Paris Alston: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. If you grew up in the era of high tops, popped collars, Nerds, and Reese’s Pieces, this song will probably bring you back.

New Edition: My girl’s like candy, a candy treat, She knocks me right off of my feet. She’s so fine as can be, I know this girl is meant for me. Candy girl.

Alston: In February of 1983, "Candy Girl" by New Edition first played on WILD 1090.

Radio station call sign: W I L D, Boston

Alston: A small AM radio station which put R&B on Boston’s airwaves from 1973 to 2011.

Elroy Smith: I recall vividly, Ricky Bell and producer Maurice Starr walking into the studio while I was on the air during the morning show.

Alston: That’s Elroy Smith, who was the program director at WILD from 1983 to 1988.

Smith [archive recording]: WILD 9:54 with Elroy in the AM.

Smith: They said hey, you know, the guys are from Orchard Park. Orchard Park was only two blocks away from the radio station. And they gave me the song. I said, okay, guys, put it on. And even if I put the song on the air, the phone lines went crazy.

New Edition: All I know when I’m with you, you make me feel so good through and through

Alston: Of course, the hype didn’t stop there.

Smith: I said, well, maybe it’s just community people, you know, their friends in the neighborhood. No. It was not at all because the phones just constantly rung, it was just going crazy. So I put it on again. And the response was insane. And I played it a third time, and the same response. So I just became the program director. I’m like, you know, it’s pretty cool, helping out the community, not thinking, Paris, that 40 years later, this group still has significance.

Alston: Smith says back then, WILD was the place to hear a range of R&B, something the city’s Black residents especially are missing today.

Smith: They lose the platform of having a voice on the terrestrial dial that represents them. Just imagine if you moved to Boston from the Carolinas or from Detroit, and if you’re African American or beyond that, or you like R&B music — you’re going up and down the dial in what, one of the top 10 markets in America, Boston, thinking that no, maybe I’ve missed it. Okay. Let me just keep trying. Let me at somebody. Hey, there a the station that plays Mary J. Blige into Maxwell into Alicia Keys? Meaning all in a row? And you’re just baffled: why isn’t than that happening in Boston?

Alston: Tonight, Smith and many others will be reliving memories like the birth of "Candy Girl" when they gather for the Boston radio reunion and awards at the Bruce C. Bolling Center in Nubian Square. You can find tickets and more info at eventbrite.com. At the event, the station will have its legacy stamped into Boston history when Mayor Michelle Wu names July 26th, 2024 1090 WILD Day. You’re listening to GBH news.

New Edition: Candy girl, all I want to say, you're everything, You're everything, you're everything to me. Candy girl, you are my world I need your love each and every day. Candy girl, I need it, need it. Need it, need it, need it every day. Candy girl

If you grew up in the era of high tops, popped collars, Nerds and Reese’s Pieces, New Edition’s “Candy Girl” will probably bring you back.

The group was relatively unknown in February of 1983, when Ricky Bell and producer Maurice Starr walked into the studios of WILD 1090, a small AM radio station which put R&B on Boston’s airwaves from 1973 to 2011.

“I was on the air during the morning show,” said Elroy Smith, who was the program director at WILD from 1983 to 1988, on GBH’s Morning Edition. “They said hey, you know, the guys are from Orchard Park. Orchard Park was only two blocks away from the radio station. And they gave me the song.”

Smith played the song on air, and “the phone lines went crazy,” he said.

“I said, well, maybe it’s just community people, you know, their friends in the neighborhood,” he said. “No. It was not at all, because the phones just constantly rung, it was just going crazy.”

He played the song again, and then again, he said.

“I’m like, you know, it’s pretty cool, helping out the community, not thinking that 40 years later, this group still has significance,” he said.

Back then, WILD was the place to hear a range of R&B, something the city’s Black residents especially are missing today.

“They lose the platform of having a voice on the terrestrial dial that represents them,” Smith said.

On Friday, Smith and many others will be reliving memories like the birth of “Candy Girl” when they gather for the Boston radio reunion and awards at the Bruce C. Bolling Center in Nubian Square. Tickets are $50, and more information are available at eventbrite.com.

The station will have its legacy stamped into Boston history when Mayor Michelle Wu names July 26th, 2024 1090 WILD Day.