King of the OldiesKing of the Oldies"Listen to this" commands the King of the Oldies. "Listen to this!" He drops the phonograph needle on the 45 and a song roars through the speakers. Its a good song, very loud, with lots of ringing guitars. Looking boggled, the King is half standing, half dancing in his small bedroom. Suddenly he bends backward, squeezes his eyes shut as if he's got a migraine and plucks an imaginary guitar. "I remember this music like it was yesterday," he says, finishing the air guitar solo, exhausted. Kurt Curtis, known in some circles as King of the Oldies, has made a living spinning records in American nightclubs for three decades. But his hobby, some might say his passion, is music history. that's why the St Petersburg resident spent 10 years and about $80,000 researching and writing the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Florida Rock, Soul and Dance Music, covering 1955-90. "This book is incredible" declares the King, one of those people that speaks in exclamation points "The whole deal is we have these different causes. We got Save the Panther! Save the Manatee1 Save the Whales! I wanted to do something to save our Florida music heritage! So I wrote this book. " You can read about Tom Petty any where," he sniffs, "but what about We The People from that Leesburg town? Or the Rockers out of cigar city? The Impacs from St Petersburg? He's got names Instruments, history. He 's got cross-references, song lists, record companies. " This isn't a comic book." he says.