Episode 74: Anthony Hartke comes full (vinyl) circle

Anthony Hartke was really into music even in grade school. He discovered 97X around 6th grade and stuck with the station throughout its existence. (He even tuned in to woxy.com when he was deployed overseas in the Army back in 2005-2006.) When woxy.com sold off vinyl LPs from the original 97X music library, Anthony picked up several albums that still contained an old school “grid” on the cover for 97X DJs to mark the date and time that they played a track. We talk to Anthony about his love for the station, and Dave explains what the heck “ultracore” meant.

Here are the 97X artifact albums that Anthony picked up at Shake It Records in Northside:

Story behind my acquisition: sometime after the terrestrial station went off the air, the station sold off old vinyl since everything was going CD or digital.  Maybe it was to raise funds?  I don’t remember.  Anyway, the sales all went thru Shake It Records.  I was at UC at the time and stopped in and found a milk crate of them in the basement of the store and pulled out a few.  Looking back, I wish I would have bought the entire milk crate!

Anthony Hartke

The albums that 97X DJs played in the studio contained a grid that listed the suggested tracks to play, and spaces for the jocks to write down the date/time that they played a particular tune, to help the station avoid playing the same song or artist too frequently.

At some point, the vinyl grid on the album was replaced by an index card in a old-school “recipe box.” The intent was still the same: to ensure variety instead of repetition.

On the one album, there is a hand-written date of 5/17/1989 … it’s really cool to think that some of the DJs you have had on your podcast would have touched these exact albums back when I was listening to the station as a kid.  And seeing the handwritten notes like “Ultracore” are just awesome.  “That’s Entertainment” by the Jam is a quintessential 97x song in my head; I remember hearing it on the radio as a kid and it was probably from this exact album.

Anthony Hartke

I remember the 2004 shut down vividly and getting really emotional.  No one understood it. No one understood why a 21 year old guy would cry over a radio station.  But it was really like losing a friend…

When WOXY shut down March 23rd, 2010 (9 days after my 27th birthday) I was devastated again. Painful to this day thinking back on it (tearing up thinking about it now), but I’ll be forever grateful to 97X/WOXY for all that it gave me.

Anthony Hartke

Thanks to YOU for listening, Anthony. It was passionate music lovers like you that made our time at 97X/woxy.com so rewarding, and it’s why we do our “Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast.

(Anthony reached out to us via email at 97Xwoxy@gmail.com. We welcome your notes as well.)