio was going through then. For a few years, AM radio struggled to figure out what rock records to cross over, not unlike Top 40 trying to choose music from TikTok now.
I'm scheduling a Classic Hits station. I decided to replace Meatloaf's five-minute '90s ballad and as I did I thought "...but I won't do that." #AT40
November 17, 2025 at 11:18 PM
I'm scheduling a Classic Hits station. I decided to replace Meatloaf's five-minute '90s ballad and as I did I thought "...but I won't do that." #AT40
After "The Way I Want to Touch You," "Muskrat Love," "Do That to Me One More Time," and this, you would have thought that Captain & Tennille had a *great* private life. #AT40
"You Never Done It Like That" by Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille climbs a spot to #11. #AT40
youtu.be/zutmvR0zK1I?...
youtu.be/zutmvR0zK1I?...
Captain & Tennille - You Never Done It Like That (1978)
YouTube video by Classic Sounds 70s
youtu.be
November 15, 2025 at 7:04 PM
After "The Way I Want to Touch You," "Muskrat Love," "Do That to Me One More Time," and this, you would have thought that Captain & Tennille had a *great* private life. #AT40
I saw Al Stewart a decade ago and he complained (good naturedly) about still having to sing "Time Passages," which he considered a trifle. Said it was like Chuck Berry having his biggest hit with "My Ding A Ling." #AT40
November 15, 2025 at 6:42 PM
I saw Al Stewart a decade ago and he complained (good naturedly) about still having to sing "Time Passages," which he considered a trifle. Said it was like Chuck Berry having his biggest hit with "My Ding A Ling." #AT40
"Strange Way" by Firefall is a favorite and very much in that category of songs that are exactly why we need an #AT40 reruns and Saturday thread.
November 15, 2025 at 6:29 PM
"Strange Way" by Firefall is a favorite and very much in that category of songs that are exactly why we need an #AT40 reruns and Saturday thread.
For years, "Straight On" and "Dog & Butterfly" were the last two Heart hits that counted as Canadian Content before they left their boyfriends and returned to America. About a decade ago, it was decided that they had left earlier, so now Cancon Heart stops with "Heartless," from summer '78. #AT40
November 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM
For years, "Straight On" and "Dog & Butterfly" were the last two Heart hits that counted as Canadian Content before they left their boyfriends and returned to America. About a decade ago, it was decided that they had left earlier, so now Cancon Heart stops with "Heartless," from summer '78. #AT40
A little weekend reading for anybody now thinking about how Taste of Honey won the new artist Grammy over Elvis Costello or the Cars. #AT40 radioinsight.com/blogs/320021...
Confessions of a Former Grammy Voter - RadioInsight
I became a Grammy voter in 2001. That was the year the Album of the Year award went to Steely Dan over Eminem, Beck, Radiohead, or Paul Simon. In the intervening years, Two Against Nature has hardly r...
radioinsight.com
November 15, 2025 at 6:04 PM
A little weekend reading for anybody now thinking about how Taste of Honey won the new artist Grammy over Elvis Costello or the Cars. #AT40 radioinsight.com/blogs/320021...
Eric Carmen's career was very heavily built on genre exercises and soundalikes--Beatlesque, Specteroid. Realizing this morning that "Change of Heart" (despite another classical riff) is basically his Hall & Oates record (and slightly bigger than the real Hall & Oates song). #AT40
November 15, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Eric Carmen's career was very heavily built on genre exercises and soundalikes--Beatlesque, Specteroid. Realizing this morning that "Change of Heart" (despite another classical riff) is basically his Hall & Oates record (and slightly bigger than the real Hall & Oates song). #AT40
Fall '78 was funk's peak moment. There were multiple Parliament/Funkadelic spin-offs and copycats on R&B radio. "One Nation Under a Groove" stands out on #AT40 but there was a lot of cosmic sloppiness at the moment.
November 15, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Fall '78 was funk's peak moment. There were multiple Parliament/Funkadelic spin-offs and copycats on R&B radio. "One Nation Under a Groove" stands out on #AT40 but there was a lot of cosmic sloppiness at the moment.
Stephen Bishop's "Everybody Needs Love" must have begun with him telling the bassist "just play the 'You Keep Me Hanging On' opening riff until we find a groove." #AT40
November 15, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Stephen Bishop's "Everybody Needs Love" must have begun with him telling the bassist "just play the 'You Keep Me Hanging On' opening riff until we find a groove." #AT40
I found Crystal Gayle very appealing, but I didn't much like her snoozy ballads. But I was also listening to Country in fall '78--rare for a teenager--and the follow-up to "Talking in Your Sleep" was pretty hot for Country at the time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUQ...
Crystal Gayle - Why have you left the one you left me for
YouTube video by crystalsolidgold
www.youtube.com
November 15, 2025 at 5:21 PM
I found Crystal Gayle very appealing, but I didn't much like her snoozy ballads. But I was also listening to Country in fall '78--rare for a teenager--and the follow-up to "Talking in Your Sleep" was pretty hot for Country at the time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUQ...
I had a great senior year of high-school, driven, in part, by putting even more distance from 6th/7th grade. There's a lot of music in this week's #AT40 that I don't really like ("My Life" for instance), but I didn't mind, because I was in a good mood.
November 15, 2025 at 5:09 PM
I had a great senior year of high-school, driven, in part, by putting even more distance from 6th/7th grade. There's a lot of music in this week's #AT40 that I don't really like ("My Life" for instance), but I didn't mind, because I was in a good mood.
Just for some perspective, before writing an anti-McCarthy song that would be hard to imagine today, Gene Cotton had recording Christian music. #AT40
November 15, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Just for some perspective, before writing an anti-McCarthy song that would be hard to imagine today, Gene Cotton had recording Christian music. #AT40
It is three whole days into Christmas radio and I have finally heard "Last Christmas" into "This Christmas" (the Mary J. Blige version). #MomentsOfMusicSchedulingGrace
November 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
It is three whole days into Christmas radio and I have finally heard "Last Christmas" into "This Christmas" (the Mary J. Blige version). #MomentsOfMusicSchedulingGrace