Off-topic: SCAN

[Once again, forgive me me for an off-topic post, but I couldn't let this article go to waste.]

The first thing you heard was a synthesized swishing sound - if you listened in stereo, it swished back-and-forth across the speakers. Then a deep bass voice intoned "Scannnn..." followed by an echoing "Scan, scan, scan, scan ..."

Thus began each episode of SCAN, a weekly half-hour public-service program produced and distributed by the American Lutheran Church (ALC) of Minneapolis, MN. I particularly remember this show becase it was the last program my usual station aired before going off the air on Sunday nights.

SCAN described itself as "a weekly source of stories of strength and hope which rivet the litener to the station," "sweeping the horizon discovering the life intended by the Creator." Most episodes discussed a current social, political, cultural, economic and/or spiritual issue, through interviews with people involved in the issue and contemporary rock music. Some SCAN programs I especially remember are:

---An interview with a rape victim, about her experience and her search for justice and healing;

---Three peace activists, including an East German pastor, an American ex-bureaucrat and a Danish mother, advocating against nuclear war;

---Two former pro-footballers now leading a campaign for fair housing and aid for the poor.

However, some shows were outright interviews with pop-music stars - the very first SCAN was an interview with Randy Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive; other music stars interviewed for the show included Neil Sedaka, Barry Manilow, B.J. Thomas and the early female rock band Deadly Nightshade.

SCAN started its run in fall 1975, and was the successor to an earlier ALC series, "Silhouette," which began in 1967. The show was produced by the ALC's Media services Center, wih Hal Dragseth as the host and executive producer. (Dragseth owned the above-mentioned deep bass voice.) The ALC offered the show free to radio stations - a considerable bargain, because the show was quite well-produced; free transcripts were also offered for an SASE, the show issued a monthly newsletter called "Newsnote," and $5.98 got you a cassette of a favorite SCAN program.

At its peak, SCAN aired on more than 500 U.S. radio stations and 300 Armed Forces stations. It won two Gabriel Awards for best youth-oriented religious program, and two Certificates of Merit.

In 1987, twelve years after SCAN premiered, the ALC merged with two other churches to become the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); the ALC's Media Services Center disappeared, but several employees - including Dragseth - formed Seraphim Productions, Inc., and continued to produce SCAN without interruption, now for the ELCA. However, the next year, the ELCA began cutting back on production of new episodes; the last all-new SCAN program, a New Year's entry called "Lessons From the Past," aired on December 31, 1989.

Even so, SCAN continued for nearly two more years, with repeats; on August 11, 1991, after sixteen years, SCAN aired its last episode.

But the show's legacy lives on. The ELCA still has a complete archive of all 756 SCANs, and is digitizing them, with hopes of making them available again in some way. After all, even though SCAN last "swept the horizon" more than 20 years ago, many of the problems it addressed are still very much with us. Soon, we may somehow hear that synthesizer swish again.

{Special thanks to Joel Thoreson, ELCA media archivist, for providing me with most of the info for this article.}

Off-topic: Mike-ing History

This is off the blog's topic, but I'm bringing it up here because I'm not having much luck finding any info elsewhere.

When I was a kid in the mid-'70s, my school system had these 78s called "Mike-ing History." They were on colored (red or green) vinyl, and featured short newscast-style dramatizations of historical events (like "You Are There"). I took them out and taped them, but shortly afterward they disappeared, and I haven't yet found any more info about them, even on the Web.

If anyone reading this entry has any info about the "Mike-ing History" 78s (or knows where I can find info), please contact me. Thanks.

Jeff Cowell LPs?

One of "The Grooves I Have" is the "Iron Mountain Centennial Song" single, featuring Jeff Cowell. I've been informed that Jeff Cowell also brought out some self-released LPs, but so far I haven't found any more info about them. If anyone reading this entry has more info (or knows where I can find it), please contact me. Thanks.

A brief announcement

I now have the ability to dub vinyl records onto CDs.

Lodi Carr - "Ladybird"

Wow. How could I have begun this whole project without hearing of this girl?

Marquette-born Lodi began singing professionally in Detroit in the early 1950s; she moved to New York in '56, and in '58 she became one of the first acts signed to Laurie Records (future home of Dion, the Royal Guardsmen, and other hitmakers). The title track of her Laurie LP became her nickname - Ladybird.

In 1961, after marrying and having a child, Lodi gave up performing for more than 20 years, returning in the early 1980s. For several years she was a headliner at New York's Village Gate, and from all reports this gracefully-aged (she's in her mid-seventies) Ladybird still knocks 'em dead. Her LP is now available on CD.

Sacred Heart Singers / Come Alive Singers

One of my most recent discoveries is this all-girl Catholic youth chorus/band from Ewen, directed by Dorothy Bessen (I count 17 members in a photograph). They began as the Sacred Heart Singers and made two albums, Come Alive and Come Alive at Christmas, plus a "mini-album," before becoming the Come Alive Singers and recording the albums Happy Feet and Somewhere In the Wind ... I Hear A Song, both of which I have (See "The Grooves I Have"). They were apparently not affiliated with the Sacred Heart Church in Ewen, though some group members attended that church; indeed, the group name was changed to the Come Alive Singers to avoid giving that impression.

Happy Feet - which came out long before the Steve Martin routine - has 16 songs, mostly written by group member Paulette Niemi. Its liner notes are worth quoting: "[T]hese selections ... combine the sound of modern music and the enthusiasm of youth with the richness of biblical writings, plus mature guidance, patience, and love. Other ingredients such as faith and hope enable this type of music to eliminate the generation gap ... [W]e feel that we have come up with a unique type of music which is sacred enough to use in church and spirited enough to be enjoyed by people of all ages." 'Nuff said.

Michigan (and U.P.) Rock and Roll Legends

Happy new year!

Just a quick word about the website "Michigan Rock and Roll Legends" - www.michiganrockandrolllegends.com - and its 2009 ballot for inductees into its Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

There are more than 300 acts on the ballot, and - believe it or not - it includes some U.P. acts, nearly all of whom are listed here in U.P. GROOVES! Check it out, and if you can, VOTE!

(If you'd like more info on the site before logging in to it, Steve Seymour's got a nice entry about it in his Rock'n'Roll Graffiti blog; see "Loose Ends and Closing Credits.")

And I can't resist sharing this - Dr. J, the site's creator, says that before he read this blog, he didn't know what a vital music scene there was in the U.P. We're doing something right!