Originally posted July 13, 2014 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Steve Craig, who worked at 99X for 16-plus years and is now a jock on 97.1/The River and music director of new alternative rock station X107.1, has been a huge Ramones fan for nearly four decades.
When I heard drummer Tommy Ramone had died over the weekend and that all the original members are gone, Craig came to mind since he used to do the delightfully silly "Wheel of Ramones" bit during his noon Retroplex every week on the now defunct 99X. (He did his final "Wheel of Ramones" for 99X online in 2008, landing on "Rockaway Beach.")
Craig, on the River, brought back the "Wheel of Ramones" at 11:08 a.m. this morning and spun "Sheena is a Punk Rocker" and "Blitzkrieg Bop."
The Ramones arrived on the punk scene in New York City in the 1970s, which makes the fact all four of their original members are dead all the more jarring since many bands from the 1960s still have plenty of live members. (e.g. half the Beatles and four out of six original Rolling Stones are still around.)
Here are Craig's thoughts:
The Ramones landed exactly zero top 40 hits. But many of their classics endure in alternative rock circles such as "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," "Blitzkrieg Bop," and "I Wanna Be Sedated."
Last week, 228 radio stations nationwide measured by Mediabase 24/7 spun at least one Ramones song. Locally, the Ramones were heard 12 times split among Rock 100.5, Radio 105.7 and 97.1/The River.
"I Wanna Be Sedated" was by far the most popular song heard in the past seven days: 145 times nationwide.
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