We Heard It On The Stereo & The Radio....

When we came to Vanderbilt in the late 1960s and early 1970s, listening to our music was very important. So a stereo system like this is what we brought from home (or bought in Nashville) to make sure we could do that in our dorm rooms. Primarily we used it so we could play our collection of long-playing 33 1/3 RPM vinyl albums. How important was that? Well, I was accused of marrying my Vanderbilt sweetheart (Betty Lee Love, VU Class of 1973) just to get her album collection!

In the days when there were no internet or satellite or  cable TV music channels, no CDs, no Walkmans, no tapes and those awful four-track stereo disc players were mainly available only in luxury cars,  besides your stereo or  turntable this was about all you had if you wanted your music, especially if you wanted it mobile.......

Nashville had two very competitive Top 40 Rock and Roll radio stations in those days. And they were located right next to each other on the AM band (WKDA, 1240 and WMAK, 1300). That made it very easy to switch back forth, to make sure you were always listening to the music you really liked. Later while we were in school, the FM stations with their "underground" format, playing longer hard rock album cuts, began to rise in popularity, especially WKDA-FM (later 103 KDF).

But the clear "leader" in Nashville radio while we were in town was Scott Shannon of WMAK. His prime time evening broadcasts were the top-rated in the market and help propel his career to national fame including his stint on MTV some years ago. He is still a very prominent national radio disc jockey. Here, courtesy of YouTube and the Official Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame, is  brief air check of one of "Super Shan's" shows from August, 1969, about the time we rolled onto campus....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zOmV4MAcHN0#t=19