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Today’s highlights: Happy Birthday, “Today”, the debut of Led Zeppelin’s first LP, a look back on the Consumer Electronics Show and how it’s impacting the Detroit Auto Show. We meet the woman who programmed the Apollo software, and hear how Curious George escaped the Nazis.

Led Zeppelin’s debut album was released in United States 50 years ago today. The group, born out of the remnants of the Yardbirds ,  took 36 hours and spent less than £2,000 to complete the LP. Eva Von Zeppelin, a relative of the creator of the famed dirigible, did not like the album art. It featured the Hindenburg crashing in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey. She threatened legal action.

In the wake of a very mobile focused Consumer Electronics Show, the last Winter Detroit Auto Show opens today in the Motor City. It will feature lots of heavy trucks, SUVs and sports cars as the sedan continues to recede from popularity. Next year, it will happen in the summertime.

BTW: Axios says that the predicted smaller tax refunds this year may negatively impact auto sales. How do you typically invest yours?

Speaking of CES: What was the coolest gadget there? According to radio programming guru, Fred Jacobs, “I’ve learned that these past few years at CES, it’s been less about that one breakthrough innovation, and more about the confluence of all this technology, and what it means to our lives and the workplace.”

Fun Factoids from the Web:

Meet Margaret Hamilton  (No not the wicked witch Margaret Hamilton) the working mom and unsung MIT math wizard who literally wrote the code for the Apollo Missions and won a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Bet you didn’t know: Margaret and H.A. Rey, authors of the beloved children books featuring Curious George, escaped the Nazis and the Holocaust  by bicycle.  They rode 439 miles from Paris to the Spain border with little else besides their unpublished manuscript.

What’s the current all-time most popular image on Instagram? The one at left. Currently, it has over 257 million likes. The photo finally answers, once and for all, the perennial question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Today in History: 

Today in 1952, The Today Show, starring Dave Garroway, debuts on NBC TV. The program is WAY different today than it was then. (Video)

In 1972 “Sanford & Son” premieres. Redd Fox becomes a household name. (Vide0)

On this date in  1981 Radio begins its downhill slide as the FCC frees stations to air as many commercials an hour as they wish. Naturally broadcasters overdo it.

Happy Birthday to: Clarence Carter (Patches, Strokin), 1936; Allen Toussaint (Producer), 1938 (d. 2015); Faye Dunaway, 1941; Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed), 1948; LL Cool J, 1968; Dave Grohl, 1969

Much More Music:

Today in 1970, was Diana Ross’ last appearance with The Supremes at The Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas.She introduced Jean Terrell, who would sing lead on 7 more hits for Motown, including ‘Up The Ladder To The Roof‘. (Video)

On this date in 1973 Elvis Presley’s  “Aloha from Hawaii – Via Satellite” becomes the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer. Here’s “Suspicious Minds” from that show. (Video)

Birthday Boy Clarence Carter turns 82 today. Here he is, singing his first hit, “Patches“. The tune was originally recorded by The Chairmen of the Board and written by the band’s lead singer, General Johnson with his songwriting partner Ronald Dunbar. The tune about a sharecroppers son in Alabama became Clarences biggest hit. (Video)

Today’s Quote Worth Re-quoting: “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.” ~ JK Rowling

We leave you with the Number One song from this date in 1966. It was written and recorded by Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco, better known to his fans as Lou Christie . His record label, MGM reportedly disliked the tune that Christy and his long time writing partner, Twyla Herbert penned, but radio airplay in California launched the record on its way to the stratosphere.

Today’s highlights: Hamilton premieres in Puerto Rico, the FBI investigates The Kingsmen, blowing up the Tappan Zee Bridge, farewell Mrs. Wormer, the hidden talent behind famous rock recordings, surfing with dolphins and “much more music” from Johnny Rivers, Johnny Cash and the Shocking Blue.

As Paul Harvey used to day, “Hello Americans! It’s Friday!” Whenever this 5th day of the week comes along, I’m always drawn back to 1966 and “Friday On My Mind” from the one hit wonder band The Easybeats. Most people assume that the group was part of the British invasion. They were actually from Australia.  (Video)

Happening Tonight: The Tony Award-Winning Broadway musical “Hamilton” premieres in Puerto Rico. Lin Manuel Miranda is reprising his lead role to raise money for hurricane relief.

Today in 1964, ‘Louie Louie‘ by The Kingsmen is No.1. The song was written and composed by Richard Berry in 1955 and first recorded by his group The Pharaohs. The Kingsmen made it their own 9 years later. It’s a recording that became one of the most controversial tunes of its time, ultimately the subject of a two year investigation by the FBI.  What was lead singer Jack Ely really saying in those hard to understand lyrics? This cool New Yorker piece from 2015 explains

Many of us have traversed the iconic Tappan Zee Bridge. The span that bisects the Hudson River was completed in 1955. A replacement was finished last year. Tomorrow, the state will blow up the original. Watch this space for video of that event on Monday!

Actress Verna Bloom had many great roles on film. But she will be most remembered for her iconic performance as Marion Wormer, Dean Vernon Wormer’s sex starved wife in the film “National Lampoon’s Animal House“. Verna Bloom passed away on January 9th at age 80. Perhaps as repentance for her tryst with Tim Matheson,’s “Otter”, Her final film appearance was as the mother of Jesus in the 1988 film “The Last Temptation of Christ“. We imagine her entering the pearly gates, saying, “Cut the crap. Get me a drink.”

There are many unsung heroes in the music business. Ron Hicklin and his band of backup singers are perhaps the best known. Clydie King, is another. the woman Bob Dylan called his “ultimate singing partner” died on Monday at age 75. A few of her backup credits include Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good,” Arlo Guthrie’s “City of New Orleans,” Graham Nash’s “Chicago,” and Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Back.” She also with Steely Dan, Humble Pie, Joe Walsh, Phil Ochs, Carly Simon, Neil Diamond and Ringo Starr.  Here’s Rolling Stone Magazine’s remembrance.

Pick a number between 1 & 10. What one did college kids picked most? It’s “7”,  according to CollegePulse.com

Remember reading about how Amazon is deploying buttons you can press to automatically reorder stuff you use often? They are popping up on washing machines, refrigerators and even in automobiles. But not in Germany. Here’s why.

Were you a fan of the ABC TV series “Love American Style“? Today in 1974, the final episode aired. The light hearted anthology series was an early precursor to “The Love Boat” and was a place where many stars appeared to keep their brand in front of eyeballs. Today’s trivia question: Who sang the theme song? Answer: The Cowsills. (Video)

Today’s Video Worth Sharing: Surfing with the dolphins off the Southern California coast. Go to our @ScottOwensShow Twitter feed to see it.

Much More Music:

Today in 1963 Los Angeles night club and music venue The Whiskey A-Go-Go opens. It becomes the first bar to be inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Jonny Rivers recorded several iconic hits there including our featured tune of the day, “Secret Agent”. (Video)

 Today in 1964, “Ring Of Fire The Best of Johnny Cash” became the first No.1 album when Billboard Magazine debuted their Country Album Chart. In 2004, co-writer Merle Kilgore, who shares a writing credit with Cash’s wife, June Carter-Cash on Ring of Fire proposed licensing the song for a Preparation H hemorrhoid cream commercial. The family vetoed that idea. (Video)

No. 1 today in 1970. “Venus” by Holland’s The Shocking Blue. It was a tune that popped up again in the Summer of 1982 when another Dutch studio band, Stars on 45 put it in front of a medley of faithfully recreated hits. Both “Stars” and Shocking Blue had a very brief prime, but their ability to leverage catchy musical hooks to sell records is still the holy grail of every modern day pop wanna be. (Video)

Today’s Quote Worth Re-quoting:

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

Happy Birthday to: Alexander Hamilton, 1755 (d. 1804); Rod Taylor (Actor), 1930 (d. 2015); Clarence Clemons, 1942 (d. 2011); Tony Kaye (Yes), 1946; Lee Ritenour, 1952; Mary J Blige, 1971

Today’s highlights include: Happy Birthday, Elvis, Billboard hits – then and now, remembering Op Art, the New Seekers & the Coke ad in the last episode of Mad Men, fewer commercials on NBC, Donny Osmond’s 62nd album & how to go invisible on the Internet.

Oh the things that used to bug us! Today in 1969, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were barred from an exclusive hotel for wearing “Op Art” pants. The optical illusion must have been too much for the hotel staff to take. They were both asked to leave the Hotel Crillen in Lima, Peru after refusing to change clothes.

NBCUniversal says it’s reducing the amount of ads its serves during prime-time even further, and it’s looking now at other times throughout the day to do the same. Seems like a good idea, with audiences deserting their network for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Now if we could just get the bankrupt radio companies like iHeart to do the same thing.

Elvis Presley is on our birthday list. He would be 83 today, born at his parent’s home, a two-room house that was built by his father at 306 Old Saltillo Road, East Tupelo, Mississippi. A twin brother, Jessie Garon, was stillborn. The King is still raking it in. His estate’s 2017 earnings were $37 million dollars. Here he is with Ann Margaret in a scene from “Viva Las Vegas”.

What’s hot this week on the Billboard Charts. Call me old fashioned, but I can’t connect with any of these. Contrast that with these number ones from every year on this date via radio station WKNR in Detroit.

(1965) Name Game, Shirley Ellis
(1966) Jenny Take a Ride!, Mitch Ryder
(1967) I’m a Believer/Steppin’ Stone, Monkees
(1968) Nobody But Me, Human Beinz
(1969) Crimson & Clover, Tommy James & The Shondells
(1970) Venus, Shocking Blue
(1971) Knock Three Times, Dawn
(1972) American Pie, Don McLean

For all of you who have those smart phones that unlock when you look at em, read this Mashable article to see if a photo of your face can do it too. The good news: iPhones are immune. And speaking of Internet security, famed hacker Kevin Mitnick teaches us “how to go invisible online“, courtesy of our friends at Wired Magazine.

From the “I feel old” department: 50 years ago today The final episode of “Shindig” airs on ABC, featuring The Kinks and The Who. 50 years after his first solo release, Donny Osmond is back in the studio to work on his 62nd album. 40 years ago today, the band Rush are named as the country’s official Ambassadors Of Music by the Canadian government.

Happy Birthday to: Elvis Presley, 1935 (d. 1977); Shirley Bassey (Goldfinger Vocalist), 1937; Stephen Hawking (Genius), 1942 (d. 2018); Robby Krieger (The Doors), 1946; Terry Sylvester (Hollies), 1947; David Bowie, 1947 (d. 2016)

We leave you with this Mad Men memory. Today in 1972, The New Seekers had an international hit w ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing. The song started as a Coca Cola TV ad, as imagined by Don Draper in the final MM episode.

Growing up in the shadow of the Motor City, everyone eventually listened to CKLW. Its 50,000 signal blanketed 28 states and 5 Canadian provinces with the famous Top 40 format promoted by Bill Drake and guided locally by Paul Drew.

One dimension of the CK sound was 20/20 News (Video), a high energy newscast at 20 and 40 past the hour that presented the stories of the day in a breathless, tabloid manner that shocked and delighted Detroit audiences. Byron MacGregor, born Gary L. Mack on March 13, 1948 was a central figure at 20/20 news. At the height of CKLW’s popularity, he recorded a Gordon Sinclair editorial, entitled “The Americans”. It resonated with our psyche and peaked at number 4 on the Billboard pop charts in 1974.

Byron went on to anchor television news at Detroit’s WKBD-TV and became an afternoon news fixture on WWJ Radio before succumbing to complications related to pneumonia on this date in 1995. He was just 46.

Lots of great content on this morning’s feed: Remembering Rick Nelson, The New Woodstock, navigating New Year’s Eve, a poignant remembrance of Margot Kidder, celebs in commercials before they were famous, and a quote to inspire you in 2019. Let’s dig in!

Quote of the day: Siri kept calling me Shirley this morning…then I realised I had left my phone in Airplane mode.

On this date in 1985, Rick Nelson & six others died when his charted DC-3 aircraft crashed in Texas. A generation grew up with Rick and his brother David as co-stars on their parent’s television show, “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”. When Rick showed interest in music, his bandleader father knew how to capitalize on it. Here’s a 1986 remembrance, courtesy of Popular Culture Classics. Nelson patriarch, Ozzie, died in 1975, mom Harriet in 1994, and older brother David passed away in 2011 at the age of 74. A 1998 documentary revealed a family quite different from what we saw on the small screen, but perhaps more like many real families were, then and now.

A reboot of the famous Woodstock Music and Art Fair returns to the site of the historic 1969 concert for a 50th anniversary event in August of 2019. The original was a money loser, until the 1970 film and double LP brought the event back to the center of the world’s attention. It amplified the carriers of Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Who, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Sha-Na-Na, Santana, Richie Havens and others. The lineup for the 2019 iteration has yet to be announced.

Looking ahead to 2019:

Had enough of those sleep deficit inducing New Year’s Eve parties? We talked on Friday about Netflix’s cool way to scam kids into getting into bed early tonight. Here’s an idea from WSJ Columnist Jason Gay on how to pull something similar with those friends who want you to stay up late.

Will the New Year mean a new gig? If you’re over 50, you better have a Plan-B. Research shows that more than half of us in that age bracket are more likely to be pushed out of our job before we are ready to go. Here are some tips on reinventing yourself from our friends at the Harvard Business Review, just in case you need them..

Quick Takes:

The LA Times reports that Rabbit Ears are making a comeback in the era of cord cutting.

More & more retailers are saying, “Your cash ain’t nothing but trash.” Don’t forget that debit card!

Turner Classic Movies remembers those who left us in 2018. The piece was produced before we lost Penny Marshall.

The New York Times does a uniformly excellent job of writing celebrity remembrances. Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s piece on Margot Kidder is a tour de force.

The folks at TED teach us “How to disagree productively and find common ground“. A skill sorely needed in Washington right now.

Check out Robert DeNiro, DustinHoffman & JohnTravolta before they were famous, in these early 1960s TV commercials.

The 1960 version of Oceans Eleven was set on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas. It remains my favorite version of the franchise. Here’s the original trailer.

The SciFi Channel (now calling themselves SyFi) is running another New Year’s Eve Twilight Zone marathon. Rod Serling‘s daughter, Anne, regularly tweets about her famous father. What’s your favorite episode?

My guess is that you’ve made your share of lists of things you hope to achieve in the New Year. The most common? According to Jonathan Fader, writing for Psychology Today, they are: Losing weight, exercising more, quitting smoking, managing debt, saving money, getting a better job or education, reducing stress, and taking a trip or volunteering.

The bad news: Resolutions are easy to make and very hard to keep. Why? One sentence statements are rarely backed up with action plans. It’s human nature to give up at the sign of the first obstacle. And often, we don’t set the bar high enough.

The good news: People who make resolutions, write them down and work to create the habits to make them stick are much more likely to succeed in keeping them.

There are many tales of people who decided to reinvent themselves and transformed their lives in the process; Martha Stewart, Joy Behar, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Kroc and Col. Sanders are a few of the more well known.

In reality, we are in a constant state of becoming. Our skin regenerates every 2-3 weeks and our skeleton is completely different today than it was ten years ago. The Buddhists say that the sooner we can understand that everything is impermanent, the more we can take advantage of the situation to grow into happier, more productive people.

Perhaps author and entrepreneur James Altucher said it best. “Every day, you reinvent yourself. You’re always in motion. But you decide every day: forward or backward.”

Deciding to do nothing is a decision, too.

Nearly three decades ago, Chicago newspaper columnist and author, Sydney J. Harris penned a set of resolutions that have resonated with me ever since. They are just as meaningful today as they were when he first wrote them. As you look ahead to 2019, all of us at the wish you success in pursuing whatever your dreams may be. Here’s hoping that a little Sydney Harris creeps into those dreams.

Resolutions I’ll try to keep if you’ll try to make
Sydney J. Harris

To remember that we all basically want the same things, and our differences of opinion are less fundamental than our similarities of need.

To stop blaming ‘them’ for what is wrong with the world, and to examine more honestly and scrupulously our own failure to live up to our beliefs and ideals.

To respect goodness as much as we despise evil – otherwise, it becomes too easy to turn into a hater instead of a healer.

To keep in mind at all times that ‘justice’ is a seamless web, and not until we defend and assure justice for others do we gain the right lo claim it for ourselves.

To know that real strength most often discloses itself in gentleness, and weakness in furious aggression.

To refrain from self ­congratulations in contributing to charity – rather, to work for the elimination of the underlying conditions that continue to make such a charity necessary.

To say no more than we know, to speak no more than what we mean, and to give others as much the benefit of the doubt as we expect from them.

To cease imagining that we can improve conditions by ‘doing’ more than we do, without at the same time ‘becoming’ more than we are.

To understand that what we loosely call freedom is not a personal attribute, but a social relation – and that the optimum of freedom for everyone depends on self-imposed restrictions democratically arrived at.

To look beyond the transitory issues that divide us, and grasp for the permanent ends that unite us – not in mere sentimentality, but as a sheer matter of survival of our self-destructive species.

To recognize and admit our prejudices freely, and – if it is beyond our power to extirpate them – to discount them as realistically as we discount our limitations of eyesight or hearing or taste buds.

To accept the hard moral truth that from the moment we do anything credible in the anticipation of applause or popularity, we have forfeited our right to such credit.

To stop justifying selfishness because ‘the world is a jungle’ – for it can also be a garden depending on whether one wants to plant and water, or to plunder and uproot.

Finally, to treat people as if they were what they ought to be, which is the only way to help them become what they can be.

Be safe this New Year’s Eve. It’s what we DJs call “Amateur Night”. People who don’t typically drink a lot, drink a lot. Drive a little more carefully. Watch your own consumption. Have a little more patience. Kiss someone you love at midnight. Be safe!

See you next year!

Growing up in the 60s, I vividly remember Batman’s short prime as a hugely popular, if campy, television show on ABC followed by a 1966 movie iteration. Adam West and Burt Ward in the roles of Batman/Bruce Wayne and Robin/Dick Grayson rocketed to stardom and just as quickly faded into typecast oblivion.

When Michael Keaton took on the role in the Tim Burton directed film version in 1989, Batman’s bankability at the box office was reaffirmed and a franchise bloomed.

Batman on Film
Batman (1943); Batman and Robin (1949); Batman (1966); Batman (1989); Batman Returns (1992); Batman Forever (1995); Batman & Robin (1997); Batman Begins (2005); The Dark Knight (2008); The Dark Knight Rises (2012); Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016); Suicide Squad (2016); Justice League (2017); Joker (Coming in 2019).

Batman’s first appearances on the big screen were in two 15 part serials, produced in 1943 and 1949. Both were eventually compressed into full length feature films. (Video-Batman) (Video-Batman and Robin). Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery  were the first two actors to don the cape and cowl. The 1966 film featured West and Ward reprising their Television roles with popular guest villans Lee Meriwether as Catwoman, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. It received mostly favorable reviews for its tongue in cheek camp.

The 1989 Tim Burton film was heavily promoted and eagerly anticipated as a darker, more serious take on the caped crusader. Michael Keaton, previously known for less serious roles, delivered the goods, with Jack Nicholson‘s frightening portrayal of The Joker mesmerizing audiences worldwide. The film topped $411.35 million in total revenue and was the highest grossing film based on a DC comic book until 2008’s The Dark Knight. (Wikipedia)

Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck contributed their interpretations with varying degrees of success. Bale’s nemesis in 2008’s The Dark Knight Rises was Heath Ledger, in a show stealing performance as The Joker.

The two decade lifespan of the franchise introduced the character to several generations of fans, each associating the star-of-the-day with the titular role. But inevitable “Worst to Best” lists have been created. Zach Snyder likes Ben Affleck.  Variety thinks Christian Bale is the best and serial star Lewis Wilson as the worst, with Val Kilmer a close second-from-the-bottom. Business Insider ranks Keaton at the top and George Clooney at the bottom.

Any franchise is hard to sustain. Just ask the Broccoli family, who has produced 24 James Bond films with six different actors in the title role. Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig could not be more different from one another. But like the Batmen, each made the role their own and built fan bases who revere their performances.

Will Batman continue to be at the center of our consciousness? As long as there are comic books and kids, we think so.

For the record, I like Connery best as Bond and Keaton head and shoulders above all the others as the Dark Knight.

We leave you with Looper.com’s video review of worst to first Batman films. You may not agree (we don’t) but it’s worth the watch just to see the clips. “Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed.” Let’s go!