Don Chase: The Passing of A Dear Friend

So, what would be your definition of a friend? I would guess that that a friend would be

someone that you could count on always being there for you. Well, the friend I am talking about would definitely fit the description. If my memory serves me correct, this friend and I were acquainted in the mid 1970's. This friend was with me during the good, the bad and the ugly and always provided a little blue sky on a day that wasn't.  If only this friend could talk. Guess what? It could not only talk but could also play music 24 hours 7 days a week. Now, you probably know what I am talking about. To be specific, my friend would be the Sankyo STR-100 AM/FM Radio/Cassette Player/Recorder. Are you kidding me? You mean I can listen to the radio AND record my favorite songs at the same time? Yes! Yes! Yes!  How much better could life get? I could not wait to get home from school. My friend introduced me to Robin D. Tyree, Buddy Edwards, Densil Worthington & Bill Ghent on 99.1 out of Whiteville,  N.C. (now 99.1 The Big Stick Foxy 99), Beach/Rock 860 WFMO, Fairmont, N.C. and Bob Pittman's Beach Show & Chuck O'Day, Bill Sellars on Z101 Fairmont, Robert Hester, Bob Krokel & Alan Hoover on
1440 WBLA Elizabethtown & Country Dan Hester on WJSK Lumberton just to name a few. At night, the local stations went away making room for the powerhouse signals like 650 WSM Nashville, TN., Home of the Grand Old Opry, 77 WABC New York, AM750 WSB Atlanta, GA. & AM890 WLS Chicago just to name a few. This past Friday, my Friend stopped working. I was telling my morning partner Sarah, that I only remember not hearing my Friend on two occasions. One was during the move from Bladenboro to Grays Creek and then the move to
Fayetteville. Other than those two times, I am pretty sure my Friend played 24 hours 7 days a week. Recently, I started a project of taking the hundreds of recorded cassette tapes and converting them to digital.  On many of those tapes are songs from yesterday along with the radio disc jockey providing the magic between the songs. Even though my Friend plays no more, it sure left me with many hours of very pleasant memories.