The Lost Art of the Friday Work Whistle
by Jeremy on Jul.13, 2010, under Uncategorized
Call it the 5 o’clock whistle. The 5 o’clock send off. The weekend blastoff. The weekend work whistle. The Friday work whistle. Whatever. The point is, hardly anybody does this anymore, and it’s a shame. Below are the ONLY specimens I can find that aren’t some lame DJ blowing a referee’s whistle… but REAL Friday work whistles. Enjoy!
[EDIT: Update! Since apparently I'm not the only person interested in this (I made it on Reddit! Holy cow!) ... I am now offering an updated rapidshare link with NEW whistles, and them all put into one .zip archive.]
It contains all the following:
1) WMXT 102.1 The Fox — Florence, SC — Better start, more music.
2) WROQ Rock 101.1 — Greenville, SC — Longer, more mixed in clips.
3) WKLS 96Rock — Atlanta, GA — The predecessor to 102.1′s version.
4) WHTZ Z-100 — New York City, NY — The version they did in 1984!
5) NEW!! Adam Curry – The Daily Source Code – Fubar Friday (short)
6) NEW!! WNKS KISS 95.1 — Charlotte, NC – Weekend Blast (short)
7) NEW!! WKLS Project 961 — Atlanta, GA — The ALL NEW version airing currently!
September 6th, 2009 on 4:17 pm
Thanks for the 96 Rock whistle… They always segued into Spencer Davis Group’s Gimme Some Lovin, so I always left work *ready*!! I’ll put that together myself for sure!
October 2nd, 2009 on 7:39 am
I was telling a friend about the full 96Rock version with
“The war was on. All the keys on the typewriter had sharp points that kept sticking into out fingers. Our beepers sent electric shocks, just through our bodies like a cattle prod. Out in the warehouse, the trucks kept banging into the docks, not even thinking about stopping. All our frail bodies were strapped to our chairs, and the chairs were chained to the desks. Our pleas for justice were ignored, and the end… seemed… near. But we busted our slave driver’s little bitty balls. We charged out of their brick fortress, and into the streets. The streets are ours, because it’s Friday… Friiiiday…. FRIIIIIIIIIIIII…day.”
Any idea where I can find a copy of that? I just typed it from memory!
Thanks,
Rob
October 16th, 2009 on 2:02 pm
Thanks for this, brings back lots of memories!
January 26th, 2010 on 8:35 pm
Do they have the entire 96 rock version anywhere? Just reading it brought back memories. And it’s comforting knowing i’m not the only one who had it memorized. Lived in atl from 1993-1998. Greatest time of my life. Every time they played the weekend whistle they always cranked an awesome song immediately after screaming ’96 rock’. It was as if the song was part of the weekend whistle. It was always something that got you pumped, like KISS, Ozzy, Van Halen, AC/DC.
January 27th, 2010 on 7:10 am
There was also a line ‘The dictating equipment started asking us questions’.
February 3rd, 2010 on 7:04 am
Hi y’all,
The extended version of the 96 Rock 5 O’Clock whistle was an unintended collaboration between my self and Steve Mitchell. Steve produced the original shorter version and later, after he’d left the station, Prog Dir Bill Pugh have me a copy of WMMS nutcase Murray Saul rantin’ & ravin’ and asked me, as Production Director, to do something with it. I started with Steve’s good work and built on that. What resulted was the extended version of the Whistle. I have a copy on tape in my attic, but I don’t know what condition the tape is in. I’ll check it out someday and digitize it if I can. I’m happy so many people liked it. –Mattman
February 5th, 2010 on 3:50 pm
I always remember to version that Rob talks about above….man I’d love to get a copy of that…now that was a 5 O’clock whistle…
February 8th, 2010 on 3:10 am
John – That’s the original extended version I did. Later ones, without that “slave driver’s little bitty balls” rant, were cut down, edited versions of it. As far as I can remember, that’s what I have on tape, in storage. Hopefully, all the oxide hasn’t fallen off the tape stock and it can be played once to digitize it. I promise I will do that, but it will likely be months, or over a year. It is in storage in a place very far from where I am.
March 18th, 2010 on 7:14 am
Rob, I’ve been looking for that clip, too — for years. This is the closest I’ve found…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSYbZTsY-00
May 21st, 2010 on 8:18 am
Matt – thanks! you built a classic and i will now start the tridition of playing this each Friday (statring today.) Who’s voice is the raving madman screaming “ITS FRIDAY!”? Did yall get that from a movie or show? Thanks again.
June 30th, 2010 on 10:53 am
Lane – It’s Murray Saul of WMMS, Cleveland – not a jock, but a maniac from their sales dept – who began a tradition of Friday 5 o’clock rants in the 1970s that pre-date all of the above.