NEW YEAR’S EVE COUNTDOWN

Originally broadcast on WNIB
Saturday, December 31st, 1983

NEW YEAR’S EVE DANCING PARTY (12-31­45) Armed Forces Radio Service offers an hour of New Year’s greetings from the top bands in the country as this specially prepared remote broadcast takes listeners from coast-to-coast for a spectacular 17-band, Big Band Countdown! Harry James from Hollywood; Count Basie from New York; Freddy Martin from the Coco­nut Grove, Los Angeles; Woody Herman from the Meadowbrook, Cedar Grove, New Jersey; Gene Krupa from the Hollywood Palladium; Henry King from the Hotel Mark Hopkins, San Francisco; Louis Armstrong from Cafe Zanzibar, New York; Jimmy Dorsey from Casino Gardens, Ocean Park, California; Les Brown from Hotel Pennsylvania, New York; Artie Shaw from California; Stan Kenton from the Hotel Sherman, Chicago; Tommy Dorsey from San Diego; Carmen Cavallero from Ciro’s in Hollywood; Louis Prima from Salt Lake City; Benny Goodman from Boston; Duke Ellington from Evansville, Indiana; and Guy Lombardo from New York. AFRS. (14:50; 16:50; 15:00; 13:30)

DORSEY BROTHERS ORCHESTRA (12-31­54 and 1-1-55) Remote broadcast from the Cafe Rouge of the Hotel Statler in New York City. Vocals by Bill Raymond and Lynn Roberts. Buddy Rich on drums. Sustaining, NBC. (9:20; 12:20; 9:50)

COUNT BASIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA (12-31-65 and 1-1-66) Remote broadcast from the Pick-Congress Hotel in downtown Chicago. Jerry Mitchell announces. Program offers the New Year’s countdown. Show begins at 11:55 p.m. on Dec. 31 and continues until 12:27 a.m., Jan. 1. Sustaining, NBC. (9:20; 10:25; 12:20)

CHAMPAIGN MUSIC OF LAWRENCE WELK (12-31-69 and 1-1-70) Ah-one, ah-two. Excerpt of remote broadcast from the Hollywood Palladium which begins at 11:56 p.m., Pacific time. Sustaining, NBC. (10:10)

OUR SPECIAL GUEST and CO-HOST will be KARL PEARSON, Nostalgia Digest columnist, big band buff and collector.

NOTE: Listeners are invited to bring funny hats, noisemakers and appropriate beverages to celebrate the end of the old year and the beginning of the new year!