WOBM’s Top 100 Songs In 1983 [50 Memories In 50 Days]

In 1983, "Cats" won 7 Tony Awards, The Police were riding high atop the music charts, and WOBM spent the summer compiling the 100 most popular songs of the day. 

Paul in Toms River sent us this playlist along with a note recollecting the summer of 1983, as WOBM spent the season taking listener requests with a grand unveiling on Labor Day of the 100 most requested songs.

The list is a fascinating reflection of what was popular in 1983, with Barbra Streisand's version of "Memory" from "Cats" leading the way, and "Every Breath You Take" also making a showing in the top 10. Sprinkled in with the new songs of the day were standard classics from Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Glen Miller, and more.

There are also plenty of head scratchers (was one hit wonder Taco's "Puttin' On The Ritz" really that popular in Ocean County?) among the classics.

A fun fact to take note of - notice our phone number with area code 201. It was 9 years later that we changed to the 908 area code, and finally our current 732 prefix in 1997. Interestingly, we never sported southern Ocean County's 609 area code, as our original Bayville studio was literally only a mile down the road from the 609 border that split North and South Jersey since 1958!

With our enthusiastic thanks to Paul for sending us this snapshot of Ocean County's musical tastes in the early 80s, take a look for yourself:

Of course, you can keep up with our series of "50 Memories in 50 Days" as we count down to our golden anniversary by clicking here.

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