2 Questions: Surf Ballroom Clear Lake Iowa | The Boneyard

2 Questions: Surf Ballroom Clear Lake Iowa

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If anyone never heard of this place before, a brief description is contained below, but here are the 2 related Questions:

Question One: Has anyone ever been to this area and seen a rock and roll revival there on the anniversary of the tragic death of Buddy Holly,Ritchie Valens, and Big Bopper, or been there to visit on another date? This is still a tourist place with occasional shows, at least pre-Covid 19, it was.

Question Two: Has anyone ever had, an "I am glad I did not get on the plane or bus" moment, where by good fortune , you did not wind up taking a scheduled bus or plane trip or any other scheduled trip that resulted in a disaster with loss of life? In the tragedy above, Dion, from Dion and the Belmonts was supposed to get on the plane, but did not.

Here is a description of the place:

The Surf Ballroom is a loss-of-innocence shrine for fans of rock 'n' roll, the place where early rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson gave their last performances on February 2, 1959, just before dying in a plane crash -- later lamented as "The Day the Music Died" in the song American Pie.


BTW, I am not an 80 or 90 year old BY'er, but was a kid when this happened.
 

Adesmar123

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I used to do a lot of surfing there. Those lake waves were huge!
 
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One of my good friends at wwuh where I host a weekly radio show , hosts an oldies program. Armed with a press pass, he was out at Clear Lake for the 50th anniversary of "the night the music died". He's got some cool stories. One of them was how he was sitting eating lunch with his son at a packed diner when two guys came over and asked to join them. It was Graham Nash and Delbert Mcclinton. He says the rest of the meal was pretty much a blur.
 
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I surf the Internet. Saves buying a surf board and a wet suit.

Send me a link of your surfing in Clear Lake.
 
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One of my good friends at wwuh where I host a weekly radio show , hosts an oldies program. Armed with a press pass, he was out at Clear Lake for the 50th anniversary of "the night the music died". He's got some cool stories. One of them was how he was sitting eating lunch with his son at a packed diner when two guys came over and asked to join them. It was Graham Nash and Delbert Mcclinton. He says the rest of the meal was pretty much a blur.

Having checked out the area on the Net, it does sound like quite an interesting place. I am not sure if the 1959 event was the impetus for its development or not.

I was unaware of your station until I saw it in your response.

I saw you had a radio broadcast history series earlier in the month. Is it archived somewhere via a link?

On what day and time, is that oldies broadcast?

University radio stations do add a lot to a community. Regrettably Quinnipiac shut its down. They had nice listening music when I was in the dentist's office and the local news was on the money.
 

Adesmar123

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I surf the Internet. Saves buying a surf board and a wet suit.

Send me a link of your surfing in Clear Lake.

Remember the last surfing scene from the movie "Point Break", that was filmed at Clear Lake.
 
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Remember the last surfing scene from the movie "Point Break", that was filmed at Clear Lake.
I checked the net and did not see Iowa as a filming location.

Maybe you were just kidding me. But, I'll tell you, it does look like a nice lake for swimming and recreation.

Who would have thought of Iowa that way.

CT does have some nice lakes like Bigelow Hollow in Union, and Farmington has a nice rec area with a lake. I am sure there are other nice freshwater places too.
 
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Having checked out the area on the Net, it does sound like quite an interesting place. I am not sure if the 1959 event was the impetus for its development or not.

I was unaware of your station until I saw it in your response.

I saw you had a radio broadcast history series earlier in the month. Is it archived somewhere via a link?

On what day and time, is that oldies broadcast?

University radio stations do add a lot to a community. Regrettably Quinnipiac shut its down. They had nice listening music when I was in the dentist's office and the local news was on the money.

The history of radio in CT is a 10 hour documentary. It's not archived yet but all the details are here,:


The oldies show is hosted by wild wayne, sundays 6-8pm..... a lot of our shows are running on automation during the pandemic but all the music genres are there. You can listen online at wwuh.org. All the shows are archived for 2 weeks also. Links are at the top of the wwuh
homepage.
 
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If anyone never heard of this place before, a brief description is contained below, but here are the 2 related Questions:

Question One: Has anyone ever been to this area and seen a rock and roll revival there on the anniversary of the tragic death of Buddy Holly,Ritchie Valens, and Big Bopper, or been there to visit on another date? This is still a tourist place with occasional shows, at least pre-Covid 19, it was.

Question Two: Has anyone ever had, an "I am glad I did not get on the plane or bus" moment, where by good fortune , you did not wind up taking a scheduled bus or plane trip or any other scheduled trip that resulted in a disaster with loss of life? In the tragedy above, Dion, from Dion and the Belmonts was supposed to get on the plane, but did not.

Here is a description of the place:

The Surf Ballroom is a loss-of-innocence shrine for fans of rock 'n' roll, the place where early rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson gave their last performances on February 2, 1959, just before dying in a plane crash -- later lamented as "The Day the Music Died" in the song American Pie.


BTW, I am not an 80 or 90 year old BY'er, but was a kid when this happened.
Correction on Q#2.. It was not Dion who gave up his seat..It was none other than Waylon Jennings..Willie's "wingman"..Great Trivia question for the "Over Fifty" crowd..
 
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Correction on Q#2.. It was not Dion who gave up his seat..It was none other than Waylon Jennings..Willie's "wingman"..Great Trivia question for the "Over Fifty" crowd..
Thank you for pointing that out. I guess I saw a Dion interview on Youtube a while ago and assumed it to accurate.

In the Wikepedia excerpt below, Dion did contradict what is considered the"widely accepted" version of events.

The article points out the severe weather conditions and the poor condition of the tour bus.

Ricky Nelson was killed in a plane crash in 1985.

 
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Thank you for pointing that out. I guess I saw a Dion interview on Youtube a while ago and assumed it to accurate.

In the Wikepedia excerpt below, Dion did contradict what is considered the"widely accepted" version of events.

The article points out the severe weather conditions and the poor condition of the tour bus.

Ricky Nelson was killed in a plane crash in 1985.

FYI..Married to an Iowa lady..Have heard the story more than once..LOL
 

August_West

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The history of radio in CT is a 10 hour documentary. It's not archived yet but all the details are here,:


The oldies show is hosted by wild wayne, sundays 6-8pm..... a lot of our shows are running on automation during the pandemic but all the music genres are there. You can listen online at wwuh.org. All the shows are archived for 2 weeks also. Links are at the top of the wwuh
homepage.


I was under the impression you just put Andrius Momontovas on a perpetual repeat loop. ;)
 
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I was under the impression you just put Andrius Momontovas on a perpetual repeat loop. ;)
Ha..... no..... but he's a great guy and songwriter. I remember hosting his band Foje back in 1991 when they played the Russian Lady in Hartford....One of my announcers on my show has sat in with Andrius in concert multiple times here in the states.
 

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