Recently, WWNO's Coastal Desk profiled an unemployed oilfield worker named Derrick Hadley. When Hadley mentioned a song called "Please Give Us One More Boom," by Robert L. Platt, we played it on air at the end of the story. A few weeks later, Robert L. Platt's son, Kenny Platt, reached out via email.
He wrote the following:
"Ryan,
That song you played this morning was written and recorded by my father back in the bust of the mid 80's. He was out promoting the album and had a stroke, thus ending his music career before it had a chance. He died in 2005 after many years of struggle, but always managed to stay positive.
My cousin sent a note to my family this morning that he heard dad on the radio, and my brother searched until he found your article on wwno.org. To our knowledge, you are the only one to have played his music on the radio. So here we are, 30 years after his album was recorded and 11 years after his death and his dream has come true!
Thanks for making our day! By the way, all of Robert L.'s kids are oilfield trash, and are still out chasing the dream today. "
WWNO's Ryan Kailath spoke with the younger Platt recently.
Support for WWNO's Coastal Desk comes from the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the Coypu Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation.
