top-40 in 1957

[Linc Reed-Nickerson]

I remember hearing about a so-called Catholic black list, and I do remember
some PD's and/or managers making an in-house decision on not playing certain
songs... but most of that was later when the issue of drug related lyrics
was an FCC hot button, nothing comes to mind of any Everly Brothers' song
coming under scrutiny.   

One song I remember a manager pulling from the playlist was Donna Summer's,
"Love To Love You Baby" after saying he read an article that claimed she
masturbated while recording the song.  Funny, he didn't pull "Undercover
Angel," of course he never listened to his own station. The station
owner/manager, James F. O'Grady, Jr. was a complete dolt.  He would require
each department head to give him a weekly verbal report.  During the report
he would open his mail and otherwise distract himself.  One day I decided to
see if he was listening, so I told some of the staffers what I was going to
do.  Those staffers included Tom Shovan, Howard Hoffman and Randy West (Ira
Weissblut).  My report went like this.  "Made repairs to automation system,
the Sonomag cart players require a lot of maintenance."  Jim...Uh huh.
"Jim, your pants are on fire." Jim "uh huh" and so on.  So the guys hiding
outside the door start laughing and make a hasty retreat.  Which momentarily
get's Jim's attention... then he continues opening his mail or reading
something...  OK, it was Shovan who gave me the idea.   

Then there was Lou Christie, and those lyrics did get changed, that was
believed to be under pressure from the Catholic church.

Linc