Sundays Won't Be The Same

by Bill Tuomala

Mayor R.T. Rybak declared Sunday, December 26^th, to be Chuck & Joel Day here in Minneapolis. Chuck Tomlinson and Joel Stitzel had been hosting the Cosmic Slop show on Radio K for many years, and retired the show on the 26^th. Sundays will be strange for months to come as Twin Cities (and elsewhere) music/pop culture obsessives go through Slop withdrawals.

There are so many things I could write about the show, but two jump out at me as I write this:

1) A couple of years ago my pal Josh tuned in the show and later said to me: "It is so great - and so rare - to hear genuine laughter on the radio these days."

2) Speaking of laughs - on their last show, Chuck repeated a story which I have told (twice!) while being a guest on the show: I was seventeen and seeing Blue Oyster Cult play in North Dakota at the Red River Valley Fair fairgrounds. Aldo Nova was an opening act. At some point in an attempt to warm up the crowd, Aldo declared: "North Dakota is a great town!!!"

Chuck & Joel - thanks much for the laughs and tunes and discussions over the years. You'll be missed. And any time we spend forty-five minutes surfing imdb.com while listening obsessively over and over to some forgotten pop gem that we've come upon, we will think of you guys. Best wishes.

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