Here is my DJ story about Eddy Money, who we lost this week at 70 years young:
I “met” Mr. Money when I had to play his song, “Baby Hold On To Me” in-rotation, as I jocked “The Midnight Express” (a title I inherited from the previous jock who had moved on to 15WLAC, Nashville) radio show on Top 40, WFLB AM 1490, Fayetteville, NC in 1978.
I was just getting used to strictly formatted radio and we were part of the ABC Contemporary network. I would listen to other overnight jocks in major markets, like Viv Roundtree, in cue during long songs because I was so starved for material and bored. Very homesick – my first time a long way from home after college – and at the time, engaged to marry my college sweetheart, who I’d left behind in Long Island, New York, it was my first commercial gig on the air after my college station years.
Every time I’ve heard of Brooklyn’s own, Eddie Money during the ensuing years, I am back in that second floor studio, behind and overlooking the the McDonald’s restaurant takeout window on Bragg Boulevard, thinking and hearing “Baby Hold On”, its cold ending and the following record I would front-announce. What a strong song!!
We played music on “carts” back then in radio; they resembled 8 track tapes. I can still see the four or five Harris cart machines in front of me and behind the suspended microphone on ‘FLB AM, where I first played “Baby Hold On To Me” in 1978. The Program Director, “Dr. Larry Cannon” had taped a sign whose phrase I carry with me to this very day. It read, “Communication Is The Key“.
RIP Eddie Money; I hope you finally got at least one “Ticket To Paradise”!
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