commodores "nightshift"

Got lucky, and managed to find this old thread. Hey, edtop40: If you read this, could you please fix the spelling of the song title in the "Subject" line, so that others may find this thread more easily in the future when they use the search engine??? (I only found it because I searched under "Commodores" instead of "Nightshift".) Thanks in advance... :-)

I see that Pat DOES have the 1990 re-issue of this song's original parent album - also titled Nightshift - on Motown MOTD-5400 listed in the on-line database already. However, I noticed that he's missing the original U.S. CD release from when the album first came out in 1985, on Motown 6124 (which matches the original vinyl LP & cassette). Because this was an early CD, all copies I've seen to date were Japan-for-U.S. pressings; full catalog no. was actually MCDO6124MD. I happen to have a copy of Motown 6124 myself, so if Pat wishes to add it immediately, I can report that the title track has an actual time of (5:03), and is of course the LP length. It's pretty tough to find today, but there's currently one used copy listed on eBay, w/ nice photos: COMMODORES - "Nightshift" (original U.S. CD)

OK, here's a curious one. Was there ever a promo edit of the 12" Club Mix version?

There's a weird reason I'm asking this. Somebody a few years ago posted an aircheck on YT of WLS-AM/Chicago in 1985 when the song was a
current, and that's what they played (originally they carted off the 45 version then switched to this version).

Apropos of nothing, I'm on this aircheck (no, I'm not the one who posted it).

If you're curious what I really sound like (and yes, I still sound like that), here it is in all its glory:

WLS-AM, 5/16/85

My bit's intro starts at about (:38) in. Try not to cringe too much.

EDIT: Apparently there was a promo edit of the 12" (runs (4:48))--I had looked on 45cat when I should've looked on Discogs. Still, the
aircheck is worth a chuckle and/or a cringe.

Edited by sriv94

aaronk wrote: I have the promo 12” in my collection, so I can dub it if you’d like to hear it, Doug. By the way, did you work at WLS? You mention that station often from a listener point-of-view, but I’ve not heard you talk about being on the air, even if only for an occasional bit.

It's a long story. I was principally a listener first and foremost, and as a lark when WLS did a remote broadcast in 1983 from
the former ChicagoFest, I went. I harbored little if any thought about wanting to be in radio--I figured this was a great
opportunity to meet a couple of WLS personalities I admired and see how the sausage was made, so to speak. So I met them, kind
of saw how they did they things (of course, all the music was back at the radio station and controlled from there--the jocks
just had the list of what was going to be played, commercial copy for live reads, and anything they wanted to use for show
prep). And that was that, or so I thought.

So now it's two years later, and WLS is celebrating 25 years of the CHR format on their airwaves (for years, they were country-
formatted, as the home base of the Prairie Farmer network and also Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, until ABC bought the station
from Sears and with it brought the same sound that would be installed on WABC and KQV). So several weekends in April and May,
they brought back as many of the old DJs as they could for reminiscing (amongst themselves and listeners), airchecks and the
occasional song. When they got to the 1970s portion of the proceedings, again channeling my inner fandom, I called in. The DJ
(Fred Winston) recognized my voice from two years earlier! (Actual quote: "Are you the guy from ChicagoFest? Do not hang up
this phone! I'm going to make a star out of you!") He had his producer take my number off the air and promised to call me
back. And I'm thinking, "Yeah, he'll call me back. And the Cubs will win the World Series." That night, he did call me back.

(Told you it was a long story. :) )

During the call, he had mentioned that WLS was going to start to morph away from music and into a more personality-driven
format (less records, more banter and phone calls). And he thought my voice would be perfect for a bit that he and one of his
friends (a local comedian who only occasionally appeared on-air, and only with Fred) were creating. Thus was the bit you heard
in the posted aircheck (we did about five or six of them--but the one in the aircheck was the strongest). Fred then graciously
allowed me to sit in with him a few times a week when I was recording these bits so that I could for all intents and purposes
learn the business. It was a blast.

It ended around the Fourth of July--I'm not exactly sure why or what happened, but I was due to go back to college and had a
family wedding in NY within a few weeks, so it was for the best that it did end. By the fall, the station was in a little
upheaval--their longtime morning guy (Larry Lujack) wanted to move to another slot so that he could sleep in. That set off a
chain reaction of moves, which weren't necessarily for the better--Fred moved to mornings, Larry moved to afternoons, and the
former afternoon-drive team of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier (who delivered the station's strongest ratings for doing anything but
playing music) were up for contract but clashed viciously with station management. Still, had they been given morning drive
(instead of Fred) they probably could've been convinced to stay on. Management wanted no part of that. (They worked middays
for three days in 1986 and departed immediately.) For all intents and purposes, it killed the radio station--Dahl and Meier
took their audience with them to another station and WLS languished (trying a CHR/talk hybrid from 1986-87, a full-service AC
approach with syndicated talk shows at night in the fall of 1987 [Lujack, having lost one of his children in a terrible
accident, retired in August], and then ditching the decent-sounding AC for an eclectic mix of standards with the occasional
Beatles/Springsteen song thrown in just to keep them honest that winter). It was, to put it mildly, abysmal. That set the
stage for the August 1989 debut of the talk format that continues to this day (and they're still languishing)--seven years
after WABC's "The Day The Music Died" (which was a drawn-out affair), WLS' was one quick segue from a substitute PM drive jock
who happened to notice in the station log about 10 minutes before his shift ended that he was going to be the one to play the
last song ever heard on the Big 89 (he chose Chicago's "Just You And Me," for no other reason except he was rummaging through
the cart library trying to find something relatively appropriate). He played it, they went to news and their syndicated talk
stuff, and signed off for maintenance at midnight (overnights were generally music-driven) to get the new phones and necessary
equipment installed. (To be fair, the rehiring of John Landecker for nights in 1986 made for excellent radio, and he was a
shining star amidst the languishing even after he took over afternoons from Lujack.)

(Did I mention this was a long story? :) )

So the tldr answer is yes, I did very briefly, but not as a jock. (No payment, but it was worth it. :) ) Although (I think
statute of limitations expired on this) after I graduated from college in 1988, the then-overnight guy I had become chummy
with, and he invited me to sit in with him one night. He showed me how to cue a jingle and a cart, went to the men's room and
said "If I don't get back [in time], you run the board." (FTR, it was Elton John's "Daniel" that I "played.")

Edited by sriv94

sriv94 wrote: after I graduated from college in 1988, the then- overnight guy I had become chummy with, and he invited me to sit in with him one night. He showed me how to cue a jingle and a cart, went to the men's room and said "If I don't get back, you run the board." (FTR, it was Elton John's "Daniel" that I "played.")

Curiously, when did WLS do away with board ops and start
having the jocks run their own boards?

Great story, Doug! Thanks for sharing :) I'll dig out my promo 12" this afternoon.