Rewind Recovery Project

Back in the days when I worked as a party DJ I aspired to one day be a famous radio DJ. I used to write and record a music program I called “Rock & Roll Rewind.” The programs featured songs about specific subjects, artists or time periods. It was basically a creative outlet for me and nothing else. I put my knowledge of pop music and novelty songs together with my record collection and taped quite a few programs.

Secretly I used to hope that a radio station program director would somehow hear one of my tapes and want to put them on the air. I dreamed of one day being known as the Rewind Guy. Thanks to AOL since 1997 and to this day I’m associated with that name through my email address.

I recorded “R&R Rewind” on cassette tapes because at the time recordable CDs didn’t exist. As music and recording formats have changed and advanced over the last 10 years tapes have become old technology. The cassettes are starting to age and break down. For the past several years I’ve wanted to convert them to CDs but didn’t have the set up to do.

Recently while preparing to sing at church I had my friend Jake, the sound technician at the church, dub an accompaniment tape onto a CD. I used it to rehearse my song. After I sang on May 25 I didn’t give the song or the dubbed CD any further thought.

With Father’s Day coming up this weekend I started thinking about the very personal Rewind tape I had made about music that reminded me of my dad. I made it back in 2000 the year after he died.

It was only after thinking about listening to the tape again that my mind made a connection. The set up I have been looking for to convert my Rewind tapes to CD is in the sound booth at my church. If I could use it I would have the means to make my Rewind tapes into Rewind CDs.

Now I’ve got to check with the pastor to make sure it will be okay to go to the church and do this. I’m sure he won’t have a problem with it. Jake, is going to show me what I have to do to set the sound board up for recording.

So after years of worrying about losing them because of the deterioration the tapes I’m going to be able to restore my Rewind shows. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this. Those shows were not only my creative outlet they were my passion for nearly a decade. It will be great to save them after all this time being resigned to eventually losing them.

And that my friend is the Rewind Recovery Project.