I'm going back through what comprised my senior year of high school and first semester of college in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Come along for the ride. New posts every day or so mixed in with other things.
February 27, 1985. There was a brief time in the life of WKDA 1240-AM in which it was a "New Rock" station. They switched over from Top 40 right before Christmas in 1982 to become the first commercial New Wave station in the southeast. This would last a year or so and it was a welcome alternative, plus it led to many of the stronger songs making their way over to their sister FM station KDF where we'd get to hear Ozzy Osbourne followed by Psychedelic Furs. Playlists hadn't atrophied into dead demographic studies just yet. Corporation was coming hard and fast though.
I mainly listened to KDF if I wasn't spinning a record from my own collection, but WKDA was my AM dial go to at the time. Once we went on a field trip to see some play at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center during my junior year of high school. I almost missed the bus as the PA announcement wasn't coming through in the Graphic Arts class I was taking, but I got anxious and split to the place outside the gym where the bus was supposed to be. I made it on just in time and was happy to find that my friend Bruno had saved me a seat. He informed me had requested the bus driver tune to WKDA so we got B-52's, Men at Work, A Flock of Seagulls, and more on the way to Nashville.
What does this have to do with February 27, 1985? Not much, but the theme song of this busy day was probably one I first heard on WKDA. The Call's "The Walls Came Down" comes to mind immediately when I think of the Region semi-finals with Riverdale's perfect record on the line.
The Call - The Walls Came Down
If Columbia had taken care of business and won their district tournament the Warriors would have met the Lions in the finals of the Region 4-AAA tournament. But instead, one of the 2 top teams in all of Tennessee would go home early missing out on a sub-state game.
2-27-85 DNJ
A disastrous first quarter where Riverdale allowed future Arkansas Razorbacks player Larry Marks to score 16 would be impossible to overcome. The Oakland gym was full of people that night and I remember the clenched up feeling of doom after that first quarter, but RHS didn't fold. The full court pressure brought the Warriors back, but not enough. I always felt that if the game had only gone 2 minutes more we could have won. I felt the loss deeply. Looking back over my senior year of high school now I see how rabid a fan I had become of my classmates. They had inspired me and had filled the whole basketball season with joy that had stretched unfettered from the very first tip-off. I wasn't ready for the ride to end just yet. I cursed loudly as I stomped out of the Patriots gym remembering my one year as a freshman at Oakland, before moving to Riverdale, and how I had despised gym class in that place. It was if it had come back to attack me once again. An adult admonished me for cursing and I told him to stick it. I regret that now. I was being an immature jerk, perhaps not only wanting the basketball season not to end, but subconsciously knowing that high school for me was almost over and I didn't want that to end either. It was some small solace to me that Columbia after winning the Region 4-AAA tournament would lose their home sub-state game. If you happened to see this semi-final matchup share your memories in the comment section. I would love to read them.
2-28-85 DNJ
2-28-85 DNJ
The crazy thing about the day of February 27, 1985 was after going to school, then going home, and then rushing across town to Oakland High School for the Region 4-AAA game which started at 6PM is that it wasn't over after the Warriors were eliminated. There was something going on at M.T.S.U. that my friends and I had to go see. The Second City was coming with their improvisational comedy to perform for free!
2-26-85 Sidelines
There were no future superstars in the cast we saw that night, but they were funny as the troupe recycled many of their most famous routines. It softened the sting of the basketball game loss. I would go to see them the next year too and found it curious that both shows ended with the question from the audience "where does the light go when you hit the switch" or something to that effect. The answer on both nights was "away" and "off" but I forget which one. I do know that my pal Bruno was the one who asked it in 1986. I still don't know if he was legitimately asking or if The Second City didn't always plant that question with a person as a great show ender. Here is the review of the 1985 performance from Sidelines.
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