Alabama radio deejay celebrates 25 years of spinning 45s on his weekly show "Reelin' in the
By Matt Wake | mwake@al.com AL.com
Huntsville, AL
series /series Aka Story Package gallery-preview /gallery-preview Aka Secondary Package About 90 minutes into the Oct. 30 broadcast of his radio show "Reelin' in the Years," Bob Labbe followed The Who's 1969 rock-opera anthem "Pinball Wizard" with Buckner & Garcia 1982 novelty tune "Pac-Man Fever."
It's the kind of bizarre-yet-beautiful sequencing you just don't hear much on commercial radio anymore. Which is exactly why Labbe does his show on public radio. Labbe plays only 45 rpm, 7-inch vinyl records on "Reelin' in the Years," airing live 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays on Huntsville station WLRH 89.3 FM. "That's what my show's all about, the era of the 45 rpm record," Labbe says. "Basically, popular music from 1950 to 1990." The Nov. 6 "Reelin' in the Years" will mark the show's 25th anniversary.
Labbe culls tracks for "Reelin'" from his personal collection of more than 20,000 45s, which are stored in a room dedicated to them in his Madison County home. Now 61, Labbe's been collecting 45s since he was four and still owns most the records he purchased as a youth growing up in Huntsville, when he would save up money from mowing lawns to purchase 45s by the likes of Paul Revere & the Raiders and Tommy James and the Shondells. He says there are two primary reasons he loves 45s. "The sound quality is wonderful and I think speaks for itself," Labbe says.
"Physically, you can actually hold it. You can read the label. You can read who wrote the song, the publisher, the time of the record." And Labbe weaves that sort of information into his shows, connecting songs by musical history and birthdays as well as interviews he's conducted with artists over the years including Elton John, Olivia Newton-John and Lionel Richie. He also gives away tickets to concerts and local events like Huntsville Havoc hockey games.
The sound of a circle
WLRH general manager Brett Tannehill says there's an art to running a turntable on live radio. "With CDs and digital audio files, you basically click a button and go," Tannehill says. "Records demand more of a human touch to load the disc and drop the needle. And since Bob only plays 45s, it's a maneuver he must repeat over and over, flawlessly, during his four-hour live show.
There's also a certain nostalgia about what happens when needle and vinyl connect." Tannehill lauds Labbe for "an incredible amount of dedication and expertise" during his show's 25-year run. "Bob's show has great music, but I also really enjoy the historical context "Reelin'" provides."
Glenn Tarvin has been listening to the show since the mid-90s. Tarvin says he originally came across the program as he "was trying to find something to listen to one night." He enjoys the tracks Labbe spins by artists like Beach Boys, Otis Redding and Frank Sinatra, as well as obscurities like George Baker Selection's "Little Green Bag," a groovy 1969 single later known for its inclusion on Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" soundtrack.
Tarvin and his wife Marilyn, both retired former Defense Intelligence Agency employees, moved out to Toney after living in Huntsville from 1969 to 2005. They make listening to "Reelin' in the Years" a weekly event. They hang out in their family room and listen to the show on their home stereo's receiver. They call this "Bob Night."
"Knowing that Bob enjoys the music so much and he has spent so much time and energy to collect all these records, it's kind of a big part of his life," says Tarvin, who's become friends with Labbe. "And his show is a big part of our life. We look forward to it during the week. It's just fun for us. We dated for four years before we got married and that music brings back memories sometimes." Tarvin is a vinyl aficionado himself and recently upgraded to a high-end VPI turntable. "To me if I listen to a CD there's an edge that bothers me and the vinyl is warmer and smoother," he says.
"Reelin in the Years" has even reached listeners inside prison walls. Labbe fondly recalls letters he received for years from a Limestone Correctional Facility inmate named Julian. "He wrote to me about how the radio show helped him and the other prisoners get away from what they were in and gave them a chance to have a part of the outside world," Labbe says. "Julian is still around. He got out of prison several years ago - he wrote me a letter, I've never met the man - but that was very touching."
Radio roots
Many Huntsville natives of a certain age remember Labbe as a TV sportscaster on local ABC affiliate WAAY-31. During that stint he interviewed some of sport's most towering figures, including University of Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and boxing champion Muhammed Ali. However, Labbe actually began his broadcasting career in radio, in September 1972.
"People ask me how to get into TV and I tell them to get into radio first," Labbe says, "because it teaches you how to be in front of the public. Even though you're behind the microphone you're still in front of the public. It teaches you timing and things like that."
His first radio job was deejaying Saturday nights at Huntsville station WAHR, now known as Star 99, during an era when the station was located on the top floor of the Huntsville Times building downtown. "I played jazz music, of all things," Labbe says.
Back when he was a child, each night Labbe would dial in Chicago's WLS-AM on his transistor radio. The station was accessible from Huntsville at night, but not during the day. "I remember scanning across the dial that night and I heard a song called 'Midnight Mary.' And I went out and bought the 45. There were some disc jockeys on there, and I was like, 'That's what I want to do, right there.
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Most weeks, Labbe doesn't finish the playlist for "Reelin' in the Years," named for Steely Dan's jazzy 1972 single, until right before the show. He starts by scripting a "feature" or theme for that week. For Oct. 30 it was "Carnival of Fun," songs about games, toys, etc., following a Oct. 23 "Golden Music" show winding through such songs as David Bowie funk-rocker "Golden Years" and Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" James Bond theme.
"Feature ideas can come about in many different ways," Labbe says. "For example I can be driving down the road and see a tree and say, 'Oh, OK. Let's do a feature on trees.' So I start off with a feature and I also work on my histories and birthdays and the news and that kind of gives me the basics. The rest (of the songs) come from requests and records that I just come across flipping from some old 45s. 'Haven't heard this in a while. Let's play this one.'"
Labbe typically plays around 50 songs during the show. When one song is airing on "Reelin' in the Years" he's often trying to figure what he's going to play two or three cuts down the line, playing air guitar along to the track or if it's a love song even slow dancing in the booth with his girlfriend who sometimes accompanies him to the WLRH studio.
'This is my gift to public radio'
Labbe's all-time favorite artists include The Beatles, Moody Blues and Glen Campbell. (His latter day faves include country singer/guitarist Keith Urban.) His record collection's highlights include picture sleeve 45s of Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light" and The Rolling Stones' "We Love You"/"Dandelion" single.
Labbe also owns about 1,500 vinyl LPs. The reason he focused on 45s instead of the LPs popular with collectors was simple economics. "When I was growing up 45s were all I could afford. I would get my allowance and go down to G.C. Murphy or Hornbuckle's and spend 59 cents to buy a 45 instead of a couple bucks (for an album)."
In more recent years he's spent as much as $50 or $60 on a single 45. A picture sleeve 45 of Ali's "I'm The Greatest," credited to Cassius Clay, is probably the crown jewel of Labbe's stash. He scours yard sales, thrift stories, record stores, record shows and eBay to expand his 45s collection, organized alphabetically by artist name.
"It's amazing how many times I get a phone call saying, 'Hey, I've got a bunch of 45s I don't want anymore. Do you want them?' And I ask them straight up if they want to be paid for them and most of the time they say you can just have them. If I find a record that's pretty valuable I'll give it back to them and most of the time they just say, 'No, I want you to have it to have in your collection and enjoy it.'"
Labbe isn't paid for his work on "Reelin' in the Years." (He currently earns a living writing for a local publication, substitute teaching for country schools and part-time Redstone Arsenal work.)
"I'm just a volunteer at WLRH, like a lot of people do volunteer work for the Red Cross," he says. "This is my gift to public radio.
Radio has changed so much over the years. It's gotten so corporate. But WLRH has never told me what I can do and what I can't do. I have complete freedom and I'm very grateful. It's the way radio used to be, the radio I grew up with, so you can play the music you want to play and I take pride in playing a lot of obscure stuff. Just about every record I play hit the charts of some sort. And to reach the charts that song had to have been liked by someone and that someone might be listening to my show."