Long 1970's Songs 

As I was sitting in the dentist chair today, I was listening to the music playing, and I knew EVERY single song playing. I asked what station it was, and he told me it was the Pandora 70's Hits station. No wonder I knew all the songs.

Any Disc Jockey from the 70's that actually jockied discs knew what songs to play when it was time to hit the bathroom.

When I was in college at WNYT, all of our music was on vinyl, either 45's or LP's. The station was at one side of the Education Hall building, and the restrooms were almost at the other end. We all learned what records to put on so we could go take care of business.

The four that immediately come to mind are Al Stewart/Year of The Cat, Don McLean/American Pie, Harry Chapin/Taxi and FM/Steely Dan. All of them gave us enough time to RUN, (yes, RUN) not walk to that far away bathroom.

When I was at WGLI-AM 1290/Babylon, the bathroom wasn't that far away. It was around the corner from the control room, and when I was there on the weekend, all alone, I never had a problem waiting for someone to get out. During the business week, you had to hope and pray there wasn't a wait.

Way back in 2004, when I was filling in at WEBE 108 in Bridgeport, CT, the first thing I asked was "Where's the bathroom?" By then, there were no records to worry about, a computer ran everything. So the urgency to put on a long record was gone.

One of the shows I did this year on "New York's Best Rock" was "Long Songs." But those were more classic/progressive rock than Adult Contemporary. There's really no AC station that will play Pink Floyd, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Ray Lynch and Renaissance. 

I certainly don't miss the days of having to literally run to the bathroom before a record ran out. 

Ah, the good old days of radio.