Tony Bennett "Fly Me To The Moon"

The first radio station I worked at was a very small, independent, family owned-and-operated outfit.  We did a lot with a little.

But in my early days with them, we didn't have the resources to be a 24 hour station.  And since I worked the last shift, it was my job to sign off the air, shut off the transmitters and close down the building for the night.

On weeknights, I had an alternative music specialty show, that ran from 10 to 12, but on Fridays and Saturdays, I got to expand it to a full 6 hours---on at 8pm and off at 2am.

It was a joyful and exhilarating task, to build that much live programming, on the fly, playing CDs and keeping the night moving.  By 2am, I was usually a little punch drunk.

I had a ritual to close out the night.

There was a checklist of things I was supposed to do throughout the building before walking out the door.  Shutting down certain computers, turning of certain lights, checking certain locks, and finally, turning off the transmitter.

And I did it to the strains of Tony Bennett.

Tony Bennett isn't particularly alternative, but this was the little window in the mid-90s, when he had gone through an image rehab.  He'd appeared with The Red Hot Chili Peppers and performed with kd lang and recorded an MTV Unplugged CD.

And let's face it, there just weren't that many people listening to an alternative specialty show on a 3,000 watt rural Virginia radio station at 2 in the morning.  So why not do something weird.

"Fly Me To The Moon" the MTV Unplugged version, was about 2:30 minutes long, and when I hit play on the track, I had just enough time to walk out of the studio and weave in and out of the other rooms in the building, flipping switches and securing locks, all while singing along with Tony, at the top of my lungs.

My loop around the building would get me back to my chair just as the song was ending and the roar of the audience surged.

The album left nearly 30 seconds of clapping, where I had time to say something along the lines of:

"That's What's The Alternative? for tonight, I'll be back on Monday at 10pm for more.  We'll be back on the air tomorrow morning at 6am.  For now . . . you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.  WABN concludes another broadcast day."

And I'd fade out the track, walk to the transmitter and shut it down, and then head out the front door and into the night, my throat a little scratchy from the Bennett-belting and my mind a little fuzzy from the fun.



Hear the song on Youtube.



Hear the Sesame Street version on Youtube.