Rock Radio 50 Years Ago ♪ September 1976

Summer’s End: Let’s Kiss & Say Goodbye …

Ah yes, Summer love often ends with a kiss of your fingertips and a wistful wave across a sandy beach. Movies and their soundtracks have memorialized the image for decades. Who remembers the inimitable Blue Hawaii—where it’s always Summer. Elvis’s comeback film from his stint in the Army glorified Hawaii in its title song of the same name, and continued to personify Summer with its, “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (1961).

For the “younger” 39ers, other Summer standouts are Grease and its “Hopelessly Devoted to You” (1978 set in 1959) and Dirty Dancing with “The Time of My Life” (1987; set in 1963). Yep, melodious melancholy typifies our Endless Summers.

But in September 1976 we didn’t stay sad for long, as a silly song, written by an equally silly Disc Jockey began its silly slide up the charts. Like with most novelty tunes, at first, we couldn’t stop laughing every time we heard the quirky quackery in Rick Dees’ “Disco Duck.” It all happened … 50 Years Ago this Month …   

º SEPTEMBER 1976 Radio News & Muse ♪  
What was your fave DJ playing when you turned on your tinny transistor radio 50 Years Ago? Enjoy the memories of what and who you were listening to … September 1976!

This is our final promotion for B-100/San Diego, California (for a while), I promise. But how can you not chuckle when you see their cover image of the happy Disco Duck? Listed as “The B-100 Disco Duck,” the music chart’s cover is a classic … "I'm Da Disco Duck ... It'll quack you up ... You'll go quackers!" DJ Rick Dees’ tune was on its way up at #13 on “San Diego’s Stereo Favorites, Volume Two/Number Ten” for September 24, 1976, but it doesn’t even get a mention on our Featured Radio Survey, WPEZ-FM/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since its survey is at the top of the month (09/03), perhaps next month?
       Rick was an enterprising young broadcaster with a comedic flair and popular on air at WMPS AM/Memphis, Tennessee, when he conceived and recorded the infamous Duck tune. It became a nationwide hit—everywhere except Memphis. His station wouldn’t let him play it, considering it a conflict of interest. Other local stations refused to promote a rival station. It hit the top without them.   

WPEZ-FM/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, however, was still listing Summer hits of dancing and love. Their standard hippie cover art image, promoted their Gumball Rally, while the music chart—Vol. 3 #32, September 3, 1976” was combined with lyrics for “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” currently #2, by Elton John and Kiki Dee. What rounded out the top three tunes? “Play That Funky Music” (Wild Cherry) scored #1, while Lou Rawls lamented in #3, “You’ll Never Find Another Love.” No dingy Disco Duck on that chart!

September 1976 brought a number of changes to restless Radio stations. Sometime during the month, Fairchild Industries split Minneapolis, Minnesota’s, WYOO station frequencies to create WAYL with the AM sector while the FM station happily began a simulcast of the venerable KDWB’s Top 40 format (since 1959; the station launched in 1951).

September 6^th: Expanding Rock & Roll’s worldwide presence, DWRT-FM/Manila, Philippines, signed on the air making 99.5 RT that country’s first Top 40 Radio station; meanwhile, KXOL/Dallas, Texas, got tired of Rock and flipped to Country. Fast-forward 50 Years and it’s now a Spanish-language Christian radio format.

September 17^th: When your band is just a year old, it’s always satisfying to wow your audience … well, it is easier with a captive audience … literally. On this date, the Sex Pistols British punk rock band captivated their fans in England’s Chelmsford Prison, Essex. That’s one way to get a standing ovation. Then again, it’s easier in that venue, when your top song in the setlist is “Anarchy in the U.K.”

September 18^th: On the other hand, another Brit band in Queen style made U.K. headlines and likely impressed the royals with a jolly big free concert in London’s Hyde Park that featured “Bohemian Rhapsody.” 150,000 thrilled fans attended.

September 18^th: What else happened on this day? Trying to combat the rise of Disco in a Rock-oriented music landscape, the short-lived (1975-1978) Rock Music Awards presented its second annual show on CBS. Peter Frampton snagged Rock Personality of the Year and the venerable Fleetwood Mac aced everyone else out of the Best Group and Best Album categories. 

September 20^th: Back in the ‘70s, we loved seeing our fave music artists on TV. The Captain and Tennille knew that when they collaborated with ABC for their self-titled musical-variety show. Premiering on this date, it barely made six months before cancellation in March 1977. Maybe TV wasn’t all they thought it would be …

September 25^th: What were Bono, The Edge, English-Irish musician Adam Clayton, and Irish music artist, Larry Mullen Jr., doing on this date? They hung out playing music together in Dublin and tagged themselves Feedback. You came to know them as U2. It would be a few years (1980) before they caught the attention of US music lovers with “I Will Follow.”

September 29^th: About this time, pioneering Rocker, singer Jerry Lee Lewis, would have liked to stay out of the news … Lewis, known most of his life not only for great music, but much-reported public drunkenness, nearly killed his own bass player. That would have been a sad situation for commonly known wild man, “The Killer.” While drinking, he fired a very big gun at a very small Coke bottle. The bullet missed the bottle and hit Norman (Butch) Owens in the chest. Apparently 1976 (as recorded by a 2022 report) was a less than stellar year for Lewis who had more than one police run-in.

♪ September 1976 Song of Note ♪  

Summer’s end invokes musical nostalgia and meaningful memories from throughout life. I don’t know if it’s the searing heat or relaxed attitude, or a lot of margaritas, but Summers are often profound and memorable. I asked three other Boomers who were “there” in 1976 to choose three song title options from our September Featured Radio Survey that “speak” to them, for our September Song of Note.
       One was unanimous. As the songwriter describes it, “… it’s the love triangle situation we’ve all been through …” especially if you’ve experienced a Summer Love. The Manhattans’ “Kiss and Say Goodbye” is the quintessential end-of-Summer song.  
       As bass singer and songwriter, Winfred Lovett, said in his lyrics ♪ … When you turn and walk away | don't look back | I wanna remember you just like this | Let's just kiss and say goodbye … ♪   
       With a deep, lovesick sigh, the tune ranked #15 on the WPEZ Top 30 chart and was the group’s only #1 Pop hit. It even topped their first popular hit from eleven years prior (1965), “I Wanna Be (Your Everything).”
       The other two contenders were close! “Moonlight Feels Right” by Starbuck, was sitting at #24 on WPEZ  ♪ … And watch the moon smiling bright | I'll play the radio on southern stations | 'cause southern belles are hell at night  ♪ … and a bouncy Bee Gees Disco tune that belied its risqué lyrics, at #6, “You Should Be Dancing” ♪ … What you doin on your back aah | You should be dancing, yeah | Dancing, yeah ♪ … instead of … ???

♪ September 2026 Music Events & More ♪    
Enjoy National Piano Month (not to be confused with World Piano Day, March 29^th) Piano Month is listed on all the calendar sites, but there is no official link. However, we found a site that urges you to learn or renew your interest in playing the piano. If that isn’t a desire—set your playlist with a day of piano-driven Oldies! Either way, have fun …  

September 15^th: Raise your hand—how many still have or at any age, collected (or even heard of) old 8-track tape players? Dust it off! It’s National 8-Track Tape Day! (Note: others think it’s on April 11^th; we respectfully disagree.) And dang! We often can’t even get 1 official link, but this day is so popular, it has 2! They both feature great history, with the first is on its Day and the second is right here … Enjoy!

September 25^th: Our Song of Note is one to celebrate … on National One-Hit Wonder Day! Not an official link in sight, but … let’s take a nostalgic trip with Blast From Your Past to its September 1, 2020 article when I featured three one-hit wonders from the KPOI/Hawaii Featured Radio Survey.

♪♪ BFYP Featured Radio Survey ♪♪   
September  3, 1976 ~ WPEZ/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania … the  station prided themselves on “The Station That Brings You The Concerts” and a Top Twenty list of exciting albums, like the top 3: #1, Frampton Comes Alive (Peter Frampton), #2, Wild Cherry (Wild Cherry) and #3, Average White Band’s Soul Searchin’. Were they your faves too? … 50 Years Ago this Month in Rock & Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when your radio played … 

Rock SEPTEMBER 1976 and … Rockin’ into Fall!  

BFYP Book 1 (1954-1959) on Amazon         
BFYP Book 2 (Swinging ‘60s) on Amazon 
Share your Golden Oldies R&R fun on X: @BlastFromPastBk 

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LinDee Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and author by way of Rock & Roll. Two books (of three planned) are published in her Blast from Your Past^TM series, available on Amazon: Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959^TM (eBook only; coming soon in updated print edition) and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties^TM (eBook & print). Coming soon-ish … Book 3 – The Psychedelic Seventies!^TM 

Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed sites of reputable note. Occasionally, since I often feature real people and/or singular sources there may be an unsecured link. As with everything cyber-security, use at your own discretion and risk. This site is wholly owned by LinDee Rochelle & sponsored by PenchantForPenning.com^TM. No compensation is received for any mentions of businesses, products, or other commercial interests. *All holiday and special event days are found at Brownielocks.com’s calendar site. Enjoy! 
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