@@Noway673 Totally…we have strayed so far. Social media has helped in some ways but really hurt in others. I just don’t like how mean I guess a l9t of the world truly is…now they show it because they think they are anonymous.
In 1976 I was 6 years old. One night my parents had friends over and I think they were playing cribbage or something like that. They were drinking and smoking and the stereo was blasting good tunes. They started talking about a real cool song about a ship that sunk but nobody could remember the name of it correctly, Edward Fitz something, they were getting frustrated. Too buzzed to call themselves, they decided to pick up the phone and call the DJ, then handed me the phone. " yeah, give it to the kid, this should be funny". The phone rang a couple times and this guy answered and said "request line something something". I remember saying "my mom and dad wanted to hear a song about a ship sinking". Edward fitz something, i said. The DJ said, " Oh The Wreck Of The Edmond Fitzgerald"? I said I guess so. ILL never forget this, the DJ said " COME ON KID...GET YOUR SHIP STRAIGHT and went right into the song. My parents screamed with laughter and all fell on the floor..I was very confused but was the star that night...
I love your story! It's priceless. I'm rolling on the floor laughing. Thanks for sharing this. Like Clint Eastwood said, "Go ahead make my day." You made my day! Shirley you did. And don't call me Shirley... Leslie Nielsen
And amidst all that smoke and booze were patterned polyester shirts with collars that were way too big. And at least one room had wood paneling slapped on the wall. 😂
This is a great example of how fun radio used to be back in the day before the big corporate buyouts and takeovers. Now everything is just automated crap. The DJs' personalities is what made the different stations fun to listen to. From sitting on the beach to cruising in the city, you always had a great DJ keeping everything upbeat and fun. They played what the public wanted to hear and not the same programmed tracks over and over. I wish we could bring back independently owned stations that would cater to the local public and promote local events and businesses. Thanks for taking us back in time! 😊
I'm in Florida now, but there's always WFUV 90.7 as a listening alternative. I was in NYC 2 months ago and as soon as I got in the rental car, tuned the radio to 90.7.
Yes! The DJ was the secret to success for a radio station to be popular. They all had their own personalities, different voices, and were not afraid to experiment with new sounds. I recently saw a group photo of all the “popular” DJ’s in my county and I could not distinguish one from the other; shaved heads, backwards baseball caps, tattoos, and board shorts. Give me 1976 any day.
Who'd have thought back in 1976 that this tape would be listened to over 40 years later by thousands of people all over the world!? My father had that same reel to reel machine!
I was only 8 that year but I remember the music, the air, smells, friends, cars, TV shows, school, vinyl and 8-tracks, the sounds of the world around me back then. My entire immediate family were alive then, even the really old ones that died soon after that. The first song on the video, Wings' "Silly Love Songs" was the first-ever foray into my lifelong love for anything and everything Beatles. That was the first 45 I ever owned and was the first of thousands of Beatles records and memorabilia. Wonderful video. Thank you.
That song and many like it made me want to play bass even though it took me years to know what a bass line and bass guitar were. That bass line moves and evolves throughout the song. Excellent pop music well written, arranged, performed, produced, engineered and mastered. Sounded great anywhere you heard it. So many songs back then hit all of the marks. We were spoiled with great pop music art. We didn't know it.
Thank you William, I was 27 years old hitting every disco in the metro D.C. area in 1976. Playing softball in two leagues with plenty of young beautiful ladies watching us. Loving every young lady while doing the hustle plus every dance while wearing a variety of different leisure suits. Cruising in my 1976 Dodge Aspen Limited Coupe. A year full of hangovers, but well worth it 😊Met the girl of my dreams in December 1976, we married in June 1978. We celebrate 45 years on June 10, 2023. ❤I had too many real fireworks in Vietnam 1969-70. I just stayed as far away from them as I could, hitting disc clubs at night.
Thank you for listening and thank you for your service. Glad you made it back alive. I lost a few friends in country, although I wasn"t there. Hope you are now living the dream. I sure am...
ahh...I was 11 years old living in The Peoples Republic of Brooklyn NY......95.5 was my favorite station. I remember the Bicentennial so much because we painted everything Red, White and Blue. Street signs, fire hydrants,parking meters light poles. My mom still lives there and there is still 1 pole with the remnants of the red on the bottom of the pole. I recall walking around with my little transistor radio wearing my matching shorts and shirt made out of green Terry Cloth and my blue Puma sneakers that turned your socks blue when they got wet........ thinking i was so badass!! Thanks so much buddy
I was a Júnior in high school. Grad in 77! What a different world it was back then!!!!! Would love to go back and really enjoy being young! That's what I regret! Time flies by WAY to fast!!!!!
@@mshell1959 I sure enjoyed growing up back then. I was 12 in 1976, and the Reds were reigning World Champs and would repeat. Those days seem carefree and simpler in retrospect.
19 years old with my whole life ahead of me. What a summer! July 4, 1976 my sister and I drove around downtown Allentown waving flags out the windows of her ‘73 Gremlin.
I was 13 too. Radio during the daytime (with DJs who actually had good voices, playing songs with actually good singers, who sang actually-good songs). And TV such as "The ABC Monday (or Friday, or Sunday) Night Movie" at night. Everything was dependable: i.e., politicians were mostly for-real and sane, the people were mostly physically fit (not morbidly obese), and it was just a given that school was completely safe (and yet, wide-open), and school boards were sane professionals, and school had real food, all made from scratch, which we could smell cooking all over the building... It almost makes me cry... what the hell happened?!
This is awesome, my dad owned the radio station in our town from 64 to 78 and I have all the old reel to reel tapes of every minute, sometimes I put em on and let it play all day
Wow a treasure trove for sure, it would be well received if you uploaded a couple, make many people happy, look at the comments on here ... worth a thought 💭
I remember that time, as I was 32 years old and living in Phoenix, AZ in the summer of 1976, but returned to the New York City area in October 1976, just before we had snowy winters for a couple of years. I surely remember that time. I sometimes received the big NYC AM radio stations later at night on my shortwave receiver. Now I have left the NYC area since 2018, and am 79 years old.
I was a kid working on my Dad's farm probably listening to all these songs on the tractor. At night watching Columbo or Rockford Files with my Mom. Great time in America.
Thank you so much for this! I was 8 years old and my parents took us to the East River to watch the parade of ships! I'm certain WPLJ was on the car stereo!
July 4th 1976 I was at the lake in my 1970 AMX radio cranked up with friends and a few cute girls. 18 years old, done with high school what a great time that summer was.
I remember a TV ad where Crazy Eddie entered a disco, danced up a storm and then punched out a John Travolta look-alike. I laughed my butt off every time I saw it!
Wow! I remember listening to this. We had this station on. It was beautiful bicentennial day. I was 12 years old and we had an outdoor pool in the building where we lived. We had neighbors and friends gather to swim and getting food ready on the grill and preparing drinks to celebrate this holiday. I remember the laughter, joy and dancing. My friends and I had our own stash of firecrackers which we occasionally lit off. Later in evening, the adults had alot of big fireworks which they lit. Everybody was just enjoying themselves. It was a much simpler and carefree time.
I was 28 and did the partying, fireworks, grilling and all the rest. It was the best of times back then. I knew it was special and that was why I recorded this to share with all...
@@williampovilaitis6951 And that's why we're so grateful You recorded this. It really was different and better times, and this brings it back for us a little bit. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
I was 8 back then Missed the following: Ktel records, 45s for a buck, Casey Kasum, relatives that were still here, landlines, real conversations, oversized cars, The Fonz, Welcome Back Kotter, playing outside and feeling 90 percent safe, the middle class, crazy straw, Quik, Buckwheats cereal, Saturday Cartoons, The Funnies, comic books that actually felt like comic books, baseball cards with the gum, bicycles that did not cost 5 k, etc
In 1976 I graduated from Eli Whitney VHS in Brooklyn, NYC born and raised…growing up in NYC we had so many great radio stations and DJ’s, there were no cell phones, no cable TV no Internet and no beepers at that time we just had a house phone and a pay phone on every corner…lol I really missed those days when everything was made with good quality from food to cars to electronics….great memories
A completely different lifestyle that we had back then. We still used our brains. We had to remember stuff. No Siri, Alexis or Google. I guess each generation is different and copes in a different way using the resources available at the time... Wonder what things will be like a hundred years from now if we survive that long?
I turned 15 in June of that year, in Europe. I was in a choir from the U.S. and we performed in five countries for three weeks. We came home on July 6. Silly Love Songs was the first song I heard after deplaning in Wichita KS. That summer was amazing! The music was amazing! What a joy this brings to my heart! Thank you for making this tape!
Lovely Time and warmest memories. I was about 9 years of age in '76. I loved the model train commercials, cartoons, Little House on the Prairie... My dear God, why have we forfeited such spirit? None of it nowadays (although thousands are re-creating "what once Was", as it were) --- Wow!
If you have Sirius XM, you can still do that. Tune to either the 70's or Classic Vinyl channels. I've had them in my cars for the past 15 years and can bring them up on my cell phone.
This was one of the greatest years of my life - you had the Bicentennial going on and all the pomp that goes with that, plus it was my first year of Cub Scouts - many a day spent listening to 99X and having my Mom freak out because I kept answering the phone, "99X is my radio station"! 😄
The Great Bicentennial year. I can’t help but notice almost every song played has staying power. They’re almost timeless. The music of today is basically disposable. Aside from that it was s great time to be fourteen living in a world without computers, laptops, and cellphone social media. You had to actually leave your house to experience life for real, and NOT on a digital screen.
Kinda with you on the music, but aside from the sonics, screw all that. The darkest of the Dark Ages, we were just getting hand held radios in parks, the tv had fewer channels than your dick has inches, you had to go to a library to look up anything. And here you are, some crusty old fart, maligning the new frontier - on one of those digital screens you hate, no less. Hypocrite much, dude?
Hearing the commercials is almost as fun as hearing the music....It's amazing I can remember so many of those commercials all these years later. I guess they were more effective than I ever realized.
I love time capsules like this. Video and audio are the only real time machines we'll have in our lifetime. They transport us back to a time when each of us can remember fondly those care free days of our lives.
I was 16. We got the bicentennial fever a year or two before and everybody had red white and blue clothing and bunting. Our town painted all the fire hydrants as minutemen. Patriotism was alive snd beautiful. I remember thinking then how cool it would be to be alive for the 250th celebration. Now. I don't know. We are told constantly that we are racist snd kids are taught to hate our country and a good portion of the population are new arrivals that could care less sbout our history. Thank you do much for this gift of a time capsule to that glorious summer! I think summer of 2026 I'm going to listen to this every dsy and tune out main stream media😊
The best 4th of July I’ve ever experienced. The upbeat and excited mood from everyone was awesome as was all the red, white & blue clothes and swimsuits.
I was 22 years old 1976 is my favorite year of the seventies I grew up in Brooklyn and this day holds a special place in my heart. The bicentennial was a great day for me and this whole summer as well, wish I could travel back in time this is the date I would set the time machine dial to,and I would never come back the world was a much better place.💯❤❤💥💥💥👍
I still have tapes somewhere from that timeframe. Used to sit by my stereo on the floor of my room just waiting for specific songs so I could tape them. So wish I could go back to those times. Loved the Bicentennial year most of all. I was 10!😊
@@williampovilaitis6951 Oh they really were! And we didn’t care about the quality of the recording. I had one where a plane flew overhead and caused static on one of my favorite songs and I was mad. Loved AM radio back then. Thank God for those memories.
@@carlnorton2757 Wow what a year to have as your first year in the US. Things I remember most are the school pictures we took with us holding the liberty bell in front of a screen of the American flag and lots of parades.
I was a preteen in the Midwest at the time this aircheck took place. This Elton John song - "Island Girl" - evokes for me so many memories from that era.
I was 17 that year and working at Playland in Rye. Listening to New York radio inspired me to get into the business....I have been in radio for 36 years, though it is not the business it once was....
I was just a little fella in 1976, 4 yrs old. I had chickenpox that year, still got a little scar on my face from it😅. Love these old songs, thanx for posting.
This is absolutely a treasure. I never got to experience a time when our country was this happy, and united. What a time to be alive. It just sounds so happy and is such a far cry from what we have now. I was born in the 90s, but if I could i would have chosen to be a young adult during this time id give up all this modern bs to go back to the simplicity and peace of that time. Thank you for sharing this.
Sounds just like the day I lived through in 1976 . 😊 I remember watching the Bicentennial festivities on tv on July 4 Ships from all over the world were sailing into NY Harbor 🚢
In the late 70's I worked, (if you could call it that,) as a DJ nights and weekends for an FM AOR station. Dimly lit studio, sandalwood incense, and 4 turntables and a microphone. Good times.
I was only 2. The only memory I have of our Bicentennial was our neighborhood having a HUGE party and my dad and and a few other neighbors shooting fireworks.
What a great time capsule! I was only 2yrs old at this time, but i still remember the essence of the late '70s. It was so much more laid back and sophisticated. No screaming and no shock value for the sake of shock value.
I was five when this aired. The only thing I remember about this particular day was the Bicentennial festivities. I participated in a Bicentennial pageant and parade and was the little “Queen” of the parade, riding on the top of my father’s Police car. 🤣 Good times.
I was 19 that summer, happy times, living in Brooklyn. WXLO! '99X', actually 98.7FM. WXLO owned a disco somewhere in Manhattan for a short time, maybe down near Astor Place. I remember the Bicentennial 4th of July. I was at a barbecue at a friends house in in Canarsie, Brooklyn that day. Andrea True's big disco hit 'More, More, More' was all over the radio that summer. WPLJ 95.5FM was NYC's other 'progressive rock' station after WNEW-FM 102.7.
Common back in the day to round the frequency to the nearest "cool" number ... because there were (basically) zero tuners with digital frequency readouts then (started early 1980s, maybe very late 70s). Once that started, stations had to be precise ... AM, too. CKLW-800 in Windsor (across the river from Detroit) could be "The Big 8" when all you had to do was move the pointer to the, um, big 8 on the dial but once it was "800" on the display ... well, here we are. Now, you just let your phone connect to your car and play what you want. And it isn't as good in any way.
I was 11 years old in 1976. It was a magical summer! Thank-you so much for this! I still remember the huge backyard Bar-B-Q party we had on the 4th! Then staying up to watch the amazing fireworks!
Wow 76! I had passed my FCC test to be a DJ. I went to work for a local AM radio station. Grave yard shift. Endless music and I was running the show. After four years I had to get a real job but always look back and remember the music and the times. Wasn't that just a nice and simple time?
It was indeed! What was that license called? My dad had an "Unlimited Radio Station Operator License". Didn't know you needed a license to be a DJ. Thanks for listening...
I came into radio in the late 80's and it still was a good time. I was the only high-schooler out of my school who got hired at our local station. I worked there evenings and weekends in my junior and senior years. I also had to take an FCC test and have a broadcast license of some sort. I cannot remember exactly what it was called - I lost the certificate.
It was a huge day in NYC. Tall ships from all over the world descended upon New York Harbor to celebrate the Bicentennial. Spectacular fireworks display on the Hudson River, which I watched from a huge tract of sandy soil that would soon become Battery Bark City, but on that day; it was an empty lot. Is there any way to make me 21 again? I had just graduated college and life was good.
Thanks for your reply. Life was good back then. Maybe they will perfect the Quantum Leap Machine or the Back To The Future Delorean... Wow! Can you imagine Back to the Future with LL Cool J and a Dodge Challenger?
my uncle told me about that day. i was a newborn. my uncle was a kid with my grandparents & they were driving over the verazzano bridge to come visit me. he was looking out the window at all the ships in the harbor, said he can never forget it
Thanks for this. Not WPLJ. For the firsts half. The DJ said 99x, which was a great station here in NY. I was 15 and life was so great and happy. One of my favorite years for music. Reminds me of my love of baseball cards, great friends, summer time, talks of a Beatles reunion. Our great country’s bi centennial when people actually got along. I have all of these songs on CDs but hearing them in context is like playing a soundtrack of my life. Magical.
I listen to this and it brings me solice; the sounds from a world that was so much saner, kinder and less cray-cray than the whacked-out place we call home today. BTW William, you were way more sophisticated at recording things in 1976 than I was. In 1975, I received a hand held cassette recorder, and at age 13, I would just put it next to the radio in order to tape songs. And, like the geek with a white pocket protector, I would also tape national weather foracasts from TV and then study the US map to see where all the weather was happening. I think that's why I'm still so good as US geography LOL !!! And oh, I can't forget spending a few August days in a hotel in Delaware with my family, including my Grandmother, Belle, during Hurricane Belle, August 1976! Us kids were so excited about being in a hurricane! This is just a great Yout Tube post ... thanks.
Omg! This was my childhood, 1976. I was 11 years old listening to this music on my two older sisters' radio balls that were on a chain and their dynamite 8-track portable players. Great music, (put together here) great tv shows from Emergency, Baretta, Barney Miller, Good Times, The Jeffersons, MacMillan & Wife, Cannon, Barnaby Jones " 🗣️ A Quinn Martin Production 😀" .......endless memories from a beautiful time to grow up in ♥️ Great times and a great era, the 70s.
If I close my eyes I'm in 1976 again (and I never want to leave it!)
Ditto! Remember those? Kids don't know what they are...
For me, the best years of the 70s were 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, and, 78.
My dad was happy making good money in the 70’s…
IKR
Better yet , get your bells on your polyester button up and your even closer to ‘76 ! ✌🏽
I would trade 2000-2023 and beyond to relive 1970's 80's 90's
Absolutely 100%
You and millions of others.
Me too, with no hesitation.
Totally.
@@Noway673 Totally…we have strayed so far. Social media has helped in some ways but really hurt in others. I just don’t like how mean I guess a l9t of the world truly is…now they show it because they think they are anonymous.
I was only 2 years old, but these songs are better than the trash they play today. Real music.
In 1976 I was 6 years old. One night my parents had friends over and I think they were playing cribbage or something like that. They were drinking and smoking and the stereo was blasting good tunes. They started talking about a real cool song about a ship that sunk but nobody could remember the name of it correctly, Edward Fitz something, they were getting frustrated. Too buzzed to call themselves, they decided to pick up the phone and call the DJ, then handed me the phone. " yeah, give it to the kid, this should be funny". The phone rang a couple times and this guy answered and said "request line something something". I remember saying "my mom and dad wanted to hear a song about a ship sinking". Edward fitz something, i said. The DJ said, "
Oh The Wreck Of The Edmond Fitzgerald"? I said I guess so. ILL never forget this, the DJ said " COME ON KID...GET YOUR SHIP STRAIGHT and went right into the song. My parents screamed with laughter and all fell on the floor..I was very confused but was the star that night...
I love your story! It's priceless. I'm rolling on the floor laughing. Thanks for sharing this. Like Clint Eastwood said, "Go ahead make my day." You made my day! Shirley you did. And don't call me Shirley... Leslie Nielsen
Well my parents made me who I am today and im spreading the lighthearted madness to they're grandkids..lol..thanks for your channel and comment..😅
That song gives me chills whenever I hear it.
And amidst all that smoke and booze were patterned polyester shirts with collars that were way too big. And at least one room had wood paneling slapped on the wall. 😂
Lol
This is a great example of how fun radio used to be back in the day before the big corporate buyouts and takeovers. Now everything is just automated crap. The DJs' personalities is what made the different stations fun to listen to. From sitting on the beach to cruising in the city, you always had a great DJ keeping everything upbeat and fun. They played what the public wanted to hear and not the same programmed tracks over and over. I wish we could bring back independently owned stations that would cater to the local public and promote local events and businesses. Thanks for taking us back in time! 😊
Thanks for your comment. I agree! Thanks for listening...
I'm in Florida now, but there's always WFUV 90.7 as a listening alternative. I was in NYC 2 months ago and as soon as I got in the rental car, tuned the radio to 90.7.
> you always had a great DJ keeping everything upbeat and fun < "Put your hand on the radio and feel the warmth of my sincerity."
Yes! The DJ was the secret to success for a radio station to be popular. They all had their own personalities, different voices, and were not afraid to experiment with new sounds. I recently saw a group photo of all the “popular” DJ’s in my county and I could not distinguish one from the other; shaved heads, backwards baseball caps, tattoos, and board shorts. Give me 1976 any day.
Totally spot on ...
Who'd have thought back in 1976 that this tape would be listened to over 40 years later by thousands of people all over the world!? My father had that same reel to reel machine!
I can't believe it myself! Thanks for listening...
That's almost 50 years!!!! 😮😢
@@kristopherguilbault5428 Don't remind me.
thats not from 76 - that unit is all digital controlled. Early 90ies
@@levondarratt787 The tape, not the deck. The sound quality is pretty poor too.
We don’t search for old music we search for old memories. Thank you William.
Absolutely! We need the old music to bring them back. Thanks Michael.
Music is the vessel getting me there.
I was only 8 that year but I remember the music, the air, smells, friends, cars, TV shows, school, vinyl and 8-tracks, the sounds of the world around me back then. My entire immediate family were alive then, even the really old ones that died soon after that. The first song on the video, Wings' "Silly Love Songs" was the first-ever foray into my lifelong love for anything and everything Beatles. That was the first 45 I ever owned and was the first of thousands of Beatles records and memorabilia. Wonderful video. Thank you.
The sole intention of my little time capsule is to help people remember what awesome times we all had... Thanks for watching!
That song and many like it made me want to play bass even though it took me years to know what a bass line and bass guitar were. That bass line moves and evolves throughout the song. Excellent pop music well written, arranged, performed, produced, engineered and mastered. Sounded great anywhere you heard it. So many songs back then hit all of the marks. We were spoiled with great pop music art. We didn't know it.
Same age , yes it’s a good time in music.
Me too 8! Now 55. Ughh. Lol
I loved silly love songs 🎵
Back in the day when we used to record songs off the radio.
Thank you William, I was 27 years old hitting every disco in the metro D.C. area in 1976. Playing softball in two leagues with plenty of young beautiful ladies watching us. Loving every young lady while doing the hustle plus every dance while wearing a variety of different leisure suits. Cruising in my 1976 Dodge Aspen Limited Coupe. A year full of hangovers, but well worth it 😊Met the girl of my dreams in December 1976, we married in June 1978. We celebrate 45 years on June 10, 2023. ❤I had too many real fireworks in Vietnam 1969-70. I just stayed as far away from them as I could, hitting disc clubs at night.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for your service.
Thank you for listening and thank you for your service. Glad you made it back alive. I lost a few friends in country, although I wasn"t there. Hope you are now living the dream. I sure am...
Thank you for your service.
I envy the party times you lived thru.
I was 13 years old in 1976. This is my absolute favorite year for radio hits! The DJ's, music and even the commercials were the best.
Those were the days.
Me too, what a wonderful and magical time! Happy 60th to you Kevin!
Same here 😊
Agree! I was 10 that year. I remember exactly where I was on July 4th. What I don't miss are the scratchy clothes and the cigarettes everywhere.
@@FrankButterfield Roebucks Toughskins... New pair every year... Whether you needed them or not!
Corduroy Levis were such a treat!
My 16th year of age. Just got my driver's license. Just started working at Mickey D's. The world was my oyster, for sure!
ahh...I was 11 years old living in The Peoples Republic of Brooklyn NY......95.5 was my favorite station. I remember the Bicentennial so much because we painted everything Red, White and Blue. Street signs, fire hydrants,parking meters light poles.
My mom still lives there and there is still 1 pole with the remnants of the red on the bottom of the pole. I recall walking around with my little transistor radio wearing my matching shorts and shirt made out of green Terry Cloth and my blue Puma sneakers that turned your socks blue when they got wet........ thinking i was so badass!!
Thanks so much buddy
The Starland Vocal Band was the epitome of 1976. You can almost smell the time, it was so good.
An interracial couple was rare in a pop group in 1976.
th-cam.com/video/q4b3w6a9cSk/w-d-xo.html
Their harmony was the best! ❤️🎶🎶🤩👌
It smells like wood paneling and polyester! 😄
Yes! And lots of Wings especially Listen To What the Man Said. Great year for music!
I smell cigarettes, pot , incense, and stale beer 😂
Wish it is 1976 NOW! Way better than today & future! Much better economic times than today, more innocent and carefree, miss them and my family.
Ditto!
I was only 4 year's old i do wish I was teenager in 1976 bet it was great time
@@derekalfano4431 I was 14...bro it was a blast!!
I was a Júnior in high school. Grad in 77! What a different world it was back then!!!!! Would love to go back and really enjoy being young! That's what I regret! Time flies by WAY to fast!!!!!
Same here. Wish I had a Time Machine.
Me too! A great time in my life.
@@mshell1959 I sure enjoyed growing up back then. I was 12 in 1976, and the Reds were reigning World Champs and would repeat. Those days seem carefree and simpler in retrospect.
I was 7 years old but this music never left my soul.
I WAS 6
19 years old with my whole life ahead of me. What a summer! July 4, 1976 my sister and I drove around downtown Allentown waving flags out the windows of her ‘73 Gremlin.
I was 13 too. Radio during the daytime (with DJs who actually had good voices, playing songs with actually good singers, who sang actually-good songs). And TV such as "The ABC Monday (or Friday, or Sunday) Night Movie" at night. Everything was dependable: i.e., politicians were mostly for-real and sane, the people were mostly physically fit (not morbidly obese), and it was just a given that school was completely safe (and yet, wide-open), and school boards were sane professionals, and school had real food, all made from scratch, which we could smell cooking all over the building... It almost makes me cry... what the hell happened?!
13 too! This is great!
This is awesome, my dad owned the radio station in our town from 64 to 78 and I have all the old reel to reel tapes of every minute, sometimes I put em on and let it play all day
Wow a treasure trove for sure, it would be well received if you uploaded a couple, make many people happy, look at the comments on here ... worth a thought 💭
You know you're sitting on content, right? Put that on YT and get the views.
Upload them to TH-cam!!
Sometimes the spoils are just for u.
Very cool! My dream was to work at a radio station and I eventually did for many years. Best job I ever had. I was the happiest ever as an adult.
I was 4 years old then. Wow how times have changed. Seems like such a different world. So nostalgic ❤
Having the wood grain on the wall behind the tape player and turntable is the icing on the cake! Love this.
Thanks for your kindness!
I was 13 years old in 1976. I Wish I Could go back and stay there.
That 20 second lead up to Silly Love Songs was perfect for the radio of the day! Great bass in that song!
OH WOW!! The Crazy Eddie commercial!!! That takes me back!! "His prices are INSANE!!!"
I remember that time, as I was 32 years
old and living in Phoenix, AZ in the summer of 1976, but returned to the
New York City area in October 1976,
just before we had snowy winters for
a couple of years. I surely remember
that time. I sometimes received the
big NYC AM radio stations later at
night on my shortwave receiver.
Now I have left the NYC area since
2018, and am 79 years old.
Rock on….
I was a kid working on my Dad's farm probably listening to all these songs on the tractor. At night watching Columbo or Rockford Files with my Mom. Great time in America.
Mary Hartman Mary Hartman in the daytime.
Great memories 💯
As a native New Yorker, I love this. I was alive and well on that day. SO many memories! Those commercials!
and the Yankees were on their way back!
Yankees won back to back World Series not long after this.
@@holtridge7337 Yes Champions in 1977 and 1978, and an appearance after that summer in 1976.
@@romelovesdan Oh yeah. Three World Series Appearances in a row. Just like 98, 99, and 00
👍👍👍😊
This time capsule is exactly what I needed. I was 9 years old & remember the Bicentennial fondly. Ahh, request lines...🤩
Bicentennial was nuts!! Anticipating the new coins! FM 1:11
I was 10, living in the Detroit area. Remember the crepe paper between our bike spokes?
Thank you so much for this! I was 8 years old and my parents took us to the East River to watch the parade of ships! I'm certain WPLJ was on the car stereo!
@@jaminova_1969 wings over america was thee tour that summer/fall
@@robertcarli1969 Elvis Presley and all 4 Beatles were still alive! And SNL was actually funny!
July 4th 1976 I was at the lake in my 1970 AMX radio cranked up with friends and a few cute girls. 18 years old, done with high school what a great time that summer was.
I had just graduated from HS in June.... Spirit of "76!
I've never loved the commercials as much as I do right now. lol
They get better with age like a fine wine or cheese. Thanks for commenting!
Same❤
Good old WPLJ New York back in the day when they played rock. I was 11 in 1976.
CRAZY EDDIE….the best commercials!
Yep. His prices were insane
@@williampovilaitis6951 A little too insane lol
I remember a TV ad where Crazy Eddie entered a disco, danced up a storm and then punched out a John Travolta look-alike. I laughed my butt off every time I saw it!
I was 16 in June that year. Man driving around. Was the best.
Wow! I remember listening to this. We had this station on. It was beautiful bicentennial day. I was 12 years old and we had an outdoor pool in the building where we lived. We had neighbors and friends gather to swim and getting food ready on the grill and preparing drinks to celebrate this holiday. I remember the laughter, joy and dancing. My friends and I had our own stash of firecrackers which we occasionally lit off. Later in evening, the adults had alot of big fireworks which they lit. Everybody was just enjoying themselves. It was a much simpler and carefree time.
I was 28 and did the partying, fireworks, grilling and all the rest. It was the best of times back then. I knew it was special and that was why I recorded this to share with all...
@@williampovilaitis6951 And that's why we're so grateful You recorded this. It really was different and better times, and this brings it back for us a little bit. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
I was 13. We always called WPLJ Peanut Butter and Jelly. Did you?
I was 8 back then
Missed the following:
Ktel records, 45s for a buck, Casey Kasum, relatives that were still here, landlines, real conversations, oversized cars, The Fonz, Welcome Back Kotter, playing outside and feeling 90 percent safe, the middle class, crazy straw, Quik, Buckwheats cereal, Saturday Cartoons, The Funnies, comic books that actually felt like comic books, baseball cards with the gum, bicycles that did not cost 5 k, etc
I predict in the future that Chicago will have a number 1 song in the fall of 1976 called If You Leave Me Now
In 1976 I graduated from Eli Whitney VHS in Brooklyn, NYC born and raised…growing up in NYC we had so many great radio stations and DJ’s, there were no cell phones, no cable TV no Internet and no beepers at that time we just had a house phone and a pay phone on every corner…lol I really missed those days when everything was made with good quality from food to cars to electronics….great memories
A completely different lifestyle that we had back then. We still used our brains. We had to remember stuff. No Siri, Alexis or Google. I guess each generation is different and copes in a different way using the resources available at the time... Wonder what things will be like a hundred years from now if we survive that long?
I’m almost 62 now. I was 14 turning 15 in September. Thank you so much for the trip back. This brings back such great memories.
And enjoy those great memories as they are priceless!
Turned 15 in August of 76 I'm a whole month older than you 😋
I turned 15 in June of that year, in Europe. I was in a choir from the U.S. and we performed in five countries for three weeks. We came home on July 6. Silly Love Songs was the first song I heard after deplaning in Wichita KS. That summer was amazing! The music was amazing! What a joy this brings to my heart! Thank you for making this tape!
That was my 15th birthday. You won't hear a mix of styles like that on any "pop" or "rock" station today ....
@@georgeford3687 Me. 17. May of 76
Lovely Time and warmest memories. I was about 9 years of age in '76. I loved the model train commercials, cartoons, Little House on the Prairie... My dear God, why have we forfeited such spirit? None of it nowadays (although thousands are re-creating "what once Was", as it were) --- Wow!
I just moved back into the 70s and I'm not leaving Thank you so much for sharing this gemstone💎
I listened to this station every day as a teenager🦅🇺🇸💕
I bet housing is affordable there. Thanks for watching!
Me too plus WNEW 102.7.
I was in 6th grade and had just gotten a portable bike radio. I was riding to the tunes.
@@williampovilaitis6951lol! Glad my phone is waterproof. Laughed so hard, just sprayed beer all over it. 😂
Imagine turning on the radio and hear all these great songs on the air.
If you have Sirius XM, you can still do that. Tune to either the 70's or Classic Vinyl channels. I've had them in my cars for the past 15 years and can bring them up on my cell phone.
Big deal. We got WAP today.
This was one of the greatest years of my life - you had the Bicentennial going on and all the pomp that goes with that, plus it was my first year of Cub Scouts - many a day spent listening to 99X and having my Mom freak out because I kept answering the phone, "99X is my radio station"! 😄
93.3 KZHP plays this type of music
Don't have to. I remember it vividly. And as all my friends can contest to, I've never really gotten over it. Lol.
Young mother in 1976. What a happy wonderful time to be alive.
I was 20 just home from Korea in time for the bicentennial!!!! Good to be home!
Awesome! Can't express how much Im missing the 70s & 80s lately - things just don't feel right anymore.
The Great Bicentennial year. I can’t help but notice almost every song played has staying power. They’re almost timeless. The music of today is basically disposable. Aside from that it was s great time to be fourteen living in a world without computers, laptops, and cellphone social media. You had to actually leave your house to experience life for real, and NOT on a digital screen.
"Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing". Thank You for listening and replying!
@Mario, Ain't that the truth
Kinda with you on the music, but aside from the sonics, screw all that. The darkest of the Dark Ages, we were just getting hand held radios in parks, the tv had fewer channels than your dick has inches, you had to go to a library to look up anything. And here you are, some crusty old fart, maligning the new frontier - on one of those digital screens you hate, no less.
Hypocrite much, dude?
Hearing the commercials is almost as fun as hearing the music....It's amazing I can remember so many of those commercials all these years later. I guess they were more effective than I ever realized.
"Sooner or later you'll own General."
I was only 3 in '76, but I have very early memories of listening to the radio in my dad's VW Bug. This is so great to listen to!
What a great gem from the past. I remember every one of the songs I heard.
76... My favorite year of the 70s! I was 9 about to turn 10. 1978 would be my second favorite year!😊
I love time capsules like this. Video and audio are the only real time machines we'll have in our lifetime. They transport us back to a time when each of us can remember fondly those care free days of our lives.
Precious and few are the moments we two can share. I ain't heard that song in decades.
That's a good one. I'm trying to share these "Precious and Few" moments with as many people as I can. Thanks for listening...
@@williampovilaitis6951 You're welcome. Thank you for posting this video.
I remember being a kid, staying up until 2am listening to music, calling the radio station late at night to request songs and they did, just for you.
I was 16. We got the bicentennial fever a year or two before and everybody had red white and blue clothing and bunting. Our town painted all the fire hydrants as minutemen. Patriotism was alive snd beautiful. I remember thinking then how cool it would be to be alive for the 250th celebration. Now. I don't know. We are told constantly that we are racist snd kids are taught to hate our country and a good portion of the population are new arrivals that could care less sbout our history. Thank you do much for this gift of a time capsule to that glorious summer! I think summer of 2026 I'm going to listen to this every dsy and tune out main stream media😊
The best 4th of July I’ve ever experienced. The upbeat and excited mood from everyone was awesome as was all the red, white & blue clothes and swimsuits.
I was 22 years old 1976 is my favorite year of the seventies I grew up in Brooklyn and this day holds a special place in my heart. The bicentennial was a great day for me and this whole summer as well, wish I could travel back in time this is the date I would set the time machine dial to,and I would never come back the world was a much better place.💯❤❤💥💥💥👍
On this day my dad and i were on a McAllister tugboat for the Operation Sail event in NY Harbor. ❤🤘🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I still have tapes somewhere from that timeframe. Used to sit by my stereo on the floor of my room just waiting for specific songs so I could tape them. So wish I could go back to those times. Loved the Bicentennial year most of all. I was 10!😊
I used to do that too! Tapes were expensive back then. Wish I had more bucks to buy them then. I was 27 then. My brain is still 18...
I turned 9 in June of 76. just moved to northern Virginia from Korea. Great memories! I did the tape recorder thing too😅
@@williampovilaitis6951 Oh they really were! And we didn’t care about the quality of the recording. I had one where a plane flew overhead and caused static on one of my favorite songs and I was mad. Loved AM radio back then. Thank God for those memories.
@@carlnorton2757 Wow what a year to have as your first year in the US. Things I remember most are the school pictures we took with us holding the liberty bell in front of a screen of the American flag and lots of parades.
The year I graduated high school! This makes me happy to hear now. Thanks for the memories!
i was 16 and we celebrated Americas birthday it was a different world. we did not know how good we had it.
We do now...
I was 14...America's Bicentennial!!...Great times!!..THANK YOU!!
I was a preteen in the Midwest at the time this aircheck took place. This Elton John song - "Island Girl" - evokes for me so many memories from that era.
I was 17 that year and working at Playland in Rye. Listening to New York radio inspired me to get into the business....I have been in radio for 36 years, though it is not the business it once was....
Thanks for your kindness. Thanks for your service to the kids. Remember Palisades Amusement Park?
My sister lives around there. We stopped at the Pharmacy last October. What excellent and friendly service. Nice area.
Great retro immersion to an absolutely stellar summer (and year) in America. Calendaring this for another listen on its 50th anniversary 7/4/26.
Thanks for your kind comment. I hope this stays around forever. I periodically listen to it, and I still get a charge out of my blast from the past! 😊
A full decade before I was born, and yet I simply MUST listen. It was an era of popular music unlike any other.
Glad to see the "younger" generation, despite not living then, can appreciate some of what we older folk experienced. I was 13 in '76.
FeTV plays Adam 12, Emergency, Barney Miller and plenty more for a real deep dive back into 70s TV
I was just a little fella in 1976, 4 yrs old. I had chickenpox that year, still got a little scar on my face from it😅. Love these old songs, thanx for posting.
Thanks for listening! I had chicken pox in the early 1950's. Boy did they itch. Thank heavens for Calamine lotion...
I was a 12-year-old Jersey boy in 76' and that summer was magical with the Bicentennial and the patriotism was off the scales.
Bicentennial year. Spirit of 76. Tall ships, etc.
One of the best years in my life! I was 16, turning 17 in 4 days, July 8th!
When radio was great, 9 year old running around, I remember a lot about this summer. It really was an easier slower time, miss it!
This is absolutely a treasure. I never got to experience a time when our country was this happy, and united. What a time to be alive. It just sounds so happy and is such a far cry from what we have now. I was born in the 90s, but if I could i would have chosen to be a young adult during this time id give up all this modern bs to go back to the simplicity and peace of that time. Thank you for sharing this.
Makes me feel young and old at the same time! Thank you for this treasure, William!
My pleasure. Thanks for listening...
I sure can relate as this ol body breaks down.
😂I thought the same thing. I feel fourteen listening to it until I saw my reflection in the mirror…
You can never go back , but you just helped me .. for a few minutes . What a feeling .
Oh , to be young again ! Thank you ...
I was 10 in 1976. Frampton Comes Alive was everywhere. Silly Love Songs was great on the summer radio. McCartney tix were $10 not $500.
This is wonderful. I’m back in ‘76. Thanks for posting.
Sounds just like the day I lived through in 1976 . 😊
I remember watching the Bicentennial festivities on tv on July 4
Ships from all over the world were sailing into NY Harbor 🚢
I was 6 … this is exactly what I’d hear from the back-seat of mom’s car as we went to the Wisconsin Dells that year.
Love this. What great memories coming to life again! I was 16, just driving and always blasted this on the radio!
Awww I love this! I was born 3/1/76
In the late 70's I worked, (if you could call it that,) as a DJ nights and weekends for an FM AOR station. Dimly lit studio, sandalwood incense, and 4 turntables and a microphone. Good times.
I was only 2. The only memory I have of our Bicentennial was our neighborhood having a HUGE party and my dad and and a few other neighbors shooting fireworks.
I was 14 then. Just like going right back in time. Amazing!!
This is incredible. Giving me crazy nostalgia and i wasnt even alive
What a great time capsule! I was only 2yrs old at this time, but i still remember the essence of the late '70s. It was so much more laid back and sophisticated. No screaming and no shock value for the sake of shock value.
I was five when this aired. The only thing I remember about this particular day was the Bicentennial festivities.
I participated in a Bicentennial pageant and parade and was the little “Queen” of the parade, riding on the top of my father’s Police car. 🤣
Good times.
The year I was born. Thanks for all this sweet music that obviously made Mom and Dad frisky!!
I wasn’t born until ‘93. Wish I was around in ‘76 😂
I was 15. '76 was a great year!
I was 19 that summer, happy times, living in Brooklyn. WXLO! '99X', actually 98.7FM. WXLO owned a disco somewhere in Manhattan for a short time, maybe down near Astor Place. I remember the Bicentennial 4th of July. I was at a barbecue at a friends house in in Canarsie, Brooklyn that day. Andrea True's big disco hit 'More, More, More' was all over the radio that summer. WPLJ 95.5FM was NYC's other 'progressive rock' station after WNEW-FM 102.7.
Thanks for the reply. Every time I hear Andrea True's More More More, it gets stuck in my mind for hours! It is one of my favorites.
WPLJ was my favorite.
Best tunes at night with Carol Miller.
She had such a beautiful voice.
Common back in the day to round the frequency to the nearest "cool" number ... because there were (basically) zero tuners with digital frequency readouts then (started early 1980s, maybe very late 70s). Once that started, stations had to be precise ... AM, too. CKLW-800 in Windsor (across the river from Detroit) could be "The Big 8" when all you had to do was move the pointer to the, um, big 8 on the dial but once it was "800" on the display ... well, here we are. Now, you just let your phone connect to your car and play what you want.
And it isn't as good in any way.
In the USA most everthing was about the Bicentennial. It was the happiest summer this 9 yr old kid could ask for. ❤ 🤍 💙
It was a great time to be alive!
EXACTLY. I was 8 years old in 76’ and remember all this bicentennial stuff in school.
Got to get you into my life was released as a single...it was ten years old and it fit in perfectly with all the songs from ten years later.
Capitol Records released several Beatles repackages around that time. I used to go to sleep listening to the Beatles Love Songs album.
I was 14 and just shed a tear. Thank you :)
I still get goose bumps when I play it. 🧨🗽📻🎶
I was 11 years old in 1976. It was a magical summer! Thank-you so much for this! I still remember the huge backyard Bar-B-Q party we had on the 4th! Then staying up to watch the amazing fireworks!
Same here, same age. I probably had some of this on a cassette myself...looking forward to recognizing some of it.
Great memories! 🇺🇸💥
Me too!
I was also 11 years old. Great memories of school and the bicentennial.
A little older, but yes, absolutely correct! Anyone else recall the Bicentennial Liberty Train visiting their town?
Wow 76! I had passed my FCC test to be a DJ. I went to work for a local AM radio station. Grave yard shift. Endless music and I was running the show. After four years I had to get a real job but always look back and remember the music and the times. Wasn't that just a nice and simple time?
It was indeed! What was that license called? My dad had an "Unlimited Radio Station Operator License". Didn't know you needed a license to be a DJ. Thanks for listening...
I came into radio in the late 80's and it still was a good time. I was the only high-schooler out of my school who got hired at our local station. I worked there evenings and weekends in my junior and senior years. I also had to take an FCC test and have a broadcast license of some sort. I cannot remember exactly what it was called - I lost the certificate.
I look forward to one day playing this in my new car with CarPlay configured to TH-cam. It will be like going back in time while on a relaxing drive
Or just get an old 1971 Cutlass with blue tooth radio installed and play it in there! 🎉
I was a junior in high school in 1976 and these songs are so much a part of my life. Great playlist ...
Thanks! I was born in 1973 and these are my earliest musical memories.
It was a huge day in NYC. Tall ships from all over the world descended upon New York Harbor to celebrate the Bicentennial. Spectacular fireworks display on the Hudson River, which I watched from a huge tract of sandy soil that would soon become Battery Bark City, but on that day; it was an empty lot. Is there any way to make me 21 again? I had just graduated college and life was good.
Thanks for your reply. Life was good back then. Maybe they will perfect the Quantum Leap Machine or the Back To The Future Delorean... Wow! Can you imagine Back to the Future with LL Cool J and a Dodge Challenger?
my uncle told me about that day. i was a newborn. my uncle was a kid with my grandparents & they were driving over the verazzano bridge to come visit me. he was looking out the window at all the ships in the harbor, said he can never forget it
Thanks for this. Not WPLJ. For the firsts half. The DJ said 99x, which was a great station here in NY. I was 15 and life was so great and happy. One of my favorite years for music. Reminds me of my love of baseball cards, great friends, summer time, talks of a Beatles reunion. Our great country’s bi centennial when people actually got along. I have all of these songs on CDs but hearing them in context is like playing a soundtrack of my life. Magical.
I listen to this and it brings me solice; the sounds from a world that was so much saner, kinder and less cray-cray than the whacked-out place we call home today. BTW William, you were way more sophisticated at recording things in 1976 than I was. In 1975, I received a hand held cassette recorder, and at age 13, I would just put it next to the radio in order to tape songs. And, like the geek with a white pocket protector, I would also tape national weather foracasts from TV and then study the US map to see where all the weather was happening. I think that's why I'm still so good as US geography LOL !!! And oh, I can't forget spending a few August days in a hotel in Delaware with my family, including my Grandmother, Belle, during Hurricane Belle, August 1976! Us kids were so excited about being in a hurricane! This is just a great Yout Tube post ... thanks.
I feel good that I was able to bring back those interesting memories of your younger days. Thank you for sharing them with me...
Graduated HS 1971. 72 was my favorite year for music. Then I find out many of those were from 71. Tiny Dancer, Bang a Gong, Long Cool Woman.
Omg! This was my childhood, 1976. I was 11 years old listening to this music on my two older sisters' radio balls that were on a chain and their dynamite 8-track portable players. Great music, (put together here) great tv shows from Emergency, Baretta, Barney Miller, Good Times, The Jeffersons, MacMillan & Wife, Cannon, Barnaby Jones " 🗣️ A Quinn Martin Production 😀" .......endless memories from a beautiful time to grow up in ♥️ Great times and a great era, the 70s.
I was 11 also. Bi-Centennial and the big ships were coming through the harbor. Maybe someone got excited and decided to start recording?