Like I said before, WLIR's signal reception was not that great in my neck of the woods.
There were few occasions (in the car) when the signal was consistently strong enough for me to listen long enough to make out any of the songs being played.
In the meantime (1981-83), my NW musical taste was primarily influenced by the everpresent TV music videos on Niteflite (remember that one?) and MTV.
Sure, during that time I was catching some wave music (Cars, Clash, Police, Squeeze, Talking Heads, U2 etc..) on other metro NY stations such as WPLJ, WBAB, WAPP.
Other area stations such as WBLI would play ubiquitous genre tracks such as 'Pop Muzik' and 'Cars', while WKTU and WPIX (for a short time)would play club remixes of 'Rock The Casbah' and 'Glad To Know You'.
Seldom would I hear songs from featured TV video artists like The Cure, Devo, Duran Duran, The Fixx etc..
This left me to fill the musical void with regular visits to Record World and Sam Goody.
During this time it became clear to me that the local radio market was not getting anywhere near the amount of NW music exposure that the equivalent TV viewing market was (how strange is that?).
Unbeknownst to me that in 1982, WLIR G.M. Denis McNamara made the decision to go TOTALLY New Wave, featuring virtually the same song and artist lineup as MTV! (which was not coincidence mind you- more on that another time..)
It wouldn't be until the following year when I started working for Huntington TV Cable, that I would really become a NW music 'purist'.
How so? Well, turns out my office duties entailed working at a computer terminal, answering phones, issuing and accepting CATV equipment from customers and service technicians, all the while watching a TV monitor that had non other than MTV on 95% of the time.
It wasn't long before I became well acquainted with tracks like 'That's Good', 'Send Me An Angel', 'Mexican Radio','In A Big Country' etc..
Being so well versed in the NW genre made it clear that local radio wasn't gonna cut it for me anymore.. I had to find a station that played this stuff!
Interestingly enough, it was during that time I started going to Paris New York (which was literally just blocks from my house).
I was immediately struck by the club music being played there, 'Blue Monday', 'Go!', 'Shoot You Down' and others.
By the time I left the CATV job in the summer of '84 there were names of songs and artists I wanted to hear on the radio but wouldn't get consistent airplay on any one particular station, if at all..
It was when I got this two bit part time job at a local Flowertime nursery that I got to hear WLIR on a regular basis (Courtesy of this tinny little radio that somehow pulled in the station). WHAT A REVELATION!
I remember EXACTLY which two songs that subsequently got me hooked.
The original Bobcat label (Bobby O.) version of West End Girls and the haunting strains of Romeo Void's 'A Girl In Trouble'(which for some reason, I could never catch the title or artist credits).
NO WHERE ELSE would I hear those two tracks ('cept for Paris NY). This is what prompted me to get that attic FM antenna and signal booster mentioned in my earlier post.
That's my story of what did it for me..
(Now let's hear some of yours gang!)
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