A MUSICAL MOMENT IN TIME:

THE "TOP 1000" and BOTTLE NIGHT at TRINITY COLLEGE

By Paul M. Herron ‘70

IF YOU HAPPENED to be on the Trinity campus shortly after 10 PM on Monday, May 19, 1969, you were an ear- and eye-witness to an astounding and totally unexpected event.   The College radio station, WRTC-FM, was reaching the conclusion of its 60-hour countdown of the “All-Time Top 1000 Hits” of the rock era, and nearly every FM radio on campus was tuned in.     

It was a mild spring evening in Hartford, dorm windows were open, and the broadcast could be heard everywhere--from South Campus, past Jones and Elton Halls, all along the Long Walk, and up and down Vernon Street.  Classes had ended for the Spring Term on the previous Friday, and the reading period leading up to final exams had begun.   It was traditionally a time for students to relax and let off steam before exams would start on Thursday.  One might say there was a lot of nervous energy on campus that night.

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[Note (Ed.): File may not open on mobile devices or tablets.  The complete pdf file opens on PC and Mac laptops and may be saved for viewing]

In August 2021, this personal memory was submitted by Paul M. Herron '70 for permanent inclusion in the Trinity College Archives, with the help of Richard Turk '70. 

The Trinity College Archivist has reformatted the text for greater readability, corrected typos, and added ten photographs from the Trinity Ivy student yearbooks of 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1972 (e.g.  photos of Don Rehse '69, David Gilbert '70, and Paul Herron '70) to the text.

A new revised draft of the text was uploaded as a PDF on September 3, 2021.