Ethan Carey Looks Back Fondly On 40 Years With i95

It all began at the age of 13, when I fell in love with radio. I lived and breathed radio, rock 'n' roll, and performing in rock bands throughout my high school (1966-1969) and college years (1969-1973).

From 1973 through 1978, my dear friend, Garry Manuel, and I forged a musical bond and formed an acoustic trio we named, Sunup. We played everything from CSN to Cat Stevens, John Prine to the Moody Blues, and Garry had a vast collection of original songs already written that we mixed in throughout our sets. We played bars, clubs, colleges, and concerts in the Rochester, NY area and earned the opportunity to open shows for Jimmy Cliff, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, The James Gang, and folk/rocker, Eric Andersen.

Sunup was lucky enough to record albums in the '70s titled, Passion & Politics, Saratoga Sunrise, and then more recently, Sonsup, which was a collaboration with our sons, Ethan James, and Marshall Manuel. All 3 of those albums are available at CDBaby.com, Amazon Music, and in the iTunes store.

Garry and I have always been proud of the music we made together, but near the end of 1978 at the age of 27, Mindy and I decided that the only way for us to make a life together was for me to sadly leave Sunup behind in favor of a full time on-air radio job, and here we all are 40 years later.

The reason I'm still able to wake up in the morning and happily go to "work" at a job that I've loved over the last 40 years is because of you, the i95 listener. My favorite compliment is when an i95 listener tells me they've been listening to i95 since I began my career on the evening of February 28, 1979. Thanks to you all! Enjoy our look-back through 40 years of The Home of Rock 'N' Roll, i95.