Jim Bartlett
June 1, 2017
You may have heard on the news this week that Manuel Noriega, former president of Panama, died. In December 1989, the U.S. military launched Operation Just Cause, an invasion of Panama intended to safeguard Americans living in Panama, curtail drug trafficking there, and ultimately throw Noreiga out of office. After less than two weeks, Noriega […]
May 20, 2017
Sometime, either this month or next, is my ninth anniversary working for Magic 98. Compared to Pat, Kathryn, Sara, and Lanette, I haven’t been here all that long, but it feels like a long time to me. When I started working in 2008, I was already on another Mid-West Family Broadcasting station, 93.1 The Lake, […]
May 6, 2017
It’s the spring of 1971. I am 11 years old, and a student in Mrs. Barribeau’s fifth-grade class. Although I outwardly hold fast to the cultural conventions of the time regarding the general ickiness of girls, I do not really believe it. I have already pledged something like undying affection to one of them, although […]
April 16, 2017
When I was five, the Palm Sunday Tornado went through my hometown of Monroe. It made a big impression on me—and one of the biggest was the way my parents would forever after turn on the radio whenever the skies got dark. When I started working in radio as a little baby disc jockey in […]
April 6, 2017
On one of the very first American Top 40 shows, dating back to 1970, Casey Kasem is baffled by the title of Chicago‘s song “25 or 6 to 4.” “We’ll figure it out as the weeks go by,” he says. Lots of people are still baffled by that title, but the meaning of the song […]
March 7, 2017
From 1998 to 2000, Sports Night was one of the best shows on TV, and it remains my favorite sitcom ever. It was the first TV show developed by Aaron Sorkin, who later created The West Wing and The Newsroom. In one episode, one of the characters, Dan, was trying to decide which charity to […]
February 22, 2017
Next week, public-school juniors all across Wisconsin will take the ACT. If it seems like I haven’t been on the radio all that much these last six weeks, it’s because I have been traveling around the state helping kids prepare for the ACT. I work for a company that presents test-preparation seminars, and have done […]
February 9, 2017
Last weekend I did something I hadn’t done since 1980 (I think): I was on the radio while the Super Bowl was on. While thousands of people in the Madison area were watching the game and/or waiting for the halftime show, I was hosting Sunday at the 80s. I didn’t mind. The Packers weren’t playing, […]
January 25, 2017
The snowstorm this week reminded me of the years I worked at a radio station in small-town Iowa. It was a 70-mile round trip commute from where we lived, so whenever I would otherwise be snowbound at the office, I had a standing invitation to stay in town with the station’s GM, Gene, and his […]
January 13, 2017
If you watch the NFL playoffs this weekend, you’ll see various performances of the National Anthem. As the games get bigger, so do the stars who perform the anthem. We’re used to pop performances of that song now, and we’re mostly happy to tolerate stars who put their own twist on it. But it wasn’t […]