By Cecil Houk

This is the 3rd in a series about The Class of '57. Popular music changes with time, and the music of 1957 is quite different from the music of today's high schoolers.  It's hard to imagine that there are young people today that will not listen to these songs.

To see and read more of my articles about Sweet Home see my I remember ... series.
To see and hear more about the music of 1957: click_here

The image above is from a 5 CD pack that I purchased at COSTCO a few weeks ago. It was produced by RHINO, and is just one of 20 CD's in their series that I now have that span the years 1957 through 1979. The 1957 songs come with the CD's that span the years 1957 through 1961, with 10 titles on each CD. The COSTCO price computes to about $0.60 per song. This means that the CD's cost far less in 1957 dollars than the original records!

There was no cable TV in Sweet Home in 1957, and the reception of TV channels from Portland (6, 8, and 27), and Eugene (13), was very poor at best. That left AM radio as the only "broadcast" entertainment. There were very few FM stations at the time because of two factors: 1) The Government was playing games issuing licenses for FM stations. 2) The FM receivers of the day were not all that good. As I recall KWIL-FM, in Albany, was the only FM station in Linn County in 1957.

There was no Sony Corp. yet, so there were no Walkmans (TM). The Compact Cassette (C) tapes and CD's were yet to be invented. The 45 RPM records were starting to replace the 78's, and stereo LP's were becoming more common. Reel to reel tape recorders were beginning to replace the wire recorders. Before somebody jumps me about it: Yes; RCA did have a cassette tape recorder in the late 1950's, but it was just a reel to reel machine with the tape sealed in a box.
 
 

I don't think there were many exclusive C&W (Country & Western), music stations in Oregon that could be picked up in Sweet Home in the 1950's. I do know this: In 1994 I visited my brother Doug (who was living in Aurora OR at the time), and his radio was glued to 103.7, KXPC, in Lebanon. The funny thing is that I set one of my car radio pre-sets to that frequency, and while driving through Astoria my radio flip-flopped between KXPC and a station in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Also C&W!

On the subject of C&W: For all you Sweet Homies who may have come to San Diego at one time or another with the US Navy - KSON-AM 1240 KHz, that was C&W "forever"... Is now "Radio Disney" for the San Diego area. I think I'm gunna be sick!

Getting back on topic...

There were no commercial radio stations in Sweet Home in 1957, but do you remember Dick Novak's broadcasts from "Amato's" in Portland? Gee! You are old! I admit to growing old, but I refuse to "grow up"! As I recall, Dick's program was on KPOJ 1330 on the dial, and was called "Rhythm Room". It was live, and he played all the songs we loved. It wasn't MUSIC, but do you remember Bob Newheart's "Driving Instructor"? "The flashing red light blinded you. The flashing red light... on the car you hit... blinded you? Oh! Hello. Yes Officer. She was just telling me about it." FDOTFLMAO!! Which stands for "falling down on the floor laughing my behind off".

Before I forget: There were a number of AM stations in Oregon that began with "KGA*". KGAL in Lebanon. KGAY in Salem. Do you know What the "GA" stood for? (hint Gordon Allen) I think that people today would have a problem with K GAY. Mr. Allen did own other stations, but I don't remember the call letters. KGAL did live remote broadcasts from White's Furniture in Sweet Home. Some local talent was used.

I don't know that it's true, but I was told that Don and Phil Everly were on the other side of the fence that separated NTC & MCRD (Navy & Marine Corps boot camps in San Diego), at the same time I was enduring Recruit Training November 61 - February 62. To this day I thank God that I was on the Navy side of that fence!

NTC San Diego has been closed, and various groups fought over that prime location property. MCRD is still in operation turning out "grunts".
 
 

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was reelectect for a second term as President of The United States in 1956, and was sworn in to start that term just a few months before we would start our second term of higher education in college, or go off to begin our working years. I had a part time job after school working in a Radio & TV repair shop. The man who owned this shop (obviously not a member of the GOP), wrote the following after the election.

The election is over,
The results are well known.
The will of the people has
Clearly been shown.

 Let's all get together,
And show by our deeds,
That we will give Ike
All the backing he needs.

 Let bygones be bygones;
Let the bitterness pass.
I'll hug your Elephant,
You kiss my Ass.

Fortunately a lot of the music of the 1950's is still around. Many areas have radio stations that play nothing but the oldies. KEARTH-FM 101.1 MHz., in Los Angeles, over the Memorial Day weekend this year, did a continuous top 300 countdown of the music of the 50's and 60's. With most of these songs having a play time of about 2 minutes, it was almost 10 or 11 hours before a song was repeated.