A Spring 1992 memory: My 6-9 a.m. shift on KCOU was about to begin, and I had an inspiration. I ran to the jazz LP stacks to pull out a George Duke album. As I walked back into the studio, I told Lisa, the DJ on the air before me, "I read that today's sunrise will be at 6:08, so I want to have George Duke's song, 'Sunrise,' cued up. If I time it right,..."
"...people will hear it just as the sun's rising. That's cool," Lisa responded.
As planned, I played "Sunrise" just as the sun was rising, and hopefully, for the 15 or 20 people listening then, at least some of them made the connection. I still recommend Duke's tune about not giving up hope. It features Sheila E., prior to her solo career, on vocals, and it's an uplifting way to start the day.
I'm sure I'm not the only DJ on Earth to have programmed a song about the sunrise that way, but on that day, I felt like I was. (After all, that's a typical idealistic college DJ's notion.) I don't doubt that any number of DJs have carried out a similar plan with a song called "Sunrise." If they did that in the past 13 years, though, it was most likely with the equally appealing Norah Jones tune.
