WMMS St. Patrick’s Day Parade float, 1986
Here’s our Buzzard float in the 1986 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Cleveland.
Other radio stations protested that there was “nothing Irish” about our Buzzard van, which appeared in previous year’s parades.
The parade organizers responded with a new rule – that all participants in the 1986 parade had to carry the theme of “Irish education.”
So David Helton designed a scholarly Irish Buzzard holding a shamrock in one wing and a diploma in the other for “The Rock & Roll History of Cleveland.”
As we explained to the organizers WMMS listeners were provided a continual educational experience into the history of rock & roll in Cleveland, which included Irish artists like U2 and Van Morrison.
We passed the test.
Click photo to enlarge
March 17, 2010 at 12:59 pm
A very interesting PBS documentary running 24 years later proves you guys did indeed pass the test.
I happened to view a good deal of a program WVIZ, the Cleveland PBS television station, aired on March 15th documenting the evolution of Irish music. Toward the end of the program much was said about the influence of contemporary Irish musical artists on rock & roll and visa-versa.
April 15, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Re my previous comment: Visa-versa? How about vice versa instead? Oh man…
Also, the documentary I mentioned in that comment was “The Music of Ireland” produced by Denny Young.
Thought I’d best clean things up a bit on that one.
July 29, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Anybody seen/heard John? Long time no post.