Bills, Bills, Bills

Been slacking off, so here's a quickie post of the Bill Cartwright version of WIMZ's Waves. This show is from June of 1981, based on "Stand and Deliver" being at the top of the UK charts for five weeks (thank you Google!). A couple of songs that are in my list of favorites by those artists are on these shows (PIL, John Cale) and which were probably my first exposure to those specific tracks.

WIMZ-WAVES-Bill Cartwright 1981-02
WIMZ-WAVES-Bill Cartwright 1981-03

New Wave, Old Waves

For the past 25+ years I've had it filed away in the back of my brain that Jeff Huggins was not the first host of WIMZ's WAVES program, but I had no confirmation until this week, when I repaired the terribly abused cassette pictured below. A little splicing tape, a little re-applied masking tape, and a digital transfer leads us to today's audio.


Turns out that little brain worm was correct - Bill Cartwright (presumably not the 90's Bulls' center) was the initial host of the program. I know even less about Bill than I do about Jeff, so if you have any info please pop in on the comments and fill us in. This show is from 1981, and my memory tells me that this was the first time I heard (or at least the first time that I taped) WAVES.

Since it's Tuesday (even though it's not midnight EST), it's the appropriate time to post this show.



WIMZ-WAVES-Bill Cartwright 1981 01
WIMZ-WAVES-Bill Cartwright 1981 02

Waves Rock 104's boat

I listened to WIMZ (aka Rock 104) since before it was WIMZ - when it was WBIR, and played some sort of alternative/outlaw country format (I had gotten bored with WRJZ and WNOX and their top-40 format). I have to admit that during most of the time that I lived in the area (about 20 years) they mostly sucked - how many times can a man hear Light My Fire and survive? (I suspect that that may actually be a long-running WIMZ project, perhaps funded by DARPA in the name of national security).



Sometime in late 1980 or early 1981 I got tipped off to a show called Waves that was hosted by Jeff Huggins and aired on either Monday or Tuesday night after midnight (If I had been blogging this 10 years ago, I would be able to remember exactly. Now, not so much). I think Jeff may actually have been the second host, but at this point I haven't found any tapes that confirm this vague memory.

I don't remember how long the show ran, but I don't think that I have any tapes past about 1982.

Waves (the snotty punk younger brother), along with UNRADIO (the hip, older uncle), were glorious beacons of hope to a Murvil youth stuck in a town of Freebird fanatics.

These recordings are presented as they appear on my tapes - pause button editing included - as tremendously important artifacts of my youth. It's a tribute to (in this case) Memorex that the tape is still playable, because I played it over and over.

WIMZWaves1981-part01

WIMZWaves1981-part02


P.S. Jeff Huggins - if you're out there, I'd love to talk to you about this show.