My Dog Won't Run and the Truck Ran Away

At one time WGNG, 55 AM once was a country station I used to listen to. It broadcast from an antenna about two miles from my house and it was the only station I could tune in without fine tuning the dial with my fingernail.

I found that station due to a Christmas gift i received at seven years old. I thought it lavish due to it being something an adult would own. But my Dad handed it over to me w/o any warnings to “take care of it.” I guess Japan flooded the market in '72 with millions of them, making them dirt cheap.

This, in part, was the start of my interest in stereo equipment. Hey, at least is wasn't ham radio equipment, that made you really look like a dweeb.

That first radio eventually turned into this, or something comparable in my living room. Notice the focus is on the stereo, not a hearth, TV or family portrait.

WGNG, as I said, played country music and being seven I didn’t' know better. Waylon Jennings, Roy Clark and Donna Fargo and other names long since forgotten I knew. I wasn't a hick kid nor a member in the 4-H, it was just that station came in so clear that it was my default station.

I quickly got over that music as my brother purchased a Radio Shack Realistic stereo. Actually, coming from Radio Shack it was a decent piece of equipment that could bring in other radio stations I knew nothing about. Being a kid, I graduated from WGNG to WPRO. I look back on that as growing pains. Today Top 40 Contemporary kinda makes me puke. Well, you grow, you learn. I now detest most country, but there is one exception.

My brother would harangue me about leaving the selector switch on AM instead of FM which he was convinced had better music. I tried it a few times and not having an ear at all at nine years of age, saw no benefit in FM.

That was till I stumbled across a station out of Worcester, late one night, called WAAF hosted by a DJ named Harvey Warfield. I was too lazy to switch it back to WPRO AM and I let it run. That's when I heard the oddest music coming from the speakers. Warfield, around midnight, would have WAAF's “Six Pack” which was six full albums, back to back without commercial interruption between the songs. Try and get away with that today.

“Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-9 were played and I sat there listening to this ethereal stuff, wondering and not even knowing it was Pink Floyd till Warfield came back on to announce what he had played. With this, I started to develop an ear as I weaned from AM to FM.

Years later, and many $ later I built my system and compiled a huge collection of CD's and music I lifted off the internet. The funny thing is I do have some country music, five CD's worth and it's all Johnny Cash. Cash I find good enough when it comes to country.

WGNG is now a Catholic radio talk.