The best Detroit (radio) station of its era!

Scott Boatright

The station of my wildest dreams.

I think it was WABX that was airing the Specs Howard commercial that took me down radio road. I was living in the apartments on Holcomb, off Jefferson when I heard the station of my wildest dreams. I remember the waning days of AM listening, once I got the (FM) converter for my VW- it was over. I am proud to be from one of the best radio cities, back in the day. In the later days of the station, I remember visiting Steve Dahl one Sunday morning as a project for Specs. I walked into the studio; he had just taken a sip of coffee, cracked the mic and spit coffee all over. He (Dahl) said, "nothing worse that cold coffee, except for warm beer." He (Dahl) went on a diatribe about things that bugged him, and somewhere in there was a slam on the Detroit News. I was in awe as an 18 year old broadcast student. It was a gas harking back a bit with your story. I look forward to a Detroit Radio Reunion coming up in September. I am hoping to see a few of those faces, I think it was at a past reunion that I last spoke to (Dave) Dixon. 

Now I have to go look for my dog patch (Rock Dog), I feel like sewing it on the butt of my blue jeans.

Rock On,
Carey Carlson


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I have to say that my husband, Jim, and I are both reporting this was the best 4 day vacation EVER, and we have traveled a lot.

It was amazing how many Kid Rock Congregation members (Kid Rock Fan Club – www.theKRC.com) I met just sitting in the boarding area, at the dock, at the Marriott the night before or at the pre-cruise party at Gaspar's Grotto. The energy was amped from the moment we landed in Tampa and didn't stop until about 24 hours after the cruise had ended.

I had 3 encounters with Kid Rock on board. The most memorable was at Ty Stone’s first show on Friday night in the Candlelight Lounge. I wanted to dance to “Real Thang”, dressed up in my pimp costume, but without The Truth on board to bring up the energy, no one joined me. I went it alone... Little did I know that Kid (Rock) was in the audience. Once I found that out, I turned a crimson color. After the show, I was talking with Sam (Wood), who I've met many times back home and is the behind the scenes man for Ty (Stone). I told him, that I had probably embarrassed Ty up there by dancing. Sam shook his head and said "No, you helped Ty out there" by bringing support for his music. I went out the lounge door to catch up with my husband, and entered the area where Kid Rock was retreating. After a crowd of people dispersed, we met. I told him I would have never gotten up to dance had I known he was in the audience, but I'm a big fan of Ty's. I thanked him for what he has done for Ty (Stone). His response after looking me up & down twice (in pimp costume) and smirked, "you look wonderful" - sincere and genuine, kissed my right hand, and walked away. Pretty cool! That is why I'm a fan of his music, pay a lot of hard earned money to see him several times a year, and took the chance on opportunities like this one to come on the inaugural cruise.

Second story has to do with another Ty Stone show on Sunday night. My husband and his friend Bernie, were standing at the Candlelight lounge, when a huge crowd gathered around where they were standing. I had to push my way to get to my husband, and discovered that Kid Rock and his entourage had arrived right below Jim and Bernie. Ty Stone offered up a free copy of his EP to the crowd, and the women started to storm the stage (mind you, it is Pirate/Wenches costume night). Bernie called out "Oh here come the wenches", Kid Rock turned around and started to smile. One of Kid Rock’s girls turned to Bernie and started spouting off something inaudible about the wenches comment. Bernie's response was, "I don't speak gibberish" and put his hands up in question -- this time, Kid Rock started laughing hard and the magic between the men could be seen.

I enjoyed interacting with all the band members. I brought pictures of me with Paradime, Jason Krauss, and Uncle Kracker from events here in Michigan for them to autograph - they all graciously took the time to do so. I even took a picture of my 10 year old daughter taken outside the Royal Oak Music theatre when I took her to see Uncle Kracker last November - he was nice enough to autograph the picture - Caitlyn loved the special present!

Chelsea Willis