Month: March 2014

Chuck Brittain is heard during WLS’ celebration of 25 years as the “Rock of Chicago”, and while subtle format changes were soon to come, WLS is certainly still playing ALL THE HITS, even with a jingle that sings that phrase! WLS had fully embraced the Motorola C-Quam AM Stereo system and is proudly announcing that regularly – for those of us who had receivers, anyway. The current promotion is the “Fantasy Prize Package” where winners will get tickets to any destination in the world! Soon to come (according to Chuck Brittain) on Friday, WLS will be bringing back the personalities that made WLS such a popular station, such as Mort Crowley, Sam Holman and more. This runs just over 5 minutes and there’s not much more we can write about this, you simply...

Identified as their first day on the air, Ole “Uncle Lar” and Tommy Edwards are reunited for the first time since their days on 89 WLS. “Real Oldies” 1690 was an attempt to bring back many of the big names of the old MusicRadio 89 from the 1960s and pair them with a very old-skewing Oldies format featuring music of the 1950s and 1960s. In a way, it was really an attempt to return the Oldies format to its roots, as the first such Oldies formats that came along in the 1970s played just those particular years. The highlight of the program day was Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards, and as you can hear here, Lujack sounds a bit disorganized (or perhaps it was by design), but that could be because he was not really in the studio with Edwards, but rather from his home in New ...

“KNUS… With the world’s Greatest Contest…” Once again, we go back to the Robyn Watts Collection for a real CLASSIC! You have one minute from the time your prize is announced to call in and claim it. Actually, you have to listen to see how this contest works. KNUS is the epitome of continuous contesting! When not playing the ‘World’s Greatest Contest’, the station is giving away albums, T-shirts and more! This is McLendon’s personality station, and its a serious lesson on how to do radio the RIGHT way! As always, listener comments are welcome!

“99X – Rockin’ the Apple in Stereo!” Courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks, here’s a new Composite of New York’s legendary 99X! This spans the Fall 1977 – Spring 1978 time frame and includes some great personalities like Glen Morgan, The “Sainte” Show, Dick Sloan and others. This is another tightly scoped aircheck that came to us that way. Listen closely or you’ll miss the small details. No jingles during this time frame. The emphasis of 99X here was on album cuts, along with the big Top 40 hits of the day! As always, listener feedback is welcome using the “Comment” feature below.

Contributor Rob Grayson is understandably proud to say he was part of Cecil Heftel’s WKTQ Pittsburgh. Known as 13Q, a Top 40 powerhouse created by Buzz Bennett, this station was a major force in the market through much of the 1970s. Here’s what the airstaff of 13Q looked like during the station’s golden years. (Courtesy of Jeff Roteman’s 13Q Tribute website) This is so tightly scoped down you have to listen closely or you’ll miss something. You have to admit, from what you hear of the playlist, 13Q was a real Rocker! From Abba to Kansas and everything in between, the station was exciting to listen to! Here’s a lesson in how to do Top 40 radio the right way!

If its been 33 years since you heard this, you’re not alone and in good company! KULF sounds Bigtime, running a full service AM format and playing all the hits, minus the real hard rock stuff. This sounds NICE! And yes, it would have been nicer had this been a more crisp recording, but this will do. Julie Williams mostly just goes by just Julie. Its sounds like late afternoon. There’s a full newscast by Randy Kendrick. Its all live, and while scoped, you will enjoy hearing those once-overplayed hits by Kenny Rogers, Air Supply and Sheena Easton, along with a rare catch from the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Ernie Brown takes over at 6pm and he gets a couple of breaks in before the end. Comments? Please post below! Courtesy of BigAppleAirchecks!

Listeners to today’s “Todd Schnitt Show” might be somewhat shocked to learn that this M.J. Kelli, is, in fact, the same person! At this point in time, WGH-FM had transitioned from AC WRSR to CHR within the previous year, and while the station sported high energy most of the day outside of morning drive, Kelli makes this simply the hottest CHR I’ve ever heard. This even tops anything I remember hearing on this site or elsewhere of Z-100 New York! Notice Kelli’s use of jingles and talkups into jingles, sped-up effects, phone calls, drop ins… pretty much everything in a classic Top 40 jock’s bag of tricks is heard here, as the aircheck begins a few songs before 9pm, and the callers voting for their favorite song. Then, the Top 9 at 9 Countdown, in its...

Right in the shadow of 9/11, patriotism is at a 50 year high and Johnny Hayes starts out with comments about flags and buying American in two breaks in a row. One could hardly blame him, most of us felt the same way. And perhaps, thats the best part of this short scope of K-Earth 101. I, your webmaster, personally don’t like this particular aircheck. K-Earth sounds contrived. The slogan, “K-Earth 101, Always with at least Twelve in a Row” is spoken so often my ears bleed. And yes, I’ll get yelled at for this, because working radio myself (in the Country format), the consultants pushed and pushed and pushed the 12-in-a-row theme ad nauseum because they always said that listeners would stay with the station that played the most music. But there’s no place for th...

Listen now as Beaver Clever throws himself into a high energy Top 40 radio show. Frankly, its amazing that 99X didn’t beat crosstown, cross-band WABC at its own game right here in ’79, but that distinction was reserved for “Disco 92”. You’ll notice that 99X leans slightly in a Rock direction while playing the Disco hits at this point in time, probably in response to WKTU’s All-Disco format. Alas, nothing was going to de-throne Disco in 1979, but irony is funny… 98.7 would be full blown Urban within five years from this point. Notice the live promo for PD Bumper Morgan filling in for Casey Casem on the Coast to Coast countdown – more evidence that 99X (and RKO General) jocks were world class talent and in great demand. But, according to Rob Si...

Big Apple Airchecks presents: 55 minutes of a broadcast day on WXLO 99X! Part one posted a very long time ago and we’re just getting around to putting up the other orignal, which is in better shape remastered than the original. This begins with Rob Sisco and its a wonderful slice of how radio was done in 1979 – live, 24-7 with real people behind the microphones. Sure as heck better than the robots and computers of today! Listen to this all the way through and ask yourself, Bobby Rich (corrected) do a damn good job running 99X at this time or what? The station is mainly an album station at this point, but clearly still playing Top 40. And listen for the interesting Top of Hour Legal ID sung for WXLO at the end of this. Was WXLO headed for the AC barn? Well, it did, before RKO Ge...

Bumper Morgan is the first voice you hear on this hour long scope, then Bobby Rich starts off this particular show, in his words, “broadcasting from a brand new studio that’s never been used before”. And with that, this hilarious show which probably unscoped ran about two hour kicks off with Meat Loaf the special guest DJ. You really must listen to this whole aircheck because the funniest parts are toward the end. Mr. Loaf (as Bobby Rich affectionately calls him) does everything – with some help – that a DJ would do, from reading commercials to announcing records to taking phone calls. Listen to how he handles a call from a woman who swears Meat Loaf is a band and that Todd Rundgren sings in it!! Many years ago, we had a sister site which featured nothing but ...

Continuing where Part 1 left off, Scott Shannon is given a huge welcome as the new host of the WCBS-FM Morning show! WCBS-FM has come a long way from the days when “Jack” put an end to the Oldies of the 50s and 60s, and what wasn’t even mentioned on this first day (why would they?), there once was another ‘Shannon’ in the building – Bob Shannon, who re-signed on the Classic Hits version of CBS-FM only a few short years ago. Now, things have come full circle. Joe Nolan gives a beautiful welcome to his former Z100 partner. Joe’s CBS-FM’s Traffic guy. More antics from Weather guy “Mr. G”. This portion of the Scott Shannon in the Morning show becomes a bit more music intensive after the 9:00 hour, but that doesn’t stop him from ...