Rock Radio 50 Years Ago ♪ ~ FEBRUARY 1976

Rock & Roll Lives for Love!  

Whether we are “in” Love or not, there is no dodging this month made for Love. And apparently, it stretches back to the oldest of “Oldies” music. Says a 2024 article from The Harvard Crimson, “In fact, the oldest known love song is that of Shu-Sin, which was discovered in the library of Ashurbanipal in Mesopotamia and dates back to 2000 BCE.”   

BFYP’s 1970s Oldies are no exception, so we’re giving love a capital “L” all month. In our  February Featured Radio Survey, there are no less than a dozen Love-themed songs in the Top 30, and half of those tout the word “Love” in their titles. So, Rock & Roll fans, you can’t escape the LOVE we feel for our top Oldies tunes … 50 Years Ago this Month …   

FEBRUARY 1976 Radio News & Muse ♪ 
What was your fave DJ playing when you turned on your tinny transistor radio 50 Years Ago? Did your fave artist make the news? Read on and enjoy the memories of what and who you were listening to … 50 Years Ago this Month!  

February 7^th: So, remember in December 2025 when I told you about the Brooklyn, New York, pirate radio station that snuck onto the airwaves? It was a brief escapade—and it was today in 1976 that the FCC raided the station and shut them down. Never fear, the operators, John Calabro and Perry Cavalieri were persistent, if not legal. It didn’t take ‘em long to find another, more elusive wayward station, in WFAT … and when that was raided in 1979 … WFOT. All were short-lived, but talk about tenacious!  

February 20^th: Stomped in Love! On this date 50 Years Ago, Kiss added their big ol’ bootprints to the sidewalk outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. They didn’t have anything on the charts this month, but hit the bottom of Radio lists by end of March with “Shout It Out Loud” to become Kiss’s second song to break the Top 40. Think it isn’t about Love? Au contraire mon chéri, Kiss made self-Love a thing with this tune!  ♪ … It doesn't matter what you do or say | Just forget the things that you've been told | We can't do it any other way | Everybody's got to rock and roll, whoo, oh, oh … ♪  

February 28^th: And what, pray tell, was Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards this day in 1976? Of course: “Love Will Keep Us Together." Although co-writers, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield thought it would be a hit for them 1973, as did brother/sister team, Mac and Katie Kissoon, it was another duo, Captain & Tennille (Daryl Dragon & Toni Tennille) who found the groove with it. The tune gave them their first of many #1 hits. Though ultimately divorced, Ms. Tennille was by the Captain’s side when he passed in 2019. Love, did indeed, keep them together.

Although I don’t have an original February 1976 music survey in my BFYP Collection, I found a couple of fun ones at ARSA (not a secure site). From music artists to the Radio stations who played their hits and misses, where were you spinning the dial 50 Years Ago?  

Were you flyin’ high in Love or the sky, in mile-high Denver, Colorado? KTLK (not a secure site at ARSA) had recently surpassed popular KIMN in ratings and DJ John Edwards loved taking you to new heights in KTLK’s 10p.m. to 2a.m. slot. Believe it or not, in 1969 when KTLN changed its call letters to K-TALK / KTLK, they thought engaging the local teens in chit-chat and music would be fun and innovative. Not in the ‘70s! 
       Listeners loved the music, not so much the talk and it eventually surpassed then-dominant Top 40 station KIMN, especially when KTLK took on the Disco format of the late 1970s. “Denver’s Double K-1280” published a full Top 40 for its listeners—and nevermind that their two Ks were not doubled together.  

Let’s shiver our way over to the Northeast for our Featured Radio Survey, WTAC (ARSA survey, not a secure site) in Flint, Michigan. I had to laugh when I noticed one of their Hit Bound tunes, “Deep Purple” by “The Lovely Donny & Marie Osmond.” Someone at the station was obviously enamored of them (or at least, Marie)! And with good reason. “Deep Purple” ultimately became the 42^nd-biggest hit of 1976 in the U.S.
       DJ Peter Cavanaugh (1941-2021) was just getting started as a DJ and made a name for himself by striking up friendships with AC/DC (Australia) and The Who (England), premiering them in the U.S. They were connections that followed him as he moved up the Radio ladder, to serve in management, even though he’d scored a BA in political science. Radio is more fun!
       WTAC thrived throughout the decade as "The Big 600." That lasted 'til 1981 when Top 40s petered out and it flipped to Country. 

Having some fun with research, I found that in the first month, January) 2026, there may have been current songs about Love, but you can’t tell from their titles. Not a one with Love in the title … kinda sad, don’t you think? Since Love dominates our lives in mates, family and friends, check out the two tantalizing Love tunes for your February 1976 musical memories …  

♪ February 1976 Song of Note ♪  
Wow. Every year in the 1970s gets more and more difficult to choose a Song of Note—there are so many iconic classics in every Top 20! This month, from “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover” (Paul Simon) at #1 on our Featured Radio Survey, to “Theme From S.W.A.T.” (Rhythm Heritage) rounding out the top 20 (of 30) tunes, it was a daunting jaunt through time.
       I try to take into account the general mood of the month, so Valentine Y Love rules February, and I finally settled on two, absolute opposites … from the pain of love in Nazareth’s “Love Hurts,” sitting at #5 on the chart, to the Miracles exclaiming love’s exuberant joy in “Love Machine,” at #6, we’ve got ya covered.
       Scottish band, Nazareth, struck a painful chord with “Love Hurts” that resonated with so many, and still does! By far, theirs is the most popular version of the song, originally recorded by The Everly Brothers in 1960 and covered by others before Nazareth gave it a hard Rock vibe. From the lead singer to the lead guitarist, you can feel their pain. ♪ … Love is like a flame | It burns you when it's hot | Love hurts...... ooh, ooh love hurts … Oh, yes, sometimes it does … 
       On the other end of the Love spectrum, however, following right on its heels on the WTAC music chart, “Love Machine,” by the Miracles, expressed the other side of Love—pure joy! And I gotta say, my pure joy came when I pulled up the YouTube video and found the Miracles dominating the stage flaunting extravagant 1970s Disco style, in matching “Pepto Bismal”-pink suits! Oh, the memories! ♪ … I'm just a love machine | And I won't work for nobody but you | A hugging kissing fiend … ♪   

Believe it or not, my Rock & Roll friends, this is NOT the end of our February 1976 Rockin’ the Love memories! There is a little more to come, but this is the bulk of it. Enjoy … and come back for more with images and a little sprucing up, in a couple of days.

Rock February 1976 and … Let’s Rock the Love!  

BFYP Book 1 (1954-1959) on Amazon         
BFYP Book 2 (Swinging ‘60s) on Amazon 
Blast from Your Past Gifts 
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! 
            RE: AI – The Blast from Your Past site has never and will never (knowingly) be written or assisted, by Artificial Intelligence. It’s just stupid ol’ “I” and I enjoy writing these articles. They soothe my soul. So why would I hand that indulgence over to an artificial, soulless entity that can’t feel pleasure?!

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Rock Radio 50 Years Ago ~ JANUARY 1976

We Rock to a New Beat & Dream On to a New Retro Year   

Updated 01/12/2026:
Happy 2026 Rock & Roll fans! Are ya ready to Rock around the clock for another year of nostalgic reverence with the iconic Music of 1976?! 

From vintage Radio surveys to a Wolfman Jack birthday tribute, to our perfect-for-the-moment January vintage Song of Note, we’re ready to dream on about the good ol’ days.

Welcome to the New Year at Blast From Your Past as once again we venture into Rock & Roll Radio’s Solid Gold Oldies and the pioneering Rock Radio Jocks who brought them to us, 50 Years Ago this Month …!  

º JANUARY 1976 Radio News & Muse ♪ 

What was your fave DJ playing when you turned on your tinny transistor radio 50 Years Ago? Were
you Rockin’ out in Augusta, Georgia, Great Falls, Montana, or Rochester, New York? You might remember …

This month we’re treated to three storied Rock Radio Stations of the 1970s that, however long or short their fan popularity, helped shape the broadcast landscape of the decade. Were you listening to Wolfman Jack at …

Along with our annual salute to Wolfman Jack’s birthday (January 21^st) he is also featured on the cover of WAUG/Augusta, Rockin’ 105, January 1976. He slips into syndicated weekend duty in the healthy DJ lineup of eight energetic jocks. Do you remember listening to (in order, starting at 6a.m.): Jim Chase, Brian Scott, Jack Dillon, Trashman, Pamela Sweet; and weekenders: Rick Spires, Ed Turner and Rick Shaw? 
       In the beginning of its broadcast life in 1952, WAUG was a daytimer (required to go off-air at night). Both its longer broadcast hours and Rock format flaunted on the January ’76 survey, seems to have been short-lived, as its Christian format power is greatly reduced at night. Everything was more fun back in the ‘70s! 

Join us as we jog west to Great Falls, Montana, where the locals knew KEIN Radio 1310 is pronounced “keen.” It’s the grandaddy of Montana Radio, becoming its oldest Radio station, on the air since 1922.

       Licensing to “dime stores” became a thing, around the time the F. A. Buttery & Company department store set up its transmitter in Havre, Montana, known as KFBB. After several station call letter changes, it settled on KEIN in 1972 and is currently broadcasting a comedy format. What makes it special this month?
       KEIN’s “The Electric Thirty” music chart sports a classic New Year boo-boo … the survey is stamped January 3, 1975, but the tunes are clearly from January 1976. Oops! Their goof makes it that much more valuable in my Rock Radio survey collection 50 Years later.  

Let’s zigzag back to the east for our Featured Radio Survey station’s “Official Copy 1” for their 1976 “new BBF,” best known as WBBF 95/Rochester, New York. Mind you, it had been around since 1947 originally branded as WARC, and WBBF since 1953. But hey, who are we to question its New Year need to refresh?

Ironically, the January 7, 1976, “The New BBF” survey, flaunting flashy 1970s cartoon art, reaches backwards to feature their Top 100 of 1975. They were, though, not inclined to change their standard chart headings, so “The Albums” section begins the Top 100 tunes, the center’s “Better Music” still lists their current Top 30, and “The Words” likely used for featured song lyrics, continues the Top 100 list. Um, are you confused yet?
       Although lauded sports journalist and talk radio host, Chuck Wilson, began his broadcast career at WBBF, cover DJ Mike O’Brian gets the spotlight this month. Mike may have been a popular Rock Radio DJ in 1976, but by 1995 he traded in his studio microphone for a local TV studio to whisk you away on great summer day-trips!
       As of a fairly recent report, Chuck remains active as Mike the Getaway Guy on Facebook and YouTube and still talking travel.

 Enjoy the memories of what and who you were listening to … as we dive into the news of 50 Years Ago this Month! 

January 15^th: Released on this date, Frampton Comes Alive double live album is a coup for Frampton, following four mediocre albums. In a 25^th anniversary salute, a remixed and extended album was released in January 2001, with Frampton and the band performing live at Tower Records in L.A. (Remember them? The online version is a click away.)  

January 16^th: Pop icons, Donny & Marie (Osmond) have been in the public eye since the early 1960s. But it was January 1976 when they became the darlings of the TV musical variety shows. In addition to records, the siblings made TV their home in the studio until 1979. She’s a li’l bit Country and he’s a li’l bit Rock & Roll—well, siblings don’t always get along, ya know.  

January 19^th: It was on this date in 1976 that for the second time, promoter, Bill Sargent, offered The Beatles big bucks to reunite for a concert. And for the second time, they turned him down. It was 1974 when he first waived $10 million in front of them. Not impressed, he tried again today in 1976, tripling his offer to $30 million and escalated it again to $50 million in February. The Beatles considered it, but ultimately said they were not interested in reuniting just for money and the altruistic or creative reasons were just not there. Their millions of adoring fans were the real losers.

January 20^th: Turn your Radio UP—it’s National Disc Jockey Day! Yet another richly deserving special day no longer has a sponsor, but this monthly article would not exist without the likes of revolutionary Rock Radio DJ Alan Freed. Today marks the anniversary of his death in 1965. A casualty of the payola scandals, Freed died of alcoholism–-and some say a broken heart—at a youthful 43 years old. (Link above is for your historical perusal.) 
       The more imminent existence of Blast from Your Past books and this article, are the pioneering Rock Radio DJs who followed in Freed’s footsteps (sans the payola, of course), bringing energy and excitement to Radio in the 1960s-1990s. Those who piqued my interest* and I count as friends, include our DJ extraordinaire, Bill Gardner/WIBG-Philly, his buddy and another BFYP mentor, Shotgun Tom Kelly/SoCal stations, Joey Reynolds/WKBW-Buffalo; Cousin Brucie/WABC-NYC, and William F. Williams/KMEN-San Bernardino, just to name a few. *Radio stations noted are just their most well-known, since DJs have a long list of nationwide stations on their lifelong lists. All in my 2^nd Blast From Your Past book, The Swinging Sixties! 

January 21^st: On the heels of National Disk Jockey Day, the illustrious pioneering Radio DJ, Wolfman Jack (January 21, 1938-July 1, 1995), to whom our Blast From Your Past books are dedicated, is again in our thoughts as we celebrate what would have been his 38^th birthday in 1976. 
       One can only imagine the eyebrows he would have raised as he aged through various decades of the past 50 Years of societal upheavals. Hmmmm, I wonder how he and President Trump would have gotten along … 
       Consider Wolfman’s comments from his book Have Mercy! Confessions of the Original Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal (1995) about changes and challenges in Radio and music industry … nowadays a new artist has to practically go through a computer bank just to get on the air. They’ve gotta have a perfect video, and have sex appeal written on their face in big letters. They’ve got to be a whole lot like what’s already popular, so program directors won’t be scared to play their records. Sound familiar? And that was 31 years ago!

January 23^rd: David Bowie’s 10^th studio album, Station to Station, was released today, just a couple of weeks after the single “Golden Years” from it, hit the bottom of Radio charts, on its way to #1. WAUG/Augusta, Georgia, listed the song at #33 the first week of January, eventually climbing to Top Ten status. The album is considered in the industry, to be one of Bowie’s most noteworthy projects.

January 31^st: Although this date is Billboard’s “official” #1 hit date for the Ohio Players’ “Love Rollercoaster,” the energetic tune hit the top of both WBBF/Rochester, New York, and WAUG/Augusta, Georgia, charts the first week of January. The song took its time getting there, though, as its album, Honey was released six months earlier. Check out the YouTube link to Wolfman Jack’s Midnight Special show. It’s classic Wolfman introducing a future classic funk and Disco song  ♪ … Your love is like a rollercoaster baby, baby | All you do is ride (I like to ride, I like to ride, high) … ♪   

♪ January 1976 Song of Note ♪  
The beginning of a New Year is all about looking forward and dreaming big. What can you accomplish this year? Inspiration comes in music form from our monthly Song of Note. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith learned what can happen when you don’t give up and “Dream On.”* 
       Eventually becoming one of Aerosmith’s most played tunes, when “Dream On” hit the lower rungs of January 1976 music charts, it was on its second trip around the Radio dial. Its first release June 27, 1973, was less than stellar, but Tyler, who completed the lyrics at fourteen years old, knew the song had legs … he just needed to stretch ‘em.
       On December 27, 1975, Aerosmith released a longer version of “Dream On”—and more of what young Tyler had dreamt of. It pleased a larger audience than the first release and by first week of January, was well on its way to helping us all Dream On.
       At KEIN/Rochester, New York, “Dream On” was still hanging on its chart at the end of March, grasping for a star ♪ … Sing with me, sing for the year | Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear … Dream on, dream on, dream on | Dream until your dreams come true … ♪   
       * Steven Tyler lives a life making musical dreams come true, and while still “making music,” his trademark screams have been largely silenced since 2024. In September 2025, Tyler performed a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne (1948-2025). 

♪♪ BFYP Featured Radio Survey ♪♪   
January 3, 1976 ~ WBBF/Rochester, New York. As we know, the 1970s were over-the-top in all the arts, and Radio music charts are a prime artistic example. WBBF’s January graphics are alternately insane and brilliant. DJ Mike O’Brian on the cover as the man-in-the-moon with a nearby flying saucer and fun art, turns to chaos. 
       Inside, the chart’s massive spread of irreverent cartoon characters includes Zappa, Elton John and ‘70s quintessential duo, Cheech & Chong. I think it’s more fun looking back, than it was back in its prime … 50 Years Ago this Month in Rock & Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when your radio played … 

Let's Rock JANUARY 1976 and … Dream On!  

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

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ 

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! 
            RE: AI – The Blast from Your Past site has never and will never (knowingly) be written or assisted, by Artificial Intelligence. It’s just stupid ol’ “I” and I enjoy writing these articles. They soothe my soul. So why would I hand that indulgence over to an artificial, soulless entity that can’t feel pleasure?!

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