Saturday, August 06, 2005

Hidden history revealed - The REM/dBs station I.D.

I took time recently to figure out how to hook up my dad's vintage Nakamichi 500 cassette deck to my computer. I've got a stack of old cassette tapes that will wear out eventually and I wanted to dump the audio into my hard drive and convert the highlights to .mp3.

While listening to a tape from the KJHK era (1984-1987), I found this station I.D. with elements of R.E.M. (probably Mike Mills) and the dB's telling you that you're listening to KJHK.

I had doubted in a previous post that anyone from REM did an interview the day of the Hoch auditorium concert (September, 1984) until I uncovered this audio relic. I don't know how I could have forgotten about it. The cart stayed in the air studio and was played hundreds of times over the next few years. Now it appears that they did make it over to the shack at sudler annex for a brief interview and an improvised recording session that featured a harmonica version of the Andy Griffith theme in the background. I've got a couple of other station I.D.s and perhaps I'll post a few more for your listening pleasure.

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