Remembering Chip Ordway for His Kindness

 

Today, by reading the New York Radio and TV Board on Facebook, I found out that radio and railroad enthusiast Chip Ordway passed away.  I had a brief but kind online encounter with Chip in 2018.

First, I must turn back the clock to 1996 when I was an avid listener to the late Bill Brown on WCBS-FM.  He had a feature called the Brown Bag, where listeners would suggest a theme set for Bill to play during the noon hour. If your set list was picked, you would win a WCBS-FM tote bag. I knew that May 24th, Bob Dylan’s birthday, was coming up. I asked Bill to play a set list of Bob Dylan covers on May 24 that were top 40 hits. I requested

• It Ain’t Me Babe - The Turtles
• Mr. Tambourine Man - Byrds
• The Mighty Quinn - Manfred Mann
• Don’t Think Twice - The Wonder Who
• Blowin’ in the Wind - Peter. Paul and Mary

On May 24th I was on vacation and was ready to record the Brown Bag hoping that Bill would play my set.  I was very disappointed that it was not played.  A few weeks later, I received the tote, figuring that they played it on another date.

Nothing happened for 22 years, but in May 2018, I received a Facebook message from Chip stating that heard my name on the Bill Brown aircheck.  I assume Chip knew my name from radio message boards.  He sent me an mp3 file of the theme set that I missed.

I was forever grateful for his kindness.

Obituary of Chip Ordway from News10 Albany