Welcome to the eighth edition of 97.9 The Hill’s Staff Picks.

This time, read on as your favorite staffers discuss the musical melodies that speak to their soul. You’ve got it right: theme songs.

Whether or not you’re interested in finding some new songs to fill out your playlist – need to hear some long-forgotten tunes that are perfect to jam out to – or just want to know what music speaks to your favorite radio personalities – keep on reading!

Don’t forget to tweet us with your own theme song @WCHLChapelboro!


Aaron Keck (Afternoon Show Host – “The Aaron Keck Show”)

Theme song: “This Year” by The Mountain Goats

This is always one of my favorite songs to play during the Live & Local hour; John Darnielle is a music legend and he lives just up the road in Durham. It’s a great song any time, but it’s especially fitting in 2020, which has been such a tense, heavy, trying year for all of us. Here’s a song that acknowledges the tension and owns the heaviness, but still manages to break through it with hope and optimism: “I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me.”

And yes, there will be feasting and dancing next year, everywhere.

Nicki Morse (Program Director & Midday Host)

Theme Song: “Just a Girl” by No Doubt

This song has been my theme since it came out in 1995…working in Broadcasting since the early 90’s it was a bit tough at times being a female in a male dominated career. Things have changed considerably since then…meaning there are more female broadcasters than ever before. The song speaks to me because as the 90’s progressed women were getting increasingly frustrated with inequality in the workplace. It was a song you could sing at the top of your lungs and feel like you were getting a little stress release (maybe it was just me).

Ron Stutts (Morning Show Host)

Disclaimer: If you know Ron, you know music is his passion – please keep reading for a novel detailing Ron’s theme song thought process before perusing other staffer’s picks below.

Theme song: “With A Little Help From My Friends” by Joe Cocker

When I was asked to come up with a theme song, my immediate reaction was “Great! This will be incredibly easy!”  Music is a passion for me, so my gut response was “Yeah, I got this.” It turned out to be quite a bit harder than I thought it would be.

There are so many great songs that I absolutely love! I can play them over and over again and never get tired of them. Songs like “Gimme Shelter” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones. “The Chain” and several other songs by Fleetwood Mac. “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” from Otis Redding. There’s “Hey Jude,” one of my all-time favorites by The Beatles, and just about anything by Sam Cooke or Marvin Gaye. A lot of great tunes from Tom Petty.  But when I think of a theme song, I think it should be a song that you’d want to be playing whenever you walked into a room.  And some of those just wouldn’t work.

I thought seriously about “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” by Joan Jett—because I do…but Joan’s not anywhere close to the top of the list of my favorite artists.  I thought for a while about “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” by the Temptations, but I wouldn’t want anybody to think that wherever I laid my hat was my home. I also thought long and hard about “Everyday People,” a great song from Sly & The Family Stone, and by the time I finish writing this, I may just change my mind and go with that one…but I think I’m going to have to settle on “With A Little Help From My Friends.” And it has to be Joe Cocker’s version. There won’t be many times when I think somebody did a Beatles’ song better than they did it, but this is one of those times. Just like Jimi Hendrix covered Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” and left the original in the dust, Cocker’s take on this song is light years better than the way the Fab 4 did it!

Joe Cocker re-did a lot of great songs that were written and originally recorded by The Beatles and other artists, but every song he sang instantly became his.  Nobody interpreted a tune the way Joe Cocker did it. His version of this particular number sounds nothing like the version everybody knows by The Beatles!

Joe Cocker was an English rock ‘n roll blues singer. Every ounce of energy he had went into his songs.  Especially this one. It begins with a long, slow organ break, builds and builds until the drums and the guitar come in, and then it becomes so damn powerful. The women singing backup are great, and they give the song a genuine gospel feel. And when Ol’ Joe explodes with a scream, it’s just about the strongest and best thing I’ve ever heard!  It blows me away every single time!

The song is about good friends helping you through hard times, and I think we can all identify with that.  It fits my life to a degree right now because, like just about everyone, I’ve been struggling with this pandemic. Not being able to do the things I want to do. Things like going to concerts, and going to restaurants and bars, movies, and you name it. Simple things like just having a conversation without worrying about social distancing.

I would be perfectly happy if this song would crank up when I walked into a room. By the time I got around to saying hello to everybody in the crowd, that’s about the time the music would really kick in, and crank up to full volume!

So yeah…I get by “With A Little Help From My Friends!”  I hear it starting to play right now.  The late, great Joe Cocker!!!

Aubrey Williams (General Manager)

Theme song: “You Will Always Bring Me Flowers” by Shannon and the Clams

This has not always been my theme song, but it speaks to me in my life right now. I love the vintage doo-wop/surf rock feel coupled with the garage punk vibe. It’s very upbeat and fun, while still having a little grit to it. Shannon’s voice is one of those that just gets stuck in your head, too. She’s a bad ass.

TECHNICALLY I was named for a song (Aubrey by Bread) and while I find it beautiful, it has always made me so sad, so I don’t really consider it my theme song.

Brighton McConnell (News Director)

Theme song: “Light On” by Maggie Rogers

I think on our staff pages, I listed my theme song as “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone, which is largely still true. But lately, I’ve been leaning heavily on some Maggie Rogers music, who I’ve been following since she broke onto the scene and I saw her in concert. Her strong energy in “Light On” (and her other tracks) is always tinged with a bit of wistfulness or reflection, which I enjoy. This song in particular builds in great ways and the thundering drums in the chorus just add to its grandeur. Throw in Maggie’s vocals and it’s a wrap. Her music has been speaking to me for a while now, but “Light On” has specifically been stuck in my head lately.

Elle Kehres (Reporter)

Theme song: “Swing Low” by The Kooks

Ahh my favorite British band. The Kooks are an English indie rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton, England (shout out to our News Director and my favorite city in England!). I would say my life peaked when I got to see them perform live in London. You could also say I’ve been chasing that high ever since. You may recognize The Kooks from their iconic hit “Naive.”

To be quite frank, my last three theme songs have come from The Kooks. I take theme songs and the spiritual ties I feel to them very seriously. I find that I deeply connect with the lead singer’s honesty, vulnerability and personal brand of darkness in his lyrics. Before this song, my other choice Kooks songs was first “Shine On” and then “Love It All” – both off the album Konk (which I daresay is my favorite album every created – after John Mayer’s Continuum that is).

“Swing Low” is taken from The Kooks’ 2018 album Let’s Go Sunshine – another brilliant mix. For me, it represents going through hell but nonetheless making it out on the other side, standing tall.

Dakota Moyer (Digital Content Manager)

Theme song: “A Certain Romance” by Artic Monkeys

I can’t explain why I like this song, but it’s been on my playlist forever. I had it on my original iPod, back when it had the scroll wheel and you had to plug it into the computer to download new songs. It’s just been around forever! For some reason, it always pops up when I hit Shuffle on my phone.

Victor Lewis (Digital Content Editor & Friendly Neighborhood Weekend Host)

Theme song: “The Touch” by Stan Bush

When I think of theme songs, the first jam that comes to mind is from the soundtrack of the animated “Transformers” movie circa 1986.

I don’t know a single other song by Stan Bush and I’m not sure I need to, because “The Touch” is everything I need a theme song to be. The entire soundtrack to the awkwardly-titled “The Transformers: The Movie” is cover-to-cover motivational ‘80s bangers, music that stands in stark opposition to the action unfolding onscreen as beloved characters bite the bullet and a world-consuming entity voiced by Orson Welles lays waste to so many robots in disguise that’s it’s mildly unsettling.

“The Touch” is an instant pump-up, a pep rally for mind, body and soul. If you need a theme to get something done, look no further.

Kenny Dike (Billing, Broadcast Traffic, & Sales Operations Manager)

Theme song: “See The World” by Gomez

This was my MySpace theme song. On MySpace when someone visited your page, you could set it so a song would start playing, never figured out why Facebook didn’t give that a try.

I don’t have the musical acumen to tell you if a song is complex or simple, but to my ear, this is a nice song, the singer has a cool voice, I dig it. It’s still my theme song.

Anna Griffin (Creative Account Coordinator)

Theme song: “Don’t Bring Me Down” by Electric Light Orchestra

I absolutely love everything about this song. When ever I’m feeling particularly down in the dumps or unappreciated, or anything negative basically, this song never fails to cheer me up! It’s like a funky way to express self worth, which is very much my vibe. Plus, how can you sit still listening to this song? It just gets ya up and moving!

AJ (“Edgy Night Guy”)

Theme song: “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N Roll) by AC DC

I heard this song for the first time when I was 11. I absolutely loved it. It’s one of those songs that the minute it comes on the radio, you crank it, and then do your best not to drive at twice the legal speed limit. I know it’s talking about being in a band, but in all walks of life it’s a long way to the top.

Jack Carmichael (Administrative Assistant)

Theme song: “Live For Each Other” by Fat Night.

Picking a theme song is hard! To do this staff pick justice, I think it’s my responsibility to examine what makes some of my all-time favorite sitcom themes great.

I love that some of the greatest theme songs are completely instrumental. Seinfeld’s keyboard synth bassline is iconic. The outro music from Frasier may have had lyrics, but the intro music was just seven seconds of classy vibes and jazz guitar, which totally fit the show. But when a theme song’s lyrics nail a show’s premise, that’s kind of the ideal theme song situation. Friends could not have had a more perfect theme than “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts. And you can’t hear the theme from Fresh Prince without singing along.

With these theme songs as reference, I need to pick a song that is strong musically AND lyrically. During quarantine, “Lonely Town” by Vulfpeck might’ve felt appropriate in all the moments I would’ve otherwise been spending with friends were it not for the pandemic. But if I had to pick one to reflect my life more generally, I’d like to think that my theme song is something like “Live For Each Other” by Fat Night. Musically, it’s everything you could ask for: funky, laid-back, and catchy. Lyrically, it’s all about having a good time and being a good person at the same time: “let’s groove tonight until we’re satisfied. Let’s live for each other!” That’s definitely a vibe I’m trying to embody as much as I can.

Tracey Himmel (Account Executive)

Theme song: “On Eagle’s Wings” by Michael Joncas

This song is a classic Catholic hymn, and is an old favorite at mass. As a Boston College Eagle, it has always been a symbol of my love of BC, my faith and duty to give to others. During the president-elect’s acceptance speech on Saturday, he quoted this hymn. It perfectly captures the hopeful sentiment that Joe Biden wanted to give all Americans. Through Him, all things are possible!

Check out our last staff picks (‘favorite fall festivities’) here!

Learn more about 97.9 The Hill’s great staffers on our ‘Meet Our Staff’ page here!