Some of the best selling albums of all time came out of our nation’s Bicentennial Year — “Frampton Come Alive!“, Boston’s first, Boz Scaggs’ “Silk Degrees“, Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life“, Steely Dan’s “The Royal Scam” and Eagles’ “Hotel California“… just to name a few.

During 1976, I was the music director for my college radio station at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.  There was plenty of great new music just ripe for the taking. And we sampled it all…  Rock, Top 40, Jazz/Fusion crossovers, R&B, and a touch of Country, too!

There were also some great deeeeeeeeeeep album tracks played that year on Progressive Radio.  We’ll check some of those out, too, on this week’s broadcast.

Also In 1976:

• Minimum wage in the U.S. was $2.30 per hour
• The average annual income was $14,958
• A new car set you back $5,418
• You could build a new house for $44,200
• A loaf of bread was 36 cents
• A full-service gallon of gas was just 61 cents
• First Class postage was only 13 cents!

1976 World News Headlines:

• Racial violence in black townships outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, was the worst in over 15 years
• Austrian Kurt Waldheim began his second term as UN Secretary General
• A 8.2 earthquake devastated China — over 242,000 were killed
• Gymnast Nadia Comaneci of Romania scored a perfect 10 in the Montreal Summer Olympics
• The Winter Olympic Games were held in Innsbruck, Austria

1976 U.S. News Headlines:

• From coast-to-coast, the United States celebrated its 200th birthday — “The Bicentennial”
• Jimmy Carter, a “born-again” Baptist from Plains, Georgia, was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party
• In a close election, Jimmy Carter was elected president over incumbent Gerald Ford
• In Philadelphia, 28 people died from a mysterious virus dubbed “Legionnaire’s Disease”
• The first supersonic jet airliner, the Concorde went into service

The top TV shows in 1976:  Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, M*A*S*H*, Baretta, Charlie’s Angels, The Six Million Dollar Man, One Day at a Time, Three’s Company, Welcome Back Kotter, All in the Family, The Waltons, The Bionic Woman, and Quincy.

Favorite movies from 1976:  Rocky, Network, Taxi Driver, All the President’s Men, Carrie, Logan’s Run, Marathon Man, King Kong, The Bad News Bears, Silent Movie, Silver Streak, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Song Remains the Same, Car Wash, Bugsy Malone, A Star is Born, Mother Jugs & Speed, and Lipstick.

Record of the Year in 1976:  George Benson/This Masquerade

Check out the great music and other lifestyle memories from 1976 on-the-air right now on TuneIn  or on Live 365!

Thanks for listening!  I’d love to get your feedback and comments on the show.

– Fred

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