6 A.M. SATURDAY, APRIL 3. Unable to sleep, I get up early to assemble a final play list and a guest lineup.

(Flashback to fall 1975: As a novice DJ working the 4-6 a.m. shift, I would set the needle down on a marathon Led Zeppelin cut or a full side of Jethro Tull, rest my head on the control board and catch a nap, praying the record wouldn't skip.)

10 A.M. SATURDAY. My planning goes out the window. As word has spread, more and more '70s-era alums have surfaced. And each of us, it seems, hopes to air favorite songs that last forever. (Ten minutes of Starcastle's "Lady of the Lake," anyone?) What had seemed a vast, unfillable timeslot now will burst at the seams.

In a last-minute huddle, we decide to air as many voices and as much music as possible. That means short songs and a strict focus on discussion of what WPGU and the community were like in the '70s. No on-air naps today.

Dashing my dream of an orderly alumni rotation through the studio, we agree instead that I will dash into the hallway during each song, shout out the next conversation topic and invite people with relevant stories to elbow their way toward a microphone.

11:30 A.M. SHOW TIME. The packrat mentality that afflicts so many WPGU alums and the long hours people like reunion ringleaders Jomarie Fredericks '83 LAS, MS '85 COM, and Scott Redman '86 LAS, JD '89 LAW, have spent digging through station archives pay off. We expose today's listeners not only to great old music by the likes of the late Harry Chapin, performing on campus ("I am the morning DJ on WPGU-U-U-u-u-u"), but also to rarities like National Lampoon Radio Hour comedy bits (the late John Belushi as beer-guzzling "perfect master" Craig Baker: "I'm from Champaign-Urbana. I'm really from Urbana, but Champaign is right next to it."). ...

Veteran WPGU newsies recount bizarre tales of parachuting streakers, 1976 presidential candidate visits and the Enema Bandit. ...

And the highlight of the segment may be the first new episode in more than a quarter century of WPGU's comedy serial, "Flush Bizbo, College Freshman." It's been cranked out by a couple of West Coast alums who can't make the reunion, John Axness '75 com and Stew Oleson '76 com. As the now-47-year-old but still squeaky-voiced Flush, Oleson surveys fliers posted along Green Street and observes: "Stones are playing the Auditorium ... JFK for president, and students protesting an unpopular war overseas. Some things never change."

1:30 P.M. Of course, because we have to make room for those '80s kids, our time is up before we can do all we'd hoped. Casualties include Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" and the late Steve Goodman's "Video Tape" ("If your life was on videotape ... you could replay all the good parts and cut out what you don't like.")

4 P.M. Leaving C-U, I marvel at how a love affair with a college station led a chemistry major to a career in Chicago radio. And I delight at knowing so many other alums have drawn inspiration in their careers - broadcasting or otherwise — from their time in the basement of Weston Hall.

6:30 P.M. The euphoria remains undiminished by a miserable traffic jam on Chicago's Dan Ryan Expressway.

How did the big show sound? With all the planning, dashing and chatting, I have no idea.

That's why I'm looking forward to hearing the whole day, recorded to CD as a fund-raiser for IMC's planned Campustown multimedia headquarters, where future generations of WPGU staffers will have a chance to rock their way into adulthood.

Meyerson '77 COM, MS '78 COM (meyerson@illinoisalumni.org), WPGU reporter and DJ from 1973 to 1977, is a columnist and senior producer at the Chicago Tribune Online Edition (www.chicagotribune.com/daywatch), and now contributes daily reports to Chicago's WGN-AM 720.

For more information on the WPGU Rock 'n' Roll Reunion CD set, e-mail WPGU Operations Manager Michelle Gabris '01 LAS, AM '03 LAS, at michelleg@wpgu.com.

WPGU alumni can join the Yahoo! Groups e-mail list by writing to WPGU-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and/or may join the Illini Media Alumni Club http://illinimedia.com/alumni.

Photos courtesy of Stacy Marshall-Kern.