KID STUFF: Music Til Dawn

It's midnight. Quiet. Dark.

I'm a weird teen.

Soon to be a weird college student.

And eventually a weird adult. 

So the youngest me is in bed, ear-holes fixed to a hand-me-down radio. It was old even then.

A sunny yellow dial.

Blue shadows ripple out the back, the glow of tubes. 

 My radio box smells funny if it's on too long.

Everyone in the house is asleep.

The witching hour strikes.

And what you hear above, begins.

Across the continent, radio's Music Til Dawn arrives, nighttime pal to truckers, insomniacs, lovers, students, soldiers, shift workers, writers, drunks, weird kids. Our imaginary six hour  flight is airborne.

As midnight arrives in each time zone, NINE 50,000 watt clear channel signals ring out from the greatest stations in North America. Pro baritone pilots in each cockpit. All with killer pipes.

They hit every post in the theme. 

Every night.

Before I ever see an airport, before a first beer, a first kiss, I am already in love with American Airlines.

What is this oddly comforting music they play? There are no vocals.

I imagine blinking planes high above me, winging to great places in the night. Somewhere in the early hours, I will fall asleep. American Airlines is the best and only airline in the world.

I try to hit the posts. In my best voice I say "WCBS, New York." And then "The Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR, Detroit." "American Airlines greets you ... with Music Til Dawn."

I fall asleep to Bob Hall in New York or Jay Andres in Chicago. Ditto Boston or Detroit. The show is in the air, everywhere. Clear and strong in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Toronto.

On the YouTube page where this clip lives on, you see in  comments the crazy magic and memories this all-night radio show once commanded across the continent. Wherever you were, it was there with you.

If you could just get to midnight, you were home free.

When I hear this opening, my thoughts go instantly to dark bedrooms, glowing orange dials, high school crushes and college  all-nighters. Drives to nowhere with buds. Laughs. Secrets.

Above, the clip reaches 1.10 ... and Ken Ackerman speaks.

I shiver, like a dog.

I am in love with radio.

Still.

‘Music ‘Til Dawn’ premiered April 13, 1953, and ran until Jan. 4, 1970.