My uncle gave his entire vinyl collection--along with his turntable--to my grandmother, who was babysitting me at the time. He was making the switch to some other format (cassette? reel-to-reel? don't remember) and just gave them away. Grandmother played Rumours during my naptime.
So I was well aware of FM throughout my teenage years, but in 1988 when I turned 16, I became obsessed purely by chance. I had a terrible accident on my 16th birthday and had a badly broken leg. I had a four-hour surgery to repair damage, lots of time in the hospital, etc. My dad bought me a new stereo with a CD player that Christmas. I had no CDs, but he promised to buy me some the next time we went into town.
That "next time" turned out to be the night of a particularly invasive and painful outpatient procedure on my leg. My dad kept telling me, "Be strong, keep cool... we'll go music-shopping when this is all over." Well, they drugged me pretty bad and so my dad was left to his own devices to start my CD collection for me. While I waited, half-dazed, in the car, he went in the music store and asked to buy whatever CD was #1 that week.
It was the green Greatest Hits CD.
The next morning I remember waking up to "As Long As You Follow." My dad had put it on and set the CD on repeat on my Sharp CD player.
I heard "Dreams" and "Go Your Own Way" again later that day, really for the first time since I was a little kid. I was already a Stevie fan and had "Bella Donna" on vinyl, but the band really won me over when I was 16... and it was all my dad's fault.
~Jamie