The time is July 31, 2028.
Sam Shuler Jr.: “You like this music on the radio? I never heard such a bunch of nothing in my life.”
Bill Till Jr.: “I asked Bill III if he likes it, all those crazy sounds. He said, ‘Yeah, Daddy, I think it’s great.’ And you know what they call it? ‘Rag Beat.’”
Sam Jr.: “Turn on the Earadio and you get nothing else.”
Bill Jr.: “Have you heard that woman singer, Patsy Bigger, they all like so much? She sounds like a snake who’s suddenly gotten a voice.”
Go back. The time is July 31, 2008.
Sam Shuler Sr.: “I haven’t heard a decent song on my car radio in ten years. I asked Sam Jr. what the name of one was, and he said, ‘That’s “Bubbly” by Colbie Caillat -- number one on the charts.’”
Bill Till Sr.: “Remember those songs we used to shag to? I bet Frank Sinatra is turning over in his grave.”
Baby boomers bonanza
Radio - in fact, all popular music has changed again.
According to Marion Garris, president of WORG, “We play mostly for a prime audience between 25 and 54, who used to be the baby boomers. It’s a broad-based musical format. Not so much rock and roll, but modern romantic music with a lot of different rhythms.
“We still play songs that go back to the 1960s. At the moment ‘Stand By Me’ by Ben E. King is still popular. ‘Pretty Woman’ by Roy Orbison gets requests. And, of course, a lot of more recent hits,
“Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield, “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis and KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.”
Note: This sounds zany? Just read on.
“The Eagles, Elton John and Billy Joel still have audiences out there too.”
Though not exactly “Shine On Harvest Moon” (1907) or “Flat Foot Floogie With The Floy, Floy” (1938), the composers, who dig the current notes, keep rolling out new stuff. Present-day Americans seem to prefer tunes that are not too sophisticated, only mildly sweet, but full of rhythm and repetition.
Orangeburg has six radio stations: WSPX and WPJK, which broadcast mostly gospel; WQKI, mostly urban songs; WWBD, dedicated largely to a rock repertoire; and WORG and WGFG which favor contemporary recordings (movie themes; popular artists). All have their own audiences.
Tapping local tastes
“Because no local surveys are taken, we pretty much depend on weekly trade papers,” Marion says. “The famous ‘Billboard,’ ‘Radio and Records,’ ‘Friday Morning Quarterback,’ etc. print what is selling and compelling.
“To tap local tastes, we rely on listeners who call in requests, sometimes a dozen a day, and want another Carrie Underwood, KT Tunstall or Leona Lewis. We do broadcast one old Beach Music special on Sundays from six to midnight. Still very popular here and in North Carolina, Virginia and Georgia, it’s not often played in the rest of America. Oh yeah, ‘60 Minute Man’ nearly every time.
This area was the hot bed of shag dancing in the 1960s and 1970s. Many fans still love it; others still don’t understand it.
“Did you ever realize that ‘shag dancing’ is hardly known out of the South?
“Think how many styles of music the 20th century brought. We still have one or two swingers around Orangeburg who danced to 20s jazz on Victrolas -- Paul Whiteman’s ‘The Sheik of Araby’ kept them jumping. The just-before-WWII-75s-to-90s crowd think Glenn Miller played the best music ever on the boards. How about that ‘Chattanooga Choochoo’?
“Believe it or not, rock and roll came on the scene over 50 years ago,” Marion says. “Remember
‘Rock Around the Clock’ by Bill Haley and the Comets? They’re still shakin’ to that. Black music and rhythms began infiltrating the scene by this time too. And do you remember when Elvis Presley came on with the fanfare of the atom bomb? That was 1956. ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ nearly enslaved the young girls of America. The Motown sound entered the field in the 1960s; it included the Supremes, the Miracles (‘Baby Love’) and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Stubborn Kind of Fellow,’ and don’t forget The Temptations.”
Here comes the British, bang, bang
Marion has been in radio for 43 years. WORG is not part of a network but independent.
“Do you remember the next earth-shaking musical event? The Beatles, who led the British invasion! Ed Sullivan’s presentation of them and their ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ had young music fans rocking for months, maybe even years. Quick to realize a very good thing, the Animals, The Kinks and Gerry and the Pacemakers hurried over to get in on the fun and fury which lasted and lasted.
Marion adds, “In the late 60s we got into psychedelic music which went along with the drug culture and war protests. We called it psycho-delic, a term you could agree with if you ever listened to Cream’s ‘White Room.’ Fortunately, it’s popularity was short lived.”
FM came into being in the late sixties, and grew big during the '70s because the federal government decreed that every radio must have both the AM and FM bands. FM’s better listening quality led most music fans to its stations. AM also improved through the years, now specializing in news, sports and talk shows.
The 80s for the most part was a decade for “groups.” One called Journey issued a big hit called “Lights.” Another, Foreigner and another, Genesis, rocked and charmed their way to the top.
“They gave a kind of a rock-ballad sound, neither too hard nor too soft,” Marion comments.
“The 90s became a non-descript decade of these and more new sounds, and ushered in one of the most popular singers of all time, Celine Dion. Her ‘That’s The Way It Is’ has been a towering best seller.
The 20th century closed down; music raced past the observance and now paces the world with new talent and singers: “Superman” by Five for Fighting, and “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay. Somehow, they all find a name not like any other.
“Today, people want their choice among a whopping variety of music,” Marion says. “The current ‘sound’ is slightly different from that of 20 years ago. But being played right among the sounds of Matchbox 20 and Maroon Five is “My Girl” which debuted 43 years ago.”
Meanwhile the hit parade marches on and recordings are more diversified than ever. In the words of Bill Till and Sam Shuler, “Next thing you know, they’ll be playing that stuff in church.”
Retired editor and public relations executive Thomas Langford’s column is titled “Some Edisto stories.” Let him know if you have stories to share: 803-534-2097.