CKLG Top 30 Lists Circa 1973

Remember 1973? If you’re in your late forties or fifties and lived on the west coast, you probably listened to CKLG 73 AM Radio. It was the top purveyor of pop music in Vancouver, Victoria and anywhere else its signal would reach, pumping all the schmaltzy hits of the day into our homes, cars and transistor radios.

I was an avid listener to CKLG in the early 70’s and collected their top 30 lists in Victoria, distributed through F.W. Woolworth Co Limited at 1200 Douglas Street or Kelly Deyong Sound Corp. Ltd at 646 Yates Street. Both businesses are long gone but those brightly coloured little top 30 lists have been socked away in a box since I was a kid.

I have a total of 25 lists and scanned a few for your viewing enjoyment. Have a look at the top music of the time and cringe as we remember ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon’ by Tony Orlando and Dawn or or remember how good music could be back then with ‘Do It Again’ by Steely Dan. Just like today, some of the music sucked, some of it was good and some of it was great. But I remember listening to ‘Stuck In The Middle’ on a crappy little portable transistor radio and knowing it was a song that would last. It did (remember the scene in Reservoir Dogs?) along with David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ and many more included in the top 30 lists.

Those were the days of call-in request lines and shopping for vinyl 45’s at Kelly’s Stereo Mart. Those days are gone now but my little lists remain as a beacon of quality music in our present sea of shitty rap music and overly produced garbage. The pop music of the 70’s still survives on terrestrial and internet radio, in movies and commercials and on ipods around the world. I’m curious to see home much of the pop music being produced today survives. Not much I think.

Click the thumbnails below to view: