I was born in a small town in Southwestern Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh. The radio always seemed to be on in the house from the time I was a toddler so I began listening to popular music early in my life. I got a suitcase-type record player and a few recorded nursery rhymes to play on it when I was very young. By the late fifties, my Mom’s radio was replaced by the TV and when I got home from school American Bandstand was usually on and I would watch with her. I found out that I could buy 45 RPM records of the songs Dick Clark was playing and soon I had a small collection of hits by Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and other regular American Bandstand guests.

By the time the sixties hit, I had a small green transistor radio of my own to take to my room and listen to while I did my homework. I started searching for stations that played the records I heard on American Bandstand and while on my search I discovered a station that played a different kind of music from what I had been listening to, WAMO 860 AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, music that in a short time would be known as Soul. WAMO had a DJ on in the late afternoon who was even more different. His name was Porky Chedwick, “The Daddio Of The Raddio,” and he played records that I had never heard before. Not the Top 40 but The Spaniels, The Dells, The Harptones, The Flamingos, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jimmy Reed, Wynonie Harris, exotic sounding records that I never heard on American Bandstand or on the car radio.

These records hit me like nothing I’d ever heard before and suddenly I had to have them. I soon found out that Porky’s Dusty Discs weren’t available at the neighborhood record store or Five and Dime where I usually bought records so I had to widen my search to a few independent stores closer to the city that sold old records and finally to mail order record stores in various locations around the country. While I was in high school I was able to finance my hobby by working part-time jobs and by DJing local dances. I really enjoyed DJing but college, a real job in the real world, marriage and children took precedence over my DJ hobby although I continued to collect records off and on for many years. Several years after retiring my wife and I left Pennsylvania and moved to a very active 55+ community in Central Florida and I soon discovered that there were others like myself who have a keen interest in old music, Doo Wop, Rock & Roll, Rhythm & Blue, and Soul, living here.

We have a very active club called Doo Wop On The Porch that meets weekly and that I am privileged to moderate. We play old records and present information about the groups that recorded them and the circumstances surrounding those recordings. We also have many talented members who were involved in records either performing in vocal groups or as musicians, promoters or some other aspect of the business and many of them are kind enough to share their talents by performing for us at our meetings. Since moving South I’ve also been able to fulfill another lifelong dream, since September 2023 I’ve been doing a weekly internet radio program, The Streetlight Serenade on Remember Then Radio heard each and every Wednesday evening from 6 until 8 PM, which is the reason for this website. Remember Then Internet Radio broadcasts all types of oldies music from many DJs across the country, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Links to the radio show and to the archives of past broadcasts and attached to the website so if you are not yet a regular listener you will tune in and enjoy music from the Klunstunes Archives.