Big Apple Airchecks
Lee Sherwood, 93 KHJ Los Angeles | January 29, 1981
Perhaps the most striking part of this world premiere COUNTRY KHJ aircheck of Lee Sherwood is just how smooth he was! RKO General couldn’t have picked a better person to take the helm of a new Country music station. Lee Sherwood just oozed family-friendly Urban Cowboy Country. The New 93 KHJ, despite being a Country station, had all the elements that make up a good Adult Contemporary station. Full-Service elements such as News, Sports, Traffic and Accuweather ™ all blended in nicely, giving the station a good all around feel. Lee Marshall was the news anchor, Dr. Joe Sobel was the Accuweather ™ Meteorologist, and with that lineup, I was struck by just how good it sounded! Credits: Note that this long aircheck comes to us thanks to the generocity of Ed Salomon, by way of ...
Donnie Simpson, 93.9 WKYS “Disco 93” Washington DC | 1979
This blows by in less than four minutes but is a good representation of what evolved into the Washington DC market’s biggest Urban station. Seemingly every major market had one by the time 1979 was over. A Disco station. If anything, this represents the format that put the final nail in AM Top 40’s coffin. By the time most of these Disco stations moved on to a different format, around 1981, most of the AM Top 40 stations had given up on the format. Speaking of format. Not to get too far off the subject, but “Disco 93” did what many ‘disco’ stations did when the genre fell out of vogue, and that was to morph into an Urban station. So, since about 1981 or so, WKYS has been the leading Urban station in Washington DC, sharing it’s audience with WPGC...
Composite: WFUN (Miami) Jocks | 1968
Matt’s done it again! Here’s a 25 minute scope of 790 WFUN as heard in the heyday of its popularity in the late 60s. WFUN was in very close competition with Miami then-giant WQAM, a battle which WFUN eventually lost and led to its demise after being sold in 1976 and changing format. Alan Polasky owns a tribute website to the station, www.wfuntribute.com – “Fun 79”. There, he describes what led to WFUN’s final days as a Top 40 radio station: “Top 40 on AM became more competitive, too, when WINZ briefly joined the fray. Ultimately many listeners moved to FM for music, and in 1976, WFUN was sold and became News/Talk WNWS and later middle-of-the-road station WMRZ, followed by WAXY which was brokered talk. Now “790 The Ticket” sports is the ...
Lee Sherwood, 93 KHJ Los Angeles | January 23, 1981
I wanna pay somebody’s rent this morning….. Please make a donation in any amount to help defray our hosting costs “The New” 93 KHJ was just two months old when this recording was made. There is a bit of history mentioned on the news (read by Lee Marshall) with the story of the Iranian Hostages being released this particular day, and that day in history, “Gone With The Wind” was released. Country or not, I *LIKE* Lee Sherwood. Lee has a great set of pipes, he is very knowledgeable about current events but most of all, he has a WARM personality that comes across on the air. Lee puts on a good morning show. Better, in my humble opinion, than a lot of modern radio people. Before KHJ, he had a long radio career that took him all over the coun...
Composite: 1400 WFEC Harrisburg | May 12, 1977
Your election headquarters for Primary ’78 is 14 F E C Somewhere out there, there’s an aircheck or two of the CHR “Hot Hits” version of WFEC, which was a smokin’ hot radio station for a short time. Now, for your listening enjoyment, from Contributor Ed Salomon by way of Big Apple Airchecks is this very rare, COUNTRY version of “14 FEC”!. There are no jingles, virtually no sweepers or any other imaging elements, but lots of compelling Country titles, such as, “It’s All Wrong, but It’s Allright”, “Out of my Head, Back in my Bed” and “The Power of Positive Drinkin'”. Telescoped, of course, as we aren’t able to bring you full length airchecks. This runs quite long. Over an hour, lets just say that. ...
Danuta, 94.9 KBZT San Diego | Sometime 1980
I wanna remind you about K-Best 95’s series of Friday Night Stereo TV Concerts… 1980 was a year of change in the radio landscape. FM radio was overtaking AM in many markets and San Diego was no exception. Heard here, about a year after changing formats and call letters from a Middle Of the Road format as KLRO-FM, K-Best 95 was doing its best as a Gold-Based, Adult Contemporary station, the music sounding similar to stations like 97.1 WYNY New York, 98.5 WROR Boston, and so forth. Heard here in this recording is Danuta, and I hope the spelling is correct. I can find virtually nothing about her on the web or in the history (what there is of it) of K-Best 95. Hopefully, someone knows and will point her towards our website.
Mike Sheridan, 710 WGBS Miami | April 21, 1978
…Music Radio 7000, the new WGBS… Got the music you wanna hear… When was the last time you heard a complete overnight music show six-hour Condensed down to 39 and a half minutes, scoped, here’s the full six hour live show that Mike Sheridan did – recorded from the station skimmer tape machine! As the story goes, supposedly the reason that WGBS re-branded to call itself Music Radio Seven-Thousand was… well I guess, probably an act of desperation. They wanted a station name that was longer than Y-100* A few personal observations. First, I like Mike Sheridan. He’s up overnight, hopefully with a 32 oz coffee mug! Does the show almost perfect, with only a couple of hiccups, toward the end. Second… the format. This station sounds like a number of AM...
Charlie Cook, 1050 WHN New York | November 7, 1977
Charlie Cook is heard holding down the overnight on the old 1050 WHN, Running 30 minutes, scoped, you get the feel of how “New York’s Country Station” sounded in the second half of the 1970s. Notice what Country songs were being played. Much different than the fare being heard in the 80s, just a few years into the future. There was also an obvious lack of commercial content on WHN overnight, except some live reads. As the aircheck moves along, there is a bit more content, Cook is doing some sports updates and promoting upcoming music – all important to note, since along with open request lines, this is proof of a time long before voice-tracking. And, of course, its all in glorious AM! You can hear a station composite done by Billboard ™ Magazine from May of 19...
“Magic” Matt Craig, New Year’s Eve at “Studio 108”, 107.9 WEBE Westport | December 31, 2004
I am the original and STILL Amazing Magic Matt Craig! We might be a tad early in posting a “First Night” broadcast, but this is a great representation of how Saturday Nights sounded on WEBE 108 for many years. Donated by Big Apple Airchecks (Matt “Craig” Seinberg is the owner), here’s the first, of a new collection from our largest contributor! Curator’s Notes: Matt Craig is broadcasting live, on location from the YMCA. It’s also New Year’s Eve and you can feel the excitement in the air and on the air. Here’s a nearly flawless “Studio 108”, and a VERY happy Matt Craig, who was honored to ring in the New Year on the air… Isn’t that in every jock’s bucket list?
Alison Steele, “The New Groove” – 102.7 WNEW-FM New York | February 11, 1969
“You need a nice, hot, cup of coffee Curator’s Notes: Perhaps the only thing that would make this absolutely perfect, as airchecks go, would be if it was unscoped. Technically, I could probably get away with that, since songs recorded before 1972 don’t require royalty payments. One day I’ll investigate that. Meantime, listen to the jock known affectionately as “The Night Bird”. Alison Steele is on the air on a cold Winter night where the mayor has issued a state of emergency because of a Winter storm that blew through. What you will NOT hear in this recording is anything that remotely resembles a hit song, or even a song you’d hear on a Classic Rock station. Much of her music selection is Jazz, Jazz-Rock Fusion and some album tracks w...
John Lanagan, 1220 WGAR Cleveland | February 4, 1977
“What a pain in your assets!” Curator’s Notes: Every time I hear an aircheck of WGAR from the late seventies, it’s always tight, the jocks funny and the music is right on the mark. One would expect no less from the flagship station of Nationwide Communications – you know, the insurance company.. Now, for this one, we squeeze about 12 and a half minutes out of. The quality is so-so. This has a lot of white noise, which, despite my best efforts, I decided to keep in, instead of take the white noise out and have a recording that sounds like digital artifacts. So, its there. And realistically, one could be listening from Toledo and hear the same white noise. So it’s a throwback to yesteryear in many respects.
New England Radio Composite | April 1980
Curator’s Notes: This composite is a collection of various airchecks of stations in the 6 state New England region. One of the real joys for a radio listener up there is, There are a lot of medium market stations, all within earshot of the major cities of Boston, Hartford, Providence, and, while not technically in New England, Albany NY. If you liked radio in the Northeast, or lived anywhere in the central part of Massachusetts where atmospheric conditions varied so much that one could catch stations from all over New England, this will be a real treat for you! Please consider a generous donation to this website for site support. You won’t find many things available for free on the web these days, so take the time to support your favorite website! Use the Donate button below...
