Song parodies by radio stations

[Big John]

When Lindy Infante coached badly for the Packers, a parody song Lindy Shuffle came out to the tune of the Curly Shuffle.  (Not to be confused with an unrelated Lindi Shuffle that came out later.)

[iowahighways]

About 30 years ago, Dwyer & Michaels in the Quad Cities did their own version of "O.P.P." called "IBP". It was about someone who works at the meatpacking company that is now owned by Tyson.

"You work at IBP? (Yeah, you know me.)"

KGGO in Des Moines had their own version of "Livin' La Vida Loca" called "Livin' the Iowa State Fair" that was played on their morning show every year during the fair before the show was canceled in favor of Bob & Tom over a decade ago. It was even released on a 2001 CD from the station that is likely out of print. (Here's a video of part of the song.)

[jp the roadgeek]

I remember when WTIC-FM used to have a song parody based on The Romantics What I Like About You called What I Like About UConn, interspersed with play-by-play calls and a couple versions that changed names for the present season.  Over at WHCN, Picozzi and the Horn used to dip into the Bob Rivers collection quite a bit with several hilarious parodies such as I'm Just A Singer at a Holiday Inn (Moody Blues) and This Must Be How it Feels (To Be Old; Tom Petty).  Gary Craig at WTIC had a few good ones; one with a Yiddish guy singing a parody of Madonna's La Isla Bonita (Last night I dreamt of some bagels), and even a good roadgeek one back when I-84 and I-91 didn't connect directly called Our Ramps (in the middle of the city) based on Madness's Our House.   

[Dirt Roads]

Back in the late 1970s through the 1980s, WKEE in Huntington, West Virginia had a morning comedy skit routine that often included song parodies.  The only one that I can still remember is a parody on an obscure One Hit Wonder by Murray Head called One Night in Bangkok.  The parody One Night in Salt Rock was based on a small town in southern Cabell County, and had references to silly West Virginia tendencies such as pink flamingos as yard ornaments and our fascination with "shiny pennies", long after the days when freshly-minted coins took years to make their way into Appalachia.  The original song was released in 1984, and the parody came out a year later. 

I'm still trying to remember the name of the main character in the ongoing skit, who was an "Agent with the BFI" (a major refuse hauler that amazingly still operates in the Tri-State region).

[jeffandnicole]

Growing up, Philly had 2 Top 40 radio stations - Q102 (which still exists) and Eagle 106 (which changed formats in the 1990s and people still miss). 

I believe it was Eagle 106 that came up with a different version of Young MC's Bust a Move, changing the artist to Baby MC with a song title I can't quite remember (probably involving poop).  We have dozens of cassette tapes from that era that we've been meaning to listen to try to find the song.  We've never found it on Youtube or elsewhere online.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The Detroit Lions adopted Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" as a theme song when they started the 1980 season with a few wins.  A few Lions players recorded their own version.  Once the season inevitably imploded, it was either a radio station or the fanbase that came up with the parody "Another One Beats Our Butts."

Sometime around 2005, someone made a song parody about the Vikings based on Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends" called "Wake Me Up When The Season Ends".

[Rothman]

One Night in Bangkok is obscure?

[cl94]

Bob Rivers in Seattle is probably the most nationally famous for these, even getting some original performers to help parody on occasion, like when Chris Cornell sang on the "Black Hole Sun" parody "Asshole Son" about a slob teenager.

Bob Rivers also made Walking Round in Women's Underwear (a parody of Winter Wonderland) . If I'm not mistaken, he also did New Kids Got Run Over By a Reindeer.

He also did Kosovo (parody of Kokomo).

[Henry]

I remember some Top-40 or rock station in Chicago calling out the Cubs' opponents and always hoping their team would lose. My favorite is for when the Cubs were playing against the hated Cardinals. Of course, they used the same Go Cubs Go tune, but changed the last part to "Hey St. Louis, what do you say? The Cards had better lose today!"

[bandit957]

Q-102 played a parody of "La Bamba" called "La Bomba" that was sung in a Ronald Reagan voice. But I don't know if this was made by the station or came from somewhere else.

[Henry]

I remember some Top-40 or rock station in Chicago calling out the Cubs' opponents and always hoping their team would lose. My favorite is for when the Cubs were playing against the hated Cardinals. Of course, they used the same Go Cubs Go tune, but changed the last part to "Hey St. Louis, what do you say? The Cards had better lose today!"

The Mets were also rising to championship contenders in that era, and being that they were the most hated team outside New York (in fact, the only team I despised more than the Cardinals), the station mocked them with "Hey New York, what do you say? The Mets had better lose today!"

There was one version for each team, and what the last line was depended on how many syllables the team's name had. If it was one syllable, the name would be followed by either "had better" or "are gonna"; if it was two or more, then it would be "better" or "gonna". Here are the rest of the songs for the other NL teams, and remember, Houston was one of its teams instead of Milwaukee:

Atlanta: "Hey Atlanta, what do you say? The Braves are gonna lose today!"
Cincinnati: "Hey Cincinnati, what do you say? The Reds are gonna lose today!"
Houston: "Hey Houston, what do you say? The Astros gonna lose today!"
Los Angeles: "Hey L.A., what do you say? The Dodgers gonna lose today!"
Montreal: "Hey Montreal, what do you say? The Expos gonna lose today!"
Philadelphia: "Hey Philly, what do you say? The Phils had better lose today!"
Pittsburgh: "Hey Pittsburgh, what do you say? The Pirates gonna lose today!"
San Diego: "Hey San Diego, what do you say? The Padres better lose today!"
San Francisco: "Hey San Fran, what do you say? The Giants better lose today!"

[drebbin37]

I remember Neil Hedley doing this on WWYZ (Hartford's only country music station) back around 2000 or so.  His best one was a tribute to the long-time traffic reporter, Roger Stafford, with a parody of Kenny Chesney's "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy."  The only lyrics I still remember:

She thinks the traffic's sexy
And Roger turns her on
He makes her laugh like crazy
While she's drivin' along

I don't remember the next line, but after that it was "no one says 'flyovah' quite like Roger can."  Unfortunately, I stopped listening to the station soon after that, because country music strayed too far into the pop genre for my tastes.  Since then, it's been all AM talk radio for me.

[Brandon]

Remember when local radio stations used to make song parodies?

Yes.  John Landecker made a bunch of them with his band that he played on WJMK 104.3 FM back in the 1990s.

[dvferyance]

I remember a decade or two ago when someone did a parody of Bill Clinton's voice singing a rework of 'Hey Paula'.

Mike

That must have been Rush Limbaugh. He did a lot of parodies with Bill Clinton's voice.

[jmd41280]

102.5 WDVE in Pittsburgh has a bunch of these. One that immediately comes to mind is a parody of the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" called "Burning Down the Couch". It would typically be played when the University of Pittsburgh would play West Virginia University in the Backyard Brawl, as there used to be couch burnings in Morgantown, WV whenever WVU would win an important game.

[jp the roadgeek]

I remember a decade or two ago when someone did a parody of Bill Clinton's voice singing a rework of 'Hey Paula'.

Mike

That must have been Rush Limbaugh. He did a lot of parodies with Bill Clinton's voice.

And then there was Rob Bartlett on Imus and his parody songs of Rush Limbaugh singing, including a Hillary Clinton inspired parody of Frank Sinatra's Lady is a Tramp; and a version of Garth Brooks's I've Got Friends in Low Places that would never make it to air today.   

[amroad17]

When I lived in the Hampton Roads area, I listened to FM99-WNOR throughout the 1980's.  They employed a morning deejay, Henry "The Bull" Del Toro, who would co-host the morning show with another deejay (Ron Reeger from 1981-84, Jimmy Ray Dunn from 1984-90, and Tommy Griffiths from 1990-94).  Henry and Jimmy Ray did a few parody songs in the mid 80's such as "Atlantic Avenue", a parody using the music to Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue", and "The Old Man in Washington", set to the music of John Fogerty's "The Old Man Is Down the Road".

As an aside, Tommy and "The Bull" were responsible for the greatest April Fool's Day (4/1/92) prank in Hampton Roads radio history when they reported that Mt. Trashmore, a Virginia Beach city park off I-264 and Independence Blvd (Exit 17A) that used to be a landfill, had developed a build-up of methane gas and was going to explode sometime that morning based on what the "scientists" were saying.  Many residents around the area, and listeners, panicked and called authorities and 911 about this news.  This tied up 911 phone lines for nearly an hour.  Some families showed up at shelters with suitcases.  The "April Fool's" joke ended when police showed up at the station's studios.   In the aftermath, Tommy and "The Bull" were suspended two weeks and WNOR was sent a letter of admonishment by the FCC after the Virginia Beach police filed a complaint about WNOR with them.  After this, the FCC toughened up rules about broadcasting false information and would fine stations for doing this.

That takes me back... I actually met them at VA Beach once, when I was a kid. I remember this weird, may have been low-power, station there, WOFM, who ID'd as being "Moyock, NC". Weird music, but loved it.

That station, WOFM, was known as K-94.  Their logo was a seagull on a blue background (similar to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel signs) with a white K-94 next to the seagull.  Their transmitter is in Moyock just across the VA/NC line. https://maps.app.goo.gl/3acmArvwzwDFFGrN8  I don't know if it is still in use.

K-94 was in direct competition with FM99-WNOR—in fact, this is the reason FM99 went from album-oriented, "deep cuts" rock to more mainstream, popular rock.  These two stations were also responsible for bringing The Rolling Stones to Hampton Roads in December 1981.  They started the grassroots petition in which thousands signed (including myself) to bring the Stones to the Hampton Coliseum on Dec. 18 & 19, 1981.  The first show was also the first live PPV broadcast of a music concert.  Unfortunately, I did not attend either of the shows.  I have watched video of the first show a few years ago, and watch it every once in a while.

Around late 1983, K-94 changed their format to New Wave, ending the competition as FM99 became the first FM station in the Hampton Roads area to be #1 in the Arbitron ratings.  In the early 1990's, K-94 changed their format to a mix of Top 40 and rock and became 93.7, the Coast.

[freebrickproductions]

Not quite a radio station, but I seem to recall a program on NPR (Prairie Home Companion, maybe? It was definitely one of the more humorous ones) that did a parody of "Do You Hear What I Hear?" that I cannot seem to find anywhere.

[vdeane]

I can't believe I've been reading this thread the whole time and only just thought to post the 12 Things at Christmas that Upstate [New York] Give to Me that WGNA produced around 2019 (and by "upstate" they really mean "the Capital District").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT7qPamock4

To note: this is around the time Cuomo was telling everyone who would listen how he finally got exit 3 built on the Northway.  This was also before the two non-airport CFAs got built this year.

[amroad17]

I can't believe I've been reading this thread the whole time and only just thought to post the 12 Things at Christmas that Upstate [New York] Give to Me that WGNA produced around 2019 (and by "upstate" they really mean "the Capital District").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT7qPamock4

To note: this is around the time Cuomo was telling everyone who would listen how he finally got exit 3 built on the Northway.  This was also before the two non-airport CFAs got built this year.

This reminds me of "The 12 Pains of Christmas" by Bob Rivers.
https://youtu.be/cKZfYTBDkso?si=02CT9TwOCoXbJ7uj

Your Capital District Christmas parody was hilarious!!!  Especially the last few lines about Chick-Fil-A at the airport and getting there from Exit 3!!!

Love the sign: EXIT 3/TO BE BUILT in button copy! 

[jp the roadgeek]

Since we're in the Christmas mood, here's one from KC-101 in New Haven, CT

https://youtu.be/j1xrfgvYrBw?si=NmCtsoJpdY6FU93f

[Buck87]

The Mike Trivisonno Show - WTAM 1100 - Cleveland

"We Live in Ohio" - parody of "We Didn't Start the Fire"

circa 2008 or so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTaoKzgrptk&ab_channel=rstone2002