In 1976, Robbie Benson and Glynnis O’Connor starred in a movie version of the 1967 Bobbie Gentry folk classic, “Ode to Billy Joe.” At the time of the movie’s release, I was a student DJ at WMCX-FM at Monmouth University. I was also the “production engineer” for some basement tape recordings my dad made with a musical colleague from Fort Monmouth, NJ who happened to be Bobbie Gentry’s brother. After one visit with his sister during which he shared the music tapes he and my dad recorded, he returned with a complete set of Bobbie Gentry albums for me.

Needless to say, I became very familiar with her music, and when I saw the movie, I was quite surprised by all the hidden references to her other songs in the movie. None of that got very much attention at the time, so I decided to do a radio show special focusing on the hidden references. That show aired August 26, 1976 and is shared here for the first time in podcast form, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the song, “Ode to Billy Joe.”

Back in the early 1970s, we had a music room in the basement. My dad played the vibes (see photo), mom played the Lowrey organ, and we hosted musical accompanists from among my dad’s students in the military at Ft. Monmouth. We made lots of recordings, most of them were songs owned by others, so we’re not posting them online. But my dad did write two songs. This is a recording of one of those compositions, “Hey Kid,” with my dad on vibes and a young bass player named Dave Wilson.

Technical information: The original recording was made on a Roberts 771X reel-to-reel deck with Shure microphones. The tape was Scotch 203 Dynarange.

Let me know what you think. I hope you enjoy hearing it!

A new feature of our site is PodcastSteve’s Radio Archives, a blog series about radio back in the days when editing meant using a razor blade and a grease pencil on magnetic recording tape. Check out other postings in this series here.

In this post, you can download a PDF of the May 1, 1975 article from the Asbury Park Press featuring an interview with Steve and other student leaders of WMCX-FM, the Monmouth University radio station, which was celebrating its first anniversary as an FM station.

The American Freedom Train toured the country during the Bicentennial celebration in 1976. When it visited Bradley Beach, NJ, we visited the train and interviewed visitors. The exhibits of American history were viewed from a moving walkway in the train that took visitors from the back of the train to the front, but many visitors thought the speed of the walkway was too fast to allow them to enjoy the exhibits. You’ll hear a lot of those kinds of comments in this 28 minute recorded program. Anchors were Steve Lubetkin and Lori Zimmerman. This program was broadcast on Monmouth College’s WMCX-FM radio station on September 7, 1976.

Download the podcast here. (Stereo MP3 file, 00:28:11 duration, 34.1 mb)

Listen to the podcast here:

Subscribe to the RSS feed for Podcast Steve’s Radio Archive podcast series.

Apple iPod owners, subscribe to the Podcast Steve’s Radio Archive podcast series in the Apple iTunes Music Store. (Pending.)

These podcasts are available for sponsors. Please let us know if you are interested in sponsoring our programs.

We produce these podcasts in the studios of Professional Podcasts LLC, Cherry Hill, NJ.  These programs are Copyright ©2010 Lubetkin Communications LLC. All rights reserved. Any cross-posting of these programs to commercial websites is strictly prohibited unless licensed in writing by the copyright owner.