Radio ... and Me - 9

My favourite New Years Eve activities, from the '60s through to the '80s, were: watching TV at midnight (or 1 a.m., Atlantic Time!), and listening to the radio and collecting the list of Top 100 Songs of the Year.
On TV, crowds would cheer on Times Square and Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians would play Auld Lang Syne at midnight every New Year’s Eve at News York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Radio stations would either compile their own 'Top 100' list or play a recorded U-S national program featuring a famous host, such as Dick Clark or Casey Kasem.
The big 50,000-watt New York stations, which we on the Atlantic coast could hear during darkness hours, usually added their own distinctive hook.
For example, 77-WABC unveiled their list on Christmas Day, and played it over and over -- in order -- during the whole week, until January 1st!
Much of the nighttime, I would listen, to note the number, title and artist, but often, due to poor AM radio reception, there were gaps, which I had to fill in the next time. There were sometimes songs rated as high as in the top 10 that I had never heard of, and the Number One Song of the Year could be a big surprise!
WABC and other stations such as 10-10 WINS played promos advertising a copy of the "Top 100 of the Year' available by enclosing a 's.a.s.e.' (self-addressed stamped envelope). That meant that we listeners outside the U-S who lacked access to American postage stamps had to send money with our request. And, you had to get the addresses perfect.
Later, in the ‘70s, with the strong demands of 30% Canadian Content regulations, local stations ‘92, C-J-C-H;’ ‘960, C-H-N-S;’ and ‘C-100 FM’ would play 8-hour shows from their own List on New Year’s Eve / Day, often publishing it in the daily ‘Chronicle-Herald.’ I've destroyed the audio recordings of many of these programs, but still have the newspaper lists.
One New Year's Eve, 1975-76, I got to watch Team Canada beat Team Soviet in -- what many fans have termed -- the best hockey game ever played. At midnight, I heard the spectacle of all the ships in Halifax Harbour sounding their horns to mark the New Year!

These days, New Year’s Eve lacks much of its classic excitement on both TV and radio and it limps along as a mere shell of its former self. Guy Lombardo had tried to warn us, though: in 1969, he declared on TV's ‘Laugh In’: When I die, I’m taking New Year’s Eve with me!
He died in 1977. 'Nuff said.
Happy New Year!