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 Previous: Brigadier General, President of QCWA and OOTC Leland Smith, W5KL, SK |  Next: FCC Chairman Assures Congressman on BPL Studies |
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 19, 2004--During the recent Buddy Holly W5B
commemorative special event operation, Peggy Sue Gerron
was perhaps the most
prominent of the W5B guest operators. The namesake of Holly's 1957
"rockabilly" hit "Peggy Sue"--who went to high school
with Holly and later married the drummer in his band, The Crickets--has
been studying for her ham ticket for some time. She says participating in
the W5B event sharpened her desire to get her license.
"Out of all the Buddy Holly events that I have attended in my life," she said afterward. "This event will always stand out in my memory."
As rock n' roll history has it, Holly originally titled the song "Cindy Lou," but Crickets drummer Jerry Allison convinced the singer to change the tune's name to "Peggy Sue" just before the recording session. After Holly's death, Gerron toured with The Crickets when the band got back together. Holly's follow-up song "Peggy Sue Got Married" inspired a 1986 movie starring Kathleen Turner.
Over the years, Gerron has made appearances all over the country--including on "Oprah," VH1, the Oxygen Network, as well as network TV. She now works as a speaker, columnist, back-up singer and talk radio co-host (the show is called "Rave On"). Getting on the air during the W5B special event, however, turned out to be very "special" for her.
"You can do TV specials, and you can be interviewed by the very best
DJs," she said, but there is nothing like the feeling of putting
your finger down and transmitting your call sign and having somebody
answer back."
Peggy Sue Gerron at the W5B mike. [Doug Hutton, W5JUV Photo]
Peggy Sue Gerron and Doug Hutton, W5JUV, at the W5B special event. A former schoolmate of Holly's, Hutton was a major player in making the special event a reality. He's also Peggy Sue Gerron's Elmer. [Cranston Reid, WA5TBB Photo] |
The Buddy Holly special
event--January 29 through February 2 in Holly's home town of Lubbock,
Texas--marked the 45th anniversary of the entertainer's untimely death in
a February 3, 1959, plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. The mishap also
claimed the lives of early rock n' rollers Ritchie Valens and JP
"The Big Bopper" Richardson. Singer-songwriter Don McLean
later memorialized the sad
occasion as "the day the music died" in his own hit,
"American Pie."
A portion of a page from the 1955 Lubbock High School yearbook showing Holly's listing and photo, bottom right. Born Buddy Holley, the "e" was omitted on his first recording contract, the story goes, and so the singer changed his name to conform rather than having the paperwork redrawn. [Courtesy of Doug Hutton, W5JUV] |
The Lubbock Amateur Contest Club's W5LCC provided the site for the special event station. Some area hams still remember Holly as a classmate at Lubbock High School. Bryan Edwards, W5KFT, who obtained the W5B call sign, reports W5B logged more than 1000 contacts.
The special event generated a lot of interest in talking to Peggy Sue, and she obliged as many as possible. A few shared personal recollections of Holly and his music.
"This is not planned conversation," Gerron said of Amateur Radio. "It's one person communicating with another. Is anybody out there? You bet they are! Keep rockin'!"
Other operators during the W5B special event included Doug Hutton, W5JUV, Terry Bajuk, KE5BL, Dennis Brush, WA5CBG, Joey Johnston, KC5MVZ, Eddie Petmecky, KC5OBX, Davis Plunkett, K5DLP, Rick Roy, KB5KYJ, and Tom Tucker, KB5UOP.--thanks to Mike Gruber, W1MG, who provided information for this article
| Previous: Brigadier General, President of QCWA and OOTC Leland Smith, W5KL, SK | Next: FCC Chairman Assures Congressman on BPL Studies |
