About Us
Certainly there are other blogs about Freestyle Music, this isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last.
These blogs come from many angles – an artist or member of a group reliving the glory years and writing that they’re back performing again after working a day job for so many years because they were hosed out of royalties. Maybe a producer that worked with some artists and has some cool stories to tell. And of course, there is the fan-boy-type who was there for every pick-your-singer’s performance, has all her gear and can kinda hit the high notes, albeit slightly off-key.
My perspective is a bit different.
Not a singer. Not a producer. Certainly not a fan-boy. Not from Miami or New York or New Jersey.
I worked in radio on the West Coast during the peak Freestyle years at some of the stations that mattered, and in many cases, still matter today. I worked on-air and also as a Music Director. If you were there and remember listening to a guy named Handsome Rich Ransom, well you found me again.
I played Lisa Lisa’s “I Wonder If I Take You Home” and Shannon’s “Let the Music Play” when they were new. I played the original version of Expose’s “Point of No Return” and helped break Stevie B’s “Party Your Body,” Dino’s “Summer Girls” and Johnny O’s “Fantasy Girl,” amongst others. We were all young and making pennies, but none of us would trade those times and memories for more money and a desk job.
If the call letters KDON, B-95, Q-97 and KMEL mean anything to you, I was there – again, when it mattered, in the scope of Freestyle Music. It was a fun time to be in radio, before the station and company consolidation and satellite radio technology. If you wanted new music or really any music, you flipped on the radio and channel surfed until you found what you liked.
The objective here of this blog and my podcast is to help keep the newfound Freestyle Music momentum moving forward, help newbies discover what millions danced and grooved to back in the day, as well as giving a lot of these artists another platform to tell their story – the good, the bad, the ugly, and hopefully the comeback.
Reach Out
I also have a few stories here and there, so hope you’ll enjoy the journey with me and if you have something you’d like to add, drop me an email or leave a comment – I’d love to hear from you!