As Gary Craig, the host of the "Craig and Company" morning show for thirty-eight years, counted down to his June 28, 2019 retirement date from radio, on Wednesday, June 26, he played this "Wake up, Hartford" song that he first produced in 1982. As it plays, he explains to his co-host since 1996, Christine Lee, and WTIC (AM), WTIC-FM, and WRCH-FM traffic reporter Mark "the Shark" Christopher how he would use it.

He sang it with "newsman extraordinaire" John Elliott, his partner when "Craig & Co." first ran on WTIC-FM from 1981 to 1993 and all but the last year of its second run there from 1996 to 2019. [In the three-year interim, Craig took his morning radio show to WKSS in Hartford and WEGQ (WEEI-FM today) in Boston.] From 1976 to his retirement on July 31, 2018, Elliott worked only at WTIC Radio, making his forty-two year run there the longest of any broadcast news anchor in Connecticut history.

Craig estimates during his commentary that he used this song to start the show for “twenty years or more.” He provided the backstory in his 2018 autobiography "Tugging on the Sleeve of Fame:" "As soon as I found out John could sing, we started turning out a lot of material. One of the first things we produced was a 'wake-up song.' John and I sang the lyrics, leaving blanks where I would read listeners' names live over the music. We ran this every morning, and the phones lit up like a Christmas tree. People loved not only hearing their own names on the air, but the names of co-workers and people they loved. ¶ Over the years, I would update the tune and make necessary changes to reflect new people joining the morning show. The most popular wake up song version was the second incarnation, sung to the [1926 American standard] 'Bye Bye Blackbird.'"

This is the original "Bye Bye Blackbird" wake-up song. In it are mentioned "Fairweather" Charlie Bagley, one of Hartford's most well-known broadcast meteorologists, and "Craig and Company's" first traffic reporter, Roger Stafford. There are also references to Craig's characters Rusty Hinge, the fictitious doorman at the Gold Building at One Financial Plaza where WTIC was located from 1974 to 1999; hit-man Vito Knuckles; Mister Roberts, a satire of the title character from the iconic children's television show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood;" and the Great Garnac, Gary's version of the "Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" character Carnac, the Magnificent. (Craig stopped portraying characters on "Craig and Company" when it returned to WTIC-FM in 1996.)

The song is followed by a 2019 "Craig and Company" sweeper as a segue into the 2009 Miley Cyrus song "Party in the U.S.A."

lyrics:

Time to get out of bed,
Pull the sheets right off your head,
Wake-up, Hartford

Craig and Company is up,
Go pour the coffee in your cup,
Wake-up, Hartford

Charlie Bagley's weather will astound you,
Roger (Stafford) looks at traffic all around you,
Newsman John (Elliott) extraordinaire,
Morning news will curl your hair,
Connecticut, wake-up

Insurance agents, lawyers too,
Secretaries, we mean you,
Wake-up, Hartford

Rusty Hinge is at the door,
[as Rusty Hinge, not heard in this broadcast: "And I'll escort you to your floor. Ooh!"]
Wake-up, Hartford

You go to Vito if you need a favor,
And Mister Roberts wants to be your neighbor,
Garnac will predict your fate,
Better hustle, you'll be late,
Hartford, wake-up

Wake-up, Hartford,
Wake-up, Hartford

On (Interstate highways) 84 and 91,
You'll have a laugh before we're done,
Hartford, wake-up

In 1982, WTIC (AM) and WTIC-FM were owned by the Ten Eighty Corporation. In 2019, they were owned and operated by Entercom Communications.