WLAY-AM Radio

This is how we roll. I told her I would take her places and I have – my trophy bride is now pampered by three trips to Paris in five years. First Paris, MO then Paris, IL and today Paris, KY. 

On today’s adventure I turned an eight-hour interstate trip to Birmingham, AL into a 12-hour Blue Highways hopscotch through southern Illinois, eastern Kentucky and northern Alabama. I let my trusted Wing mate take the wheel and I navigated. “Just ahead at the Dollar General is a short cut that will take us into Alabama,” I directed.  “We crossed into Alabama at least 20 miles ago,” she said. I knew that.

The goal of any family vacation we took as kids with my dad was to make good time, with limited concessions made to youthful bladders. I am still rebelling. Today, after stitching together a tapestry of roads covering every letter in the alphabet, we pull into the Florence, AL convenience store that boasted $2.98 gas and a parking lot boarding WLAY-AM radio, the oldest radio station in the southern US. On the air since 1933, it is one of the last AM stations in the state. That is over the last 90 years a lot of farm reports, school closings and high school football games. 

I read recently that Ford has announced that starting in 2025 they will no longer program AM radio into their cars’ sound systems. What a shame. Kids today will never know the joy AM radio brought to our lives. In 1971 I heard for the first time Bye Bye Miss American Pie on KXOX-AM at a time when all the hot girls only liked older guys. These sentiments, I admit, sound silly today, but AM radio was our lifeline. Remember Johnny Rabbit? He didn’t just play the hit records of the day; he was the man behind the magician’s curtain, and he made the world tolerable. 

To this day my chest swells with pride when I recall the day in October 1967 (when all the World Series games were played in the daytime) and right under the holy Sister’s nose, I snuck my $5 Sears transistor radio into my 6th grade classroom. In a steely clandestine move, I snaked an earphone cord from my pocket hiding place up and under my shirt and to my left ear. Then I stealthily leaned my head into my left palm. 

I had both moxy and now the earned honor of announcing to my buddies that Javier had just taken a 5th inning Lonborg hanging curve over the Green Monster of Fenway for a three-run dinger. Cards 5. Red Sox 1. With Gibby on the mound, boys it is over, the Cards will win the 7th and deciding game of the Series. 

WLAY was our golden hits companion for 28 miles as we rolled down Alabama 187, then the signal failed. By the time we hit Moulden, we were back to Sirius radio. Oh well. If we can find a Holiday Inn tonight with a blinking neon sign, we are in, damn the cost. That’s how we roll.