"The Right Side of History"
by Peter Cavanaugh
Labor Day Weekend 2010
Summer 2010 is sizzling to a close as we approach some stark, cold realities.
A pending November election period awaits Mountain Democrats of all persuasions with everything on the line and little to brag about except not being Republicans. Thankfully, that should be more than enough.
In the words of Buffalo Springfield, "I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down!"
The Minority Leader in the House of Representatives sports an artificial tan as phony as his continual claims to speak for "The American People" at every turn.
The Minority Leader in the Senate recites talking points of the privileged like the good party parrot he is, feathers righteously ruffling at the slightest hint of genuine social concern on the part of anyone -- anywhere.
Our "Democratic Majority" in the House and Senate is highly suspect at best -- purely fictional at worst.
Recent headlines screaming: "Next Big Battle in Washington: Bush's Tax Cuts" (New York Times) remind us that even the most obvious immediate remedies to historic budget deficits remain hostage to the relentless push and pull of powerful wealth.
"Victories" in health insurance and financial reform legislation have been, by any fair measure, severely limited. Attempts at formulating initial important steps addressing climate control have now been abandoned for the current session.
The unauthorized release of secret military documents dramatically unveils the depth of deceit ever more evident in our naive occupation of Afghanistan, an ongoing tragedy for all participants.
According to national talk show host Thom Hartmann, Chief Justice John Roberts' Supreme Court is "the most conservative one in living memory." During this time, the Roberts court "issued conservative decisions 58% of the time" and, in the last year, "that rate increased to 65 percent, the highest since 1953."
As Jeffrey Toobin wrote in an article for The New Yorker, "In every major case since he became the nation's seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff."
President Obama is vilified by the right for allegedly doing what he hasn't done and pilloried by the left for not doing what he should have done. Driving down the middle of any given road guarantees being repeatedly struck by traffic coming both ways.
Despite indisputable evidence to the contrary, an astounding 24% of the American public still believe our President is a Muslim, while 27% insist he wasn't even born in this country.
These are pretty much the same folks firmly against allowing a Muslim Community Center to be constructed near "Ground Zero" in Manhattan, displaying blatantly unconstitutional mob mentality at its meanest -- but amazingly successful in frightening the timid into submission.
By now it must be crystal clear to our President that conciliation with the right has been rejected, compromise spurned and capitulation demanded. It's always jump ball with a knee in the -- never mind.
And yet.
Progressives have no choice but to rededicate themselves to each and every principle and purpose which -- so far -- have proceeded not much further than putting Barack Obama in the White House. This was a mighty and historic step, but only the first of many if we are to truly succeed finding remedy following 30 years of reversal.
Since 1980, gains from U.S. economic growth have gone overwhelmingly to the upper class. Economic inequality has steadily worsened. Even by 2000, the ratio of family income of the top 5% to that of the bottom 20% stood at 19.1, a dramatic rise over the 1979 ratio of 11.4.
Ronald Reagan's economic policies ushered in the return of levels of disparity unseen since the eve of the Great Depression.
The beat went on under George The Conqueror. By the inauguration of Barack Obama, the richest 1% of us owned and controlled as much as the bottom 95% with the American middle class more threatened with extinction then those darn Delta Smelt.
Change comes slowly, but when it arrives, we must be on the right side of history -- not to be found these recent times on the right side of the aisle.
In a tanning booth or gilded cage.
Your WTAC Editorial of The Air
Intersection of California Highways 46 and 41
Highway 41 Runs Through Oakhurst to the North
September 30, 2010 will mark 55 years to the day since James Dean died.
In just three films, he personified an attitude which became “Rock ‘n Roll.”
“East of Eden” –(1955)
“Rebel Without a Cause” — (1955)—and
“Giant”—(1956)
Thirty-one years ago, I recorded a “WTAC Editorial of the Air” for use over Memorial Day Weekend 1978. It combined a tribute to James Dean by David Essex called “Rock On” with key clips from each of Dean’s motion pictures. At the time, I sent a copy to my friend Dave Marsh, by then an Editor with Rolling Stone Magazine. He sent me a lovely note back.
Not too long ago , I was on Dave’s “Kick Out The Jams” show on Sirius/XM Satellite when he surprised me by playing the old WTAC Editorial coast-to-coast with all sorts of kind comments. That was very cool. Dave’s wife manages Bruce Springsteen.
As we decide -- where do we go from here?
And which is the way that’s clear?
The Fresno Bee reported 65 Tea Party Protesters rallied in the center of Oakhurst on Tax Day (Thursday, April 15th), a major turnout for this little California mountain community of a few thousand.
Then-- more than 100 Americans celebrated Patriots Day (Monday, April 19th) at The Grind on Highway 41, assembled wall to wall for a free showing of "Capitalism: A Love Story," followed by an hour-long question and answer session with the film's director, Michael Moore, via speaker phone from his home in Northern Michigan.
The event was sponsored by the Oakhurst Democratic Club.
WIOT TOLEDO SPEEDWAY JAM "Son of Wild Wednesdays" July 1983 "The Toledo Speedway had become a site of major outdoor concerts on a grand scale. WIOT was proud to host Bob Seger in early July with over 45,000 in attendance. He came in by helicopter.We spoke briefly backstage, agreeing we were both a long way from Sherwood Forest." "Local DJ" -- Page 306 WIOT/WCWA Sky Concert Toledo Riverfront--July 4, 1985 "Our WIOT/WCWA Sky Concerts were fireworks synchronized to music, electronically detonated from an eight-track tape with sound-effects, laser guns and giant speaker banks on both sides of the Maumee River in Downtown Toledo. The Toledo Blade estimated a half-million in attendance and even more watching live television coverage in the comfort of their home. The "Sky Concerts" became an ultimate corporate statement. Reams Broadcasting ruled the river as WIOT/WCWA took the town." "Local DJ" -- Page 308
"Pete Cavanaugh used to run a club called Sherwood Forest, and WTAC, where I first heard "The Who", "The Kinks", "The Stones" and just about every Rock 'n Roll band in the '60's. One of my great radio inspirations! The radio stations is why there WAS a scene. People like Pete--Pete above all -- played records by local bands and Pete particularly loved high energy rock'n'roll, which is why stuff like the Who's "I Can't Explain" and "My Generation" became local hits. Later, the FM rock stations took it a step further and got involved with the growing rock'n'roll community, helping promote the bands and espousing some of the political issues we wanted to talk about." Dave Marsh -- Rolling Stone Magazine Page 43: "Who would have flipped (a record) and played the "B" side? Maybe....the daring Pete Cavanaugh at WTAC in Flint, who played every WHO single that flopped across the rest of America." WIOT's "Can't Stop Rockin'" Campaign -- 1988
"Peter C. Cavanaugh of WTAC--one of the few AM stations that aired underground--routinely arrived ripped for his nightime shift. Although few Country marketing reps stopped to visit jocks of Cavanaugh's persuasion , the emerging scene personified by Cavanaugh, Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice and Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone attracted Columbia's eyes when it plotted "Folsom Prison's" release."-- Michael Streissguth --Author--"Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison" "Peter- I heard your voice on many trips....I assume it was the radio.....perhaps not. You set the standard." "Man, I remember the dances at Sherwood Forest with the fondest possible feeling. Glad you're holding up, my brother. We're the same age!" "What a great time I had reading your book on a recent trip to LA. I must have drawn a few stares while laughing out loud during passages such as included in the "Filth Locker." You did a fine job Peter!"
"Peter Cavanaugh - I loved the tale of your Uncle Vince. He reminds me of a relative of mine with the same wonderful combination of scholarship and horse sense. There are a lot of similarities throughout the whole Irish experience. Good luck with your book. Publishing is an endeavor, I've found, that makes the munitions industry look like a humanitarian enterprise." Peter Cavanaugh has eleven grandchildren.
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"I wouldn't have been able to do what I've done if I hadn't grown-up in an area that had such a vibrant and rebellious political and cultural scene. The music was so integrated into your experience as a teenager. Everyone knows about Woodstock, but we had our own mini-Woodstock every Wednesday, every summer, just outside Flint. It was called Wild Wednesday. It was in a field with a big pond, and it was the first place that people saw so many of these groups, like MC5, Iggy, Seger. We'd literally be there every Wednesday from Noon to Midnight. Thousands would show up. And out of that grew the protests.You'd have a group of high school students planning a walkout. Maybe it was just over how lousy the food was at the lunch counter at school. It wasn't like, "Here's the political thing." It was all woven together in the same sort of rebellious, rock & roll attitude. When you said rock & roll, it wasn't just the music. You meant it as a way of life, as a coat of armor against everything that was coming at you. It was a force to be reckoned with. In my mind, there would be no "Roger & Me", no "Fahrenheit 9/11" if I had not been one of thousands participating in that moment. And the millions who go to Fahrenheit carry that with them as well. They were there at Wild Wednesday too." 40th Anniversary Rolling Stone May 2007 "Of all who had a major influence on me while growing up in the Midwest, none matched the audaciousness, tenacity and gonzo-like behavior of Peter Cavanaugh. He was more than just the rock ‘n roll guru who gave America its first encounters with The Who, Bob Seger and all the great Detroit bands (Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, MC5, etc.) He was the one who taught me how to go up against the powers-that-be and live to tell all. Thank you, Peter Cavanaugh, for saving a generation of Flint kids from the likes of Pat Boone" Michael Moore -- "Bowling for Columbine"/"Fahrenheit 9/11"/"SiCKO"/"Capitalism: A Love Story." Click here to see more Wild Wednesday (& other) posters by Dennis Preston "Gonna Write a Little Letter--Gonna Mail It To My Local DJ" "Roll Over Beethoven"--Chuck Berry--1955 On "Cover to Cover with Denny Smithson" over Pacifica Radio's KPFA-FM in San Francisco, a program simultaneously broadcast live on KPFB-FM in Berkeley, KFCF-FM in Fresno and archived at www.kpfa.org. Comedian George Carlin, in a 12 minute long monologue aired on Pacifica Radio in 1973, repeated and analyzed words banned from the airwaves by the FCC. In 1978, the Supreme Court said it was okay for the FCC to punish Pacifica for broadcasting the seven dirty words during a time when little children were likely to be in the audience. It said, “Obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution and cannot be broadcast at any time. To be obscene, an average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” To this day, no one knows what the fuck all that means.
"Peter C. Cavanaugh?" "That's One Crazy Son Of a Bitch!" John Smyntek--Detroit Free Press "DJ's book could be a film" "Peter C. Cavanaugh, a big noise on the radio in Flint back in the rockin' late '60s and early '70s, wrote a book about his experiences called "Local DJ."PCC says he has signed film option rights to Kathleen Glynn and her new production company, Blue Lake Entertainment. Familiar ring to it? She is married to filmmaker Michael Moore and has produced all of his efforts to date." Flint D.J.'s published musical memories may become a movie "Not surprisingly for someone who grew up in Flint, Kathleen Glynn describes her role in Michael Moore's projects with an automotive reference. Asked if she feels overshadowed by her husband's expansive presence, Glynn - a longtime producer of Moore's films and TV shows - is quick to answer that she doesn't expect a lot of attention. As previously reported in The Journal, Glynn has bought the film rights to "Local DJ," the autobiography by legendary Flint radio personality (and concert promoter) Peter C. Cavanaugh. A script about Marlon Brando's early life also is in the hopper, she said this week. Glynn said she was attracted to Cavanaugh's book about early Flint rock 'n' roll "exactly because it's a Flint story, and because I was a kid there, and I remember these things; they're larger than life to me. Basically, the film I want to make out of the book is almost like 'Almost Famous' meets 'Woodstock.' ... The bands in the entire southeastern Michigan scene were just phenomenal." James Martinez - The Clarkston News Click "Martinez" under "Author" Search - - -5/3/06 & 5/10/06 "Local DJ" book lives up to the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll attitude that made nuns squirm in the sixties. If you set the book down, you're missing an insight to a generation in our country where people were divided.We're heading in a somewhat similar direction facilitated by different circumstances. I'm not sure the great cultural changes socially will be there, but the mistrust of government, growing discontent among youth and a perceived global threat sure are. THE BOOK IS PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA FOR KIDS. I know that's not rock 'n' roll to say, but that's my disclaimer. I don't think it's going to warp anyone, but parents should be warned. I'd apply the Marilyn Manson/Guns N Roses test (depending on your age) before deciding to read it. If you thought Guns 'N Roses were taking us to hell in a handbasket, don't pick up the book. If you thought Marilyn Manson was the final sign of the apocalypse, than run. You won't be able to appreciate this book for what it is. "Local DJ" discusses the evolution or rock music from a front row seat and shows Michigan's role in the whole 60's scene. Many chapters end with little paragraphs putting things into a historical perspective. The plight of early radio being so influential and coming from Flint is also an interesting side-bar as you consider the current state of the city and the medium now. For more info visit www.wildwednesday.com."
"Best wishes to you, Peter, and I hope you continue to produce more of the history of our generation of broadcasters."
Founder/Chairman of the Board/CEO McGavren-Guild Radio INTEREP "An unflinching, fascinating, behind-the-scenes accounting of a time never to be seen again. I'm getting copies for all my friends." Randy Michaels "I LOVE the book!" Michael Simmons "Local DJ" "What a great read! The memories it brought back! Walking to my friend's pirate radio station, carrying my box of 45s, listening to Peter C. to get psyched to "go on the air". And no ghostwriter. Very impressive!" Bob Shannon -- WCBS-FM -- New York City "Peter Cavanaugh is magical with his ribald recollections and praiseworthy prose. "Local DJ" brings back a single point in time and space. Not for little children, old ladies or small domestic pets. Shotgun Tom Kelly---KRTH---Los Angeles
Welcome to the official website of Peter C. Cavanaugh, author of Local DJ: A Rock "N" Roll History. This site will begin your journey through the past 5 decades of Rock 'N Roll Radio through the eyes of Cavanaugh--a DJ, program director, concert promoter and radio executive during unforgettable times. "Local DJ" has been optioned for film purposes by Kathleen Glynn and Blue Lake Entertainment. Most movies never get made.
From "Local DJ"---Page 260 "A few months later the boys were back in town. I traveled to a Detroit suburb and caught AC/DC opening for Thin Lizzy at the Royal Oak Music Theater. The Aussies were most excellent, but I noticed marked sound mix peculiarities near the middle of their scheduled set. Things were becoming unbalanced, first before my ears and then before all eyes. Out of nowhere, several security guards rushed forward and attempted to conclude the performance. It was all fiercely fast. Suddenly, the music dischordantly ceased. One uniformed enforcer made the tragic mistake of grabbing Bon Scott's arm. A violent head-butt sent the uninvited transgressor flying backward, then down and out. Chaos raged. More police poured out on the stage. The group formed an immediate protective circle, rapidly expanding as AC/DC proceeded to kick super-serious ass. Even several members of Thin Lizzy joined the fray in unrestrained rock'n roll reenforcement, advancing upon the intruders from behind. Feet flashed. Fists flew. Foreheads filled faces. A phalanx of record company and management personnel somehow introduced themselves into the midst of the melee and separated participants, much to the relief of those few authority figures still unmarred. Confusion was abound. It was clear the group had no idea what had triggered so unpleasant an incident. The band members had reacted with instinct, not intent. It turned out to be a noise thing. Neighbors near the theater had been complaining. The City of Royal Oak had passed a local ordinance proclaiming any sound level over 100 decibles as "noise" and a nuisance. The "Decibel Deputy" had arrived on the scene and, standing next to the AC/DC sound board at the back of the theater, had clocked the lads at 125 and climbing. Their sound man, responding to a tap on his shoulder and barely hearing the word "LOUD" screamed into his ear, joyously responded, "Ahhhh, yeah. man! And we're just startin' to cook!" There was a firm punch for attention delivered to the audio technician's back. The "Decibel Deputy" was dropped with a heel to the heart. Three security police dragged the offender off the monitor platform and, assisted by several others, effected arrest. This is where the sound mix got screwy. They ordered the performance to stop. That's when the stage went wild. The audience was now in total uproar. Miraculously, calm heads prevailed. Charges forgotten, technician unfettered, and sound restored, AC/DC finished their set."
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Saint Mary's Cemetery--Oswego County, New York
"1992 was the 100th Anniversary of my Great-Grandfather's death. He had left Ireland during The Famine Years in 1848 and had crossed the North Atlantic to the green fields of America. He was buried under a fine Celtic Cross in a little churchyard just north of Syracuse. His name is engraved in sharp and bold letters.
"PETER CAVANAUGH"
Buried Under Six Feet of Dirt and Ten Feet of Snow - 2/14/07 - He Wasn't Going Anywhere
Under Construction