Month: April 2014

Greg Brown contacted us several years ago.  Brown, former Chicago wakeup guy and WJMK (the former Oldies station) & WKQX jock to remind us he was written up on Rick Kaempfer’s blog, “Chicago Radio Spotlight” in 2007.  It’s my first visit and this looks quite amazing.  There are interviews with many of the great Chicago area personalities, like Clark Webber, John Records Landecker, Jeff Davis and others.  Now Greg Brown.  It’s a full interview that will open your eyes about Chicago radio, especially in the 1980s, and Brown shares his thoughts about the JACK format and HD radio.  CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE INTERVIEW As a bonus, here’s a great, albeit short, aircheck of him on WJMK Oldies 104.3! 

Another step in the evolution of WPLJ 95.5, at the time of this aircheck known as “Power 95”.  For a time, ABC corporate actually changed the calls to WWPR, but it’s still ‘PLJ here.  Notice the “WPLJ New York” Legal buried in a stopset.  Jim Kerr is a capable morning jock, and this, thankfully, is still a time before high-powered morning shows with foul language and sexual innuendos.  Kerr is entertaining and this is very much a music-oriented morning show.  We’re sure you’ll enjoy hearing about the events of the day – two full newscasts are included along with New York City commercials of the day.  This is in INCREDIBLE, STUDIO QUALITY….  It sounds good enough to have come right off the board, but we know this is off a perfectly tuned ...

Fresh from KFRC, Bill Lee (Lenke at WTIC-FM) is showcased here, with a lightning fast delivery just like the weather hammering the Twin Cities this particular evening.  Tornado watches and warnings abound and Lee is as entertaining delivering the weather as he is the hits.  This is an incredible airchceck, and its been re-mastered for better audio quality.  This was originally billed as part of Minneapolis CHR WARS Distributed by Florida-based East Coast Airchecks, this was another great contribution from Robyn Watts!  There were two parts consisting of various airchecks.  We’ve split them up into their own presentations here. 

Thanks to our good friends at California Aircheck, we have a fresh copy of this excellent aircheck!  This is right from the master copy so enjoy, and be sure to visit their website for more goodies!  Certainly, Kiss-FM is and has been the premier Top 40 station in L.A. for decades now, but what’s this slogan, “The Hits of the 80s and 90s”?  Sounds AC-ish.  Indeed, listening to this recording the music is what we’d think of as Adult Contemporary by today’s standards, but this is CHR and it illustrates just where the format has been.  Bruce Vidal is sounding good here, albeit a bit like Rick Dees (at least the voice is similar).  Courtesy of…

Another new market for us is Myrtle Beach, where this station, formerly known as WBPR “Power 98” is heard here, retooled as an Adult CHR station.  It’s certainly from the 90s and I’d guess around 1992 or so, but I’ll leave it up to our visitors to figure out when exactly.  This is a pretty tight sounding station.  Anyone remember it, please remember to comment below. 

Join us now as we turn back the hands of time to 1991 and what is now a Hot AC station (one of many which were once CHR).  Some GREAT talent is heard here, including Chio The Hitman (Z-100) & Ralphie (his last show on this aircheck)… You’ll hear plenty of excitement, JAM’s then Z-100 package, lots of phones and it’s all personality hit radio! 

In the long story of Don Imus’ career, few events could be stranger than NBC management’s decision to fire the personalities of WNBC radio.  Among those let go in late ’77 were Cousin Bruce Morrow and morning man Don Imus.  Imus had been a new face in the hallowed halls of the flagship station of the NBC radio chain back in 1971, at a time when WNBC radio was still just rolling out from under a middle of the road format that was ostensibly 50 percent still network programming.  With Imus in the Morning and Brucie at night, when he arrived in ’74, WNBC began to transform itself into a modern top 40 station.  But, it wasn’t quite enough.  To even think about competing with Top 40 ratings giant WABC, NBC brass decided to flip the station to a less-talk, more music app...

The Don Imus people are familiar with on WABC these days really bears no resemblance to a stoned Rock and Roller who went by Imus in the Morning on WNBC in the middle of the Top 40 era at 30 Rock in New York City.  Courtesy of our good friend Matt @ Big Apple Airchecks, we hear Imus on top of his game!  Included: complete newscasts from Sam Hall and Charles McCord, several complete stopsets (for the historic commercials, y’know), a few scoped songs for copyright protection, and a subuded, stoned-sounding, southern drawled Don Imus.  Even if you loathe Imus’ show today, You’ll enjoy this.  Trust me.  Courtesy of…

This is very short, recorded by your webmaster himself.  Only to illustrate that there are some constructive uses for Ibiquity’s IBOC branded “HD Radio”.  DRC-FM’s HD2 is locally produced, with sweepers voiced by Floyd Wright and an occasional classic WDRC jingle from the old Top 40 days on 1360 AM.  But note, the HD2 recreation is jockless.  It does, however, bring back the Oldies format that WDRC-FM had which played the hits of the 50s, 60s and early 70s.  The only real problem with this station, is that few people can hear it.  There are very few HD receivers being sold on the market, and most you have to go to a specialty store to obtain.  Try getting a Sony HD receiver or Boston Acoustics at Wal Mart – you’ll be disappointed.  So it is, that I decided to re...

Contributor Larry Stoler sent this in quite a while ago.  While there’s no date on it, judging by the jingles, this was likely recorded sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s.  This is OLDIES KONO.  No jock voices are heard, just jingles and song resings.  All in all, a pretty good representation of a grea Oldies station, before most Oldies stations flipped to Classic Hits of the 70s-90s. 

Now from the ‘annonymous’ donor file from two years ago comes this somewhat obscure recording of KVIL in the waning days of Top 40 before going to AC (and subsequently smashing the competition just like the top 40 days).  Cat Simon is very entertaining – you’ll hear contests in the form of a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin giveaway, a car that gets 150 mpg (another, earlier gas crisis that we’re all familiar with), and some pretty cool jingles. 

Bobby Rich is not only a great jock, but he’s also an official Airchexx Contributor!  This was submitted on the occasion of Bobby’s induction into the Arizona Broadcasters Hall of Fame!  Airchexx visitors and his listeners over the years knew already that Bobby Rich is a world-class (and darn funny) broadcaster, and being inducted into the HOF the first time his name was submitted only affirmed what we already knew!  I asked Bobby what this recording was, and his response was: It was played as part of the induction ceremony to AZ Broadcasters Hall Of Fame, October 2013.  It takes me through most of the stations I’ve worked for in 40 years.  Hopefully, you’ll enjoy this as much as I did posting it!