Phil Baker on WMYQ Miami | 1974
Aug 27, 2005 
17 Comments
Once again, from a small 3″ reel, comes this hi-fi scope of WMYQ. This reel upon first glance was in terrible shape. The reel was cracked and the tape old and brittle, not even in it’s own box. Still, after playing it on a well-maintained Otari deck (Thank you WMC-FM), the audio came out crisp and quite stunning!
This sounds very much like it was recorded directly off the board. Phil Baker could have been the all-night jock, but I doubt this was recorded overnight since the newsman that you’ll hear on this scope coming out of the top and bottom of the hour reports is none other than the legendary Terrance McKeever! Hearing McKeever’s voice on a couple of news outros is worth the 10 minutes of scoped liners read by Phil Baker!
Comments: One of the purposes of Airchexx.com is to show what radio was really like back in the days before music moved to FM, and corporate consolidation ruined what we perceive as ‘good radio’. Unfortunately, IMHO, the ‘RKO’ sound featuring short liners into songs, while great when done by jocks with real personality like Robert W. Morgan, sounded TERRIBLE with a jock who did nothing WITH the liners except to read them. True, all was not perfect in radio, even in the 70s. Still, this is Miami’s version of the “Q” format (in most markets, this was the ‘post Drake’ era), and the format, for all intents and purposes sounded great on the air.
Visitors, if you remember this station, why not write a history about it by clicking the ‘Comment’ button at the bottom of this post.
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Thank you for posting an aircheck from the first radio station that I worked for. I was there within a year before this aircheck yet I do not remember Phil Baker.
Bob Shannon, on the survey, never worked in New York City. He left in the summer to do evenings at WCFL as Johnny Driscoll. I think he took over Dr. Brock’s slot.
Steven Green
A great aircheck from the early days of WMYQ, but the date of this aircheck is definitely wrong.
Judging from the music this was in late-summer 1972.. probably August or September 1972. Plus WMYQ stopped using the TM shotgun jingle and started using the TM Shockwave jingle package in early 1973.
Thanks for the posting; what great memories. My visits to Miami would never have been complete without hours of listening to WMYQ.
This aircheck is from late 1972, as Gilbert O’Sullivan had the No. 1 hit on Sept. 10 — the day I was born!
It’s great listening to the first successful FM Top 40 in the days before Y-100 signed on the air and perfected the sound of Top 40 on FM for a generation of South Floridians. With WMYQ becoming 96X and guys like Joel Denver running the show, along with the dominance of Y-100 and its monster image in the market, the AMs in the market became irrelevant by spring 1978 — the Miami Heat aircheck on this site is a great historical artifact in that Miami was the first market to see Top 40 listening evaporate from the AM dial. WQAM was hurt to some extent by WMYQ, but the ‘Q’ calls with both stations only led to listener confusion when it came time to “write it down.”
With Y-100, WQAM tried to fight but the days of AM hits were over long before Chicago. Perhaps F-105 in Boston is another great example of an FM Top 40 that did much to change listening habits.
I was in the Air Force stationed in south Fla when WMYQ switched from MOR WJHR to WMYQ. I don’t remember exactly when but around Feb 1971 seems close. I remember the first contest was “when we call you, don’t say hello, say I listen to fun lovin WMYQ”.
Aw, if you had answered your phone with “I listen to the new sound of Y-100,” you would have won fifty thousand dollars.
After too many people won $50,000, they changed it to $5000.
“79 degrees in the magic city, MYQ keeps on trucking. Be the first one to call me at 305 531 9111 and you’ll rip us off for an official Q truckin’ shirt.”
Terrific hearing this aircheck! I listened constantly to WMYQ in high school… and it was the station that inspired me to get into radio!
I can pinpoint when this aircheck was recorded. It was late summer / early fall of 1972. In those days, WMYQ used those musical call-letter “inlays” for current songs. “Brandy,” “Long Cool Woman,” and “Too Late to Turn Back Now” have the call letters sung into the beginning of each song. They were specifically recorded to sound as if the actual artist was singing the station’s call letters. WMYQ used them on current songs only as they became popular and peaked; once they burned out and started back down the charts, WMYQ used the regular “plain” version of the song, w/o the calls. These three songs peaked in late summer of 1972. And that great shotgun jingle was only used in 1971 and 1972.
I listened constantly, but don’t ever remember hearing Phil Baker. He must have been a weekender or someone there for a very short time. That strange southern accent doesn’t ring a bell.
Although it was great to hear this aircheck, it doesn’t accurately represent the level of talent that was on WMYQ in the early 70s. This guy just read liners. The stars in those days included Roby Yonge, G. Michael McKay, Johnny Dark, Bobby Rich, Jefferson Stone, Robt W, Kris Erik Stevens and others who made the station a living entity.
Hey Don, nice comments about WMYQ, I worked there in 1975 under Lee Logan and Jerry Clifton, your right though, the shot-gun jingles were the best I’ve ever heard, even to this day and the 30 plus some-odd radio stations I’ve worked for in the last 30 years, couldn’t compare. Quick note: G. Michael McKay is alive and well and were still friends after all these years and I talk to him often on a regular basis, additionally, I don’t know who Phil Baker is either, he wasn’t there when I was there, and I don’t recall ever hearing him on the radio anywhere in Miami, and I had worked at most all of the Miami radio stations at one time or another and some twice……..:)
Chuck
Looking for Play Sheets from WMYQ during the 70′s
I have saved a few, But would like to have copies (scanned uploads are fine)
Example I have WMYQ sheet IX (12/14/71)
1) Family Affair………….Sly & Family stone
2) American Pie…………..Don McLean
3) Brand New Q……………Melanie
Etc. to # 33
Then at the bottom
Q Albums
1) Santana………………Santana
I’m building a Library Juke Box based on Media Monkey and want to add play list based on all songs that were top Radio Hits based on stations I liked to listen to in the 70′s. These plas sheets would allow me to build the library to popularity of each week.
Listed on the back of my Q Sheets DJ’s of ’71 – 72
J. Micheal Stone
Roby Yonge
Kris Erik Stevens
Bobby Rich
Robert W. Walker
Awesome to hear this. I was only 8 yrs old when my family left Homestead in ’74 but I remember this being the only radio station my Mother ever listened to and was always winning contests. I think I still have a couple of the Keep On Truckin T-shirts. What great nostalgia.
I have read the postings to this aircheck I submitted and I assure you all Phil Baker is a real person and featured on this aircheck. I can say that because I worked with him at WBMJ in San Juan back in 72. This check was left behind and somehow found it’s way into my possession. I am not familiar with how much time Phil spent at WMYQ, before joining us at WBMJ but I assume he wasn’t there for a very long time.
Karl
Great stuff and memories. I was in the Israeli Merchant Marine running from Haifa Israel to Texas.
I always recorded W.M.Y.Q as we passed Florida way back in the 70s. It was the greatest entertainment that we had when we were miles from nowhere like mid atlantic, Oh happy days!!
This is great, I worked at WMYQ 1973-1975 doing production and running taped shows like The National Lampoon Radio Hour, Dr. Demento and engineered the talk show sunday nights called Miami Speaks from 10:00 pm until we went off the air! That’s right, every Sunday night I would shut down the transmitter so the engineers at the tower could do maintinence. I was in 12th grade and Getting to work and meet folks like Roby Younge, Robert L Collins, G. Michael Mckay, Jim Kelly and more than I can remember. It was a great time in my life. Then Jerry Clifton came in and well, that is a different story. At least they let me keep all the NATLAMP masters.
Karl, this is Phil’s daughter! I am looking for my father I am 33 years old and would love to hear about him. I know he was in San Juan in 72′ because he met my mother and married her then had me in 75′. If anyone knows anything I would love to hear.
Tanisha Baker
Tanisha. If you can e mail me at karl.phillips@ricoh-usa.com I would like to hear from you about your dad Phil.
Remember WMYQ, you bet, I worked there in 1975 under Lee Logan and the infamous Jerry Clifton, does any body else remember the name Jerry Clifton? He was spook but a sharp, sharp, programmer and the spittin image of Ted Nugent, Bartell media like him enough to make him their national program director of all their “Q” stations in the chain from coast to coast. But I had alot of FUN at WMYQ and worked with some of the nations best announcers, what a blast…..