New Wave Outpost Forum

Just so you know.....MTV used to listen to US at WLIR to help decide what was cool and what to play....no kidding.

Also, many record lables listened to us as we played imports and indies. Not just on "Off the boat" but in regular rotation.

Many a band got thier US record deal thanks to WLIR and it's loyal listeners. The listeners bought more records per person than any other station in the NY area by far.

I remember Sire Records signing a bunch of LIR bands, The Cult comes to mind as I had a small hand in that. There are so many others. Because you guys went out and bought the imports and went to the shows we sponsered, these bands went on to become well known in the US.

I'm not saying that none have them would have made it without this happening....but we at WLIR and you guys played a huge part in it and certainly helped break a lot of them.

I remember 'LIR when it introduced Long Island to Southern Rock.
My brother actually met Charlie Daniels in the elevator of the building. He heard him on the air and rushed over to the studio. Since we lived in Baldwin and they were right on Front street it only took a few minutes to get there. I listened through the 80's and won tickets to see Adam Ant at the Calerone. My girlfriend didn't know who he was, so I ended up going with my sister. People were all dressed up as 'AntPeople'.
I remember newsblimps and Concerts from My Father's Place. While I admit to not listening lately, I will miss the only outlet (that I know of) for that type of music.

You just jogged my memory about the LIR Seagull window decal logo. Does anyone out there have a jpeg of it? I sported that sucker on my '73 cougar back in '79. Great images coming back to me now. Thanx

http://www.flashbackalternatives.com

for your obscure 80's

I was at that Ants show....Wall of voodoo was the opening act and played a wicked version of ring of fire. And Adam was great that night.

My Father's place....wow. The Police played there in one of thier first US shows.I ended up working for Eppy at my father's place a few times.

As far as the southern Rock stuff....that's how I first became a listener. I'm still a big Skynyrd Fan.

If anyone wants a list of every classic LIR/DRE song compiled by DJ Maxx...

I think I have it online now.

http://www.geocities.com/snsterling/WLIRprint.htm

I'm working on a text version.

to Marie3:

my email to you bounced. But try the links above now.

Got it, thank you. I would love to hear more about the wlir good old days. DJ Bird has some great stories. Anymore?

Great to see the NewWave Outpost coming to life with people! I did a search on a few song titles, and I discovered this forum thread.

I grew up in Rockville Centre and I listened to WLIR from '81 until '84, when I went away to college. Although the creativity of New Wave started to lose steam (for me) after '83, there were some wonderous moments from individual bands well into the nineties. Even today I'm glad to hear cues to that era in numerous bands.

I really loved WLIR, and I listened to everything on it -- the punky reggae party, the great concerts, you name it-- for those formative years of my life. My personality type pegs me for a consummate enthusiast & cataloger of music. Since 2000 I started to recreate most of the playlists I've heard since the very early days of WLIR-- some 500 songs. And after I lost a few friends from my 'LIR circle to the Sept. 11 tragedy, reconstructing those playlists became a kind of therapy for me.

These days I live in NJ and listen to WFMU 91.1 -- another kind of rare radio station-- all volunteer, listener supported, free-form format-- where magical things still happen all the time. There are frequent times I'll hear something and I KNOW I'm hearing something ultra-rare, something that I'll probably never hear again because the recordings are so incredibly rare.

Anyway, I just wanted to write a quick introduction about myself and testify that there are people out there who were deeply impressed by that station and the music they played. I'll be very interested to read WLIR playlists and find any missing links to my music collection. I'll also be sure to post my list of songs so that folks can leverage piggy-back off my stuff.

Last question-- does anyone have recordings of the concerts, or know where I can obtain some of them? I think I still have cassettes with live Blancmange, Echo & the Bunnymen, Yaz, Erasure, China Crisis, Paul Young, the Fixx and a few others.

You can See a List of all The WLIR Screamers & Schreiks of the week here:
http://www.advancedspecialties.net/wlir.htm

I posted a new article on some of the great bands I got to work with while at WLIR and it can be found here:

http://mt.hockeybird.com/archives/001476.html

Great article, bird, thanks. It's fascinating to hear some of what was going on in the DJ world of WLIR.

I remember checking out a lot of bands at Heartbeat (Replacements, The Call, must be others...), Malibu (including sneaking into soundchecks with Men Without Hats and China Crisis at Malibu) and the occasional show at the Ritz.

My wife & 2 year old son are now fans of Aku Aku and the Comateens (remember that Newsday article about the 'teens?), among others. He hasn't warmed up to the extended version of "Telephone Operator" that I crank, but give him time.

Small correction to my first post above. I listened to WLIR from late '81 until the summer of '87 (not '84). I meant to say that the new-wave scene lost potency (for me) in '86-'87. If I had tuned out in '84 I would've missed out on a lot of great music.

Was it the summer of '81 when LIR went strictly to the "New Music" format? I remember one weekend they were constantly playing Berlin's tune "What Are Words For?". Even before the switch the station played an awesome mix of music. I have to admit I hadn't listened to WLIR in the past few years. Everytime I tuned in they were playing commercials. Anyone remember the Woodentops?

I just saw Blaster's listing of the Shrieks of the Week. Thanks Blaster. He confirmed the permanent switch to new music was summer of '82, not '81. Also, it was Missing Persons, not Berlin in my previous post. I know Berlin had a tune out at that time but I can't recall. Was it "Sex"?