"Skywave Rider:  Rock 'n' Roll Radio in the 1960s"

Program Description

August 12, 1999

© Ken Mills

"SKYWAVE RIDER:  ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO IN THE 1960'S" is a documentary about the interrelated worlds of Top 40 radio, the 1960s Midwest rock 'n' roll band and ballroom scene, and changing cultural patterns.  It is a first-person account by Ken Mills of events that occurred between May 1963 and October 1967.

The program focuses on Sioux Falls, South Dakota:  the radio stations heard there, the traveling rock bands that came through the city, Mills' booking agency "Ken Musical Enterprises," and the bands booked by the agency and the insatiable quest by Mills' bands to record a hit record.

Radio stations and personalities heard on "SKYWAVE RIDER:  ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO IN THE 1960's" include Wolfman Jack on XERB, Tijuana; Dick Biondi on WLS, Chicago; Dale Wehba on KOMA, Oklahoma City; Clyde Clifford's "Beaker Street" on KAAY, Little Rock; Jimmy O'Neill on KDWB, Minneapolis; Lord Douglas on KELO, Sioux Falls; and Doctor Bill Proctor, Ray Ford, and Tom Rambler on KISD, Sioux Falls.

Midwest bands heard on the program include The Fabulous Flippers from Lawrence, Kansas; The High Spirits from Minneapolis; Dale Gregory and the Shouters and Those of Us from Sioux Falls.

"SKYWAVE RIDER:  ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO IN THE 1960's" takes the listener to ballrooms and road houses across the Midwest, driving fast late at night, listening to far away radio stations.  The program offers a snapshot of a brief period in time before the Vietnam War and adulthood ended the teenage party.

email Ken Mills at publicradio@hotmail.com or mills015@tc.umn.edu