Phil Collins "We Said Hello...Goodbye"

On September 19, 2014, Growing Up Adult Contemporary joined the blogosphere. Together we've circled the world of Adult Contemporary music and uncovered numerous soft rock gems. Along the way, we've shared some memories of working in radio, of life, love, heartbreak and plenty of Peter Cetera stories. It's been a ride, but it's time to move on. Thank you for your support.

Tears for Fears "Shout"

Tears for Fears album Songs from the Big Chair gets its name from the made-for-TV movie Sybil. The movie starred Sally Field as a suffer of multiple personality disorder and actually won her an Emmy Award.

Julian Lennon "Say You're Wrong"

Saying you're wrong is not easy or even the preferred avenue. Admitting you're right is much more fun.

A-Ha "Take on Me"

When the year is 2004 and you're giving away concert tickets to see a band that peaked in 1985, you have to get creative. Case in point: the morning show I produced in 2004 had a pair tickets to see A-Ha and we tried to come up with a creative way to give them away to true fans of A-Ha. The result: the In A Day or Twooooooo Game. Basically, we got three contestants on the phone and played the infectious hook from "Take on Me" and then let each person sing the verse "In a day or two". At the time, American Idol was all the rage and singing contests on the radio always made for good content. Our expectations were low, yet each of these three contestants put their unique spin on the verse. This audio clip still sits on a cassette tape somewhere in my basement.

Bryan Adams "Summer of '69"

Scary thought: the summer of '69 happened 50 years ago...

Lionel Richie "Penny Lover"

The first of each month led to a common fight among my two roommates and me. What was it the three of us argued over, you're wondering? A penny. Yes, one cent. You see, the  rent for our three bedroom duplex in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood cost $2,000 each a month. Dividing $2,000 among the three of us meant: $666.666666666666666666 per person. The question arose: who's gonna pay that extra penny? Over the course of our three years living there, I begrudgingly paid the extra penny because I knew my roommates wouldn't. At times I refused arguing that because so-and-so ate my potato chips, they now had to pay the extra penny in rent. It's amazing the three of us remain friends today...

Madonna "Into the Groove"

After school in the mid-1990s, teenagers all across Chicago would run home and turn on Channel 26 to watch U Dance with B96. Yes, a TV show much like American Bandstand that featured teenagers dancing to house music used to air on the low-powered UHF television station WCIU (known as "The U") from 1995-97. Hosted by B96 DJ's Bad Boy Bill, Julian Jumpin' Perez, and Brian "Hit Mix" Middleton, the show aired on the independent TV station whose lineup featured classic shows like The Munsters and Leave It to Beaver. One particular week, word circulated around my high school that an attractive senior named Becky would be dancing on the show. It happened around the same time Sir Mix-A-Lot made "Oh My Gawd, Becky. Look at her butt." a household catchphase thanks to his earworm "Baby Got Back". Becky from high school was a blonde, curvy and attractive girl who was waaaay out of my league. That afternoon, my friends and I raced home to watch Becky bump 'n grind on U Dance, and she didn't disappoint.

Dire Straits "Walk of Life"

My friend John had a grandmother named Florence or "Flo" as he called her. Flo lived with John and his mother in a two-story house about a block from where I lived. I didn't know much about Flo other than she wore bell-bottom pants and she would usually just put the phone down and forget to tell John whenever I called their house. One other thing about Flo -- she usually walked around and mumbled "Whoo. Whoo wee." I don't know why, but she did. Once John got his driver's license, he and I would cruise the streets of Northwest Indiana listening to the radio. When Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" came on the radio, John shared that he called it the "Flo Song" since the song's hook contained the lyrics "Whoo-hoo".

Prince & The Revolution "Take Me With U"

Credit the Purple Rain Soundtrack for "Take Me With U". Originally intended for Prince's Apollonia 6 album, the song was pulled for inclusion on the soundtrack. A different song intended for Apollonia 6 album already had some drama attached to it. "Take Me With U" was the final single released from the wildly successful Purple Rain Soundtrack.

Tears for Fears "Head Over Heels"

Having never seen an episode of Psych, I imagine it's a collection of people offering to shake hands with a stranger when -- fooled ya! -- the hand shaker ends up running his hand through his hair while yelling, "Psych!". Hilarity, right?!?

Stand by...I'm being told that's not at all what happened on the television show. Bummer. Well, never mind then. The crime series from USA Network once enlisted Curt Smith of Tears for Fears fame to do a cameo on an episode from season five. 

Foreigner "I Want to Know What Love Is"

During an emotional winter afternoon during my senior year of high school, I did something I had never done: I grew a pair.

For the majority of my high school years, I sat in the uncomfortable "friend zone" with a girl who I was convinced was "the one". The two of us did what most high schoolers from that era did: daily conversations on the phone for hours at a time. It was in these conversations that she usually shared how poorly the latest guy she was dating treated her. With each story of how each dude (mis)treated her, I grew incensed. Why couldn't she see how different things would be with me?

Despite her telling me she loved me "as a friend", I worked feverishly to change that. She knew how to say the right things when she thought she lost me, but also took advantage of my feelings and knew that I'd do anything for her or her friends (even driving the barren streets of Dyer, Indiana to find and then drive home her friend who decided to make a 4-mile walk home early one Sunday morning). In the end, nothing mattered -- I remained in the dreaded "friend zone" and it was up to me to push the eject button.

During my senior year, I started to gain self-confidence. I finally shed my ugly duckling stage of braces and acne and started to like who stared back at me in the mirror. Slowly, I started to believe I deserved...better. Following another patented and all-too-familiar phone conversation where she spoke to me with complete disrespect, I finally reached my breaking point. I snapped. While she was mid-sentence chewing me out for something stupid, I hung up the phone. My hands trembled in the moments afterward as I fully awaited her return phone call to bitch me out some more. She never called back. In fact, I didn't hear from her for weeks. After the initial shock wore off, I felt elated, refreshed and freed.

Our relationship changed after that. I no longer looked up to her on the pedestal where I bowed before her in worship. No longer was I chasing her. No longer was I catching her after every fall. No longer was I sitting around waiting for her.

Years later, she would apologize to me in a late-night email for her poor behavior. In fact, her apologies continue every year or so... 

Pointer Sisters "Dare Me"

When your boss tells you he's dressing up like the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera and will pump gas at a local gas station, you shrug your shoulders and say, "Alriighty then". When he adds that he'd like to be interviewed in character on the morning show, you cringe and agree to it because, well, he's your boss. The whole ordeal started when an Account Executive at the radio station sold a package to a local gas station where we would do on-air call-ins for a week from their gas station. Nothing more exciting than that, right?!? Since our Program Director didn't want the call-ins to sound too salesy, he hatched the idea of the Fill 'Er Up Phantom. The premise focused on the Phantom filling up people's gas tanks at various gas stations for a week from 5:30 until 6:00 in the morning. In turn, we would interview him each morning on the air. Some would say we managed to turn a lemon into delicious lemonade. A few weeks after our boss debuted on our show as the Fill 'Er Up Phantom, he fired us.

Wham! "Freedom"

As a solo artist, George Michael released "Freedom" in 1990. While still performing with Wham!, Michael released an entirely different song with the same title ("Freedom") in 1985. Got it? For those who didn't, Michael's later albums referred to the 1990 version as "Freedom '90".

Prince "Raspberry Beret"

"Did you ever hear the story of the lady who sent brownies laced with acid to the radio station?" A colleague from our Classic Rock station posed that question to me recently. Although he didn't partake in the brownies, one of his fellow DJ's did -- causing him to "trip balls" for a few hours. His story lends credence to the Golden Rule among radio DJs: never EVER eat food from a listener.

While producing a radio dating show that aired during the mid-2000s, listeners would come into our studio each night and question three eligible singles who were on the phone -- while we all listened. One night, a congenial bachelorette came to the studio bearing gifts: homemade chocolate-covered strawberries. While her gesture seemed innocent enough, the two hosts and I looked at one another with concern. We all knew the Golden Rule, but how do we not insult this person bearing these delicious hand-made strawberries? The male host finally broke the ice and bit into one of the strawberries. Our guest, however, wasn't satisfied. "You have to one!" she said to the other host and me. Throwing caution to the wind, we both popped the sweet treats into our mouths fulling expecting to bite into a razor blade or perhaps rat poison. Instead of tripping balls, slicing our mouths open or vomiting profusely, we both survived. In fact, during the course of the dating show's two-year run, several contestants came bearing gifts of homemade cannoli, pot roast and candy. Again, we survived.

Honeymoon Suite "What Does It Take"

You may remember "What Does It Take" from a scene in the 1986 rom-com One Crazy Summer.

Billy Joel "You're Only Human (Second Wind)"

This is Suicide Prevention Week. If you think you're alone, you're not. Depression affects all of us. Even Billy Joel is a suicide survivor. About 15 years before he wrote "You're Only Human" as a message of hope to those struggling with depression and/or thoughts of suicide, Joel himself penned a suicide note. It happened in 1970 when his personal and professional life fanned the flames of his depression. Joel survived and spoke about it in 1985 when his song "You're Only Human" climbed to #2 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. He claimed he revised the song's tempo to be more upbeat than his original version. If you need someone to talk to, call 1-800-273-8255. Be well.

The Cars "Tonight She Comes"

"Tonight She Comes" seems to mean one thing, but should we get our respective minds out of the gutter? Maybe. The Cars lead singer Ric Ocasek never addressed it, but the band's guitarist did in the group's Anthology liner notes. "It could mean she's coming over to make popcorn." Riiiight...

Aretha Franklin "Who's Zoomin' Who?"

After producing four morning radio shows, I segued to a new evening on-air dating show at WTMX-FM in Chicago during the fall of 2005. With online dating growing in popularity, station bosses sought to capitalize on the trend by having singles find love on the radio every weeknight during a show called "Mix 'n Match On-Air Dating". The premise was similar to the old Dating Game television show: we bring one bachelor or bachelorette into the studio each night and line up three eligible singles on the phone. After a series of questions and getting-to-know-you games, the single person in the studio chooses who they want to go on a date. The radio station paid for the date and we would air updates. Although simple in theory, this job proved to be one of the more challenging of my radio producing career.

Women flocked to sign up for the show whereas men...not so much. At that time, online dating still carried a stigma. Most men wouldn't admit to having a Match.com subscription much less go on the radio to announce their bachelorhood. This led to a challenge for all involved as we had nearly three times the amount of women as men to participate. We still managed to crank out a show five nights a week and hosted numerous singles events throughout Chicago. One challenge was Thursday nights; no one wanted to be on the show on Thursday nights because folks wanted to be home watching the steamy new television show called Grey's Anatomy. I struggled to put quality contestants on the air that night because DVR's and on-demand television shows were still not commonplace, so people watched TV shows live or else counted on their trusty old VHS to record the show. Season one of Grey's Anatomy ended with an episode entitled "Who's Zoomin' Who?"--which shares its title with the 1985 pop song from Aretha Franklin.

Kool & The Gang "Cherish"

The biggest Adult Contemporary hit from the 1980s wasn't from Phil Collins, Elton John or even Billy Joel, but rather it came courtesy of R&B group Kool & The Gang. The group's ballad "Cherish" topped the Adult Contemporary for six weeks during the summer of 1985. Not only that, the catchy tune featured the sound of seagulls and waves crashing along the beach. Who wouldn't love that?

Eddie Murphy "Party All The Time"

Remember the time Eddie Murphy had one of the biggest songs on the radio? It actually happened in 1985 when "Party All The Time" spent three weeks at #2 on the Hot 100. The song featured Rick "Superfreak" James on backing vocals. My mom and our neighbor Judy spent a good portion of the summer of 1985 singing along to the song, but they changed the lyrics to "My mom likes to party all the time..."