In keeping with our celebration of Sister Renita, let's think back to what it sounded like on the radio at that time. Right around Christmas of the 1977-78 school year, disco really exploded on the national scene with the release of Saturday Night Fever. But I'm not sure Appleton really got with the program, at least right away. You would hear the Bee Gees and Donna Summer on the radio, but there was always a fair amount of pushback to it.
Some kids at XHS listened to WAPL, the "progressive" rock station in Appleton that eventually became a repository of metal mindlessness. I can still hear the dulcet tones of David Lee, a dude from Milwaukee who ended up working at "Apple 106" during the era, whose voice was an unholy cross between John Facenda and Barry White:
Apple 106. . . this is David Lee, kicking off a forty minute APPLE JAM, featuring the Scorps, Y & T, Twisted Sister, and Ratt. Let's kick it off with Axe -- Big Stick Goes Boom! Kick-ass rock and roll, on the Apple!
If you wanted Top 40, the pick was usually WKAU, out of nearby Kaukauna. They were a fairly pedestrian station but you would hear at least some of what was popular nationally on their airwaves. I remember listening to KAU a lot in those days and you would hear songs like these:
Lonely Boy, by Andrew Gold
Thunder Island, by Jay Ferguson
What'cha Gonna Do, by Pablo Cruise
And even, once in a great while, a song that was a little more, ahem, urban - like these:
Don't Leave Me This Way, by Thelma Houston
Strawberry Letter 23, by the Brothers Johnson
Musically, it wasn't very challenging stuff. And since I was about 13 or 14 at the time, I wasn't really ready to be challenged. There was such an amazing amount of music to discover that didn't usually penetrate the consciousness of a kid growing up in the Valley. But if you're like me, every one of those songs takes you right back. If you're so inclined, pick your favorite. I can't prove it, but I heard that Sister Renita was a big Brothers Johnson fan....
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