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Johnny Dark was one of the Top 40 jocks at The NEW WNNNNNNNNBC in the late 70s and is probably best known in this role, but before New York City called, Dark was heard in Boston at 68 WRKO when it was a very hot Top 40 station. Sounding VERY contemporary, RKO has the same 1976 jingle package (TM, I believe) as sister KHJ in Los Angeles. Just ONE shotgun jingle but quite rhythmic, used a couple of times an hour. The TOH here is a spoken produced work instead of the Johnny Mann Top Hour Jingle – touting the station’s role as New England’s number ONE Hit Music Station!

This station really cooks! RKO was probably in it’s best phase (even though purists still look at the period 1967-1970 as it’s best). It really sounds hot. Johnny Dark is in great form here, and while there’s not much more than 3 minutes of audio to sample, you’ll hear him hit the post each time!

Thanks to new contributor Steve Bleecker.

Bob Gilmore is proving to be a great source of airchecks – having recorded thousands himself, his are original recordings of vintage radio. This one’s no exception. Check out Bob’s website, www.bobgilmore.com.

Charlie Van Dyke is one of America’s foremost voices, heard on TV, Radio and even in Movie Trailers… but for most of the 70s and 80s, his career was spent behind the mic of some of the best Top 40 stations ever heard. WRKO, by 1979 is feeling the pressure from FM – WVBF, in particular, and unbeknownst to most people, is in it’s final year as a Top 40 station. I consider this the best that RKO sounded, even better than the 60s Drake incarnation.

Our good friend Bob Gilmore returns with another fantastic aircheck of old!

It seems kind of odd that WRKO, a new station at this point, having flipped to Top 40 from the former WNAC earlier in the year, would be counting down the Top 300 Best of All Time – I mean, the Rock & Roll era only began 12 years prior… but I digress. J.J. Jeffrey starts out counting down the hits from #232 to #230 before handing the reigns to Chuck Knapp. Chuck continues with songs #229 – #220. The recording ends in the middle of a commercial break with Knapp doing a live read for Surf Music.

This is CLASSIC Drake Top 40! Cue the Johnny Mann Singers, and the original WRKO Jingles. All the formatics are in place, Jeffrey and Knapp are puking (not in a literal sense, puking in this vernacular, describes a way of speaking on the radio… a throaty, high pitched inflective voice that frankly, irritates like fingers on a blackboard.), which drives me crazy!, and the commercial breaks are filled with businesses that no longer exist, or are memorable for many reasons. And, speaking of live commercial reads, there are LOTS of them, and lots of live “tags” – live reads that the deejay would say at the end of a recorded commercial which was part of the spot.

For those of you wondering what radio really sounded like; what the roots of Top 40/CHR radio are, this is a history lesson you won’t learn in school. WRKO today might irritate its listeners with it’s uber-conservative talk shows (and Howie Carr ain’t no Top 40 jock, that’s for sure)… but this is what “The Big 68″ was in it’s glory years, at the very beginning. And there’s just no comparison to now from then. We hope you enjoy!

In the history of Boston radio, perhaps no other Program Director was as successful or famous as “Sunny” Joe White. Hired by Ritchie Balsbaugh to launch Disco “Kiss 108″ in 1978 from the ashes of Beautiful Music WWEL-FM 107.9, White took Boston’s first Disco station straight to number 1. By late 1979, as the Disco fad faded into oblivion, White took Kiss in a new direction, and by mid-1980, Kiss was straight-ahead Top 40, where it remains as of this writing.

Sunny Joe White’s success with Kiss 108 really is unparallelled, at least from a longevity standpoint. While the decade of the 70s saw WRKO as the mainstream Top 40 outlet, RKO never achieved the ratings or fame that Kiss did. At one point in the 1983, Kiss OWNED the CHR format in a four station race that included WHTT, WZOU, Kiss, and even for a time, WROR 98.5, which tried the format for a while in ’83 before returning to AC.

But this ‘check is from 1989. While personnel changes and a loss of CHR competition would mark the 90s, Kiss is still going strong, in a mainstream battle between itself and crosstown WZOU Z-94. White, in addition to PD was also the night jock, in a position that he would hold a little while longer before a dispute with Balsbaugh would force him out in the 90s, only for him to wind up at Fairbanks’ WVBF.

Kiss really cooks here. White is returning from vacation and is having a lot of fun. The music rotation leans a bit more rhythmic, but the Rolling Stones make an appearance, as does Starship and a few other Rock dinosaurs.

Runs 7:09, scoped. Courtesy of Robyn Watts and “East Coast Airchecks”

A staple of Boston radio since 1979, Loren Owens and Wally Brine have occupied the morning slot on the 105.7 FM frequency ever since taking over from another Boston legend, Dale Dorman, on the old WVBF. Through four different formats and three call letter changes, Loren and Wally have remained remakably consistent and remain Boston’s longest running morning show, second in history only to Carl DeSuze, who did mornings at WBZ for over 40 years.

While relatively recent (at over 10 years old, is this really ‘recent’?), this ‘check from 1998 showcases both the talent and the format at 105.7, which at this time was still an attempt at re-creating the former WROR at 98.5 (Now WBZ-FM “The Sports Hub”) from the early 1980′s. It was a good format, which included, for a time, former WROR (98.5) jocks Joe Martelle and Jimmy Roberts (I remember him as Jim Roberts in the 80s).

This is definitely worth a listen for the humor and for a format that was quite enjoyable to listen to.

What teens, do you suppose, knew that in 1999, one of their favorite DJs was in his 60s? Dale Dorman is now semi-retired and doing weekends at WODS, but at the time of this airchecks, he was at the tail end of a 20+ year run as the Afternoon Drive jock at Boston’s “Kiss-108 FM”.

Dorman is one of those jocks who made it big in the RKO chain of stations back when personality really mattered. Once the Morning Show host at WRKO in it’s top 40 heyday, Dorman also spent time doing West Coast top 40 at KFRC San Francisco in the late 60s, and after WRKO was the morning guy at Fairbanks’ WVBF in it’s “F-105″ incarnation.

Over 9 minutes scoped from the original 30, here’s Uncle Dave, STILL doing top 40 and sounding like he’s relevant and loves the music despite being generations older than his main audience. And perhaps the point of this is that great talent still commands an audience regardless of his or her age, and that just because a certain approach appears outdated, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still work. For radio management, there’s an obvious lesson in this. And you know what it is

For the third time this year, an iconic rock radio station in a major city is shifting formats: Boston’s 104.1 WBCN, “The Rock of Boston,” (left) the airwaves on August 13th. The rock station had been broadcasting for 41 years. According to Billboard.biz, WBCN was a victim of CBS Radio’s desire to launch an all-sports talk radio station on the FM dial. The company’s Adult Top 40 Mix station (made) the jump from 98.5 to 104.1, with the sports station taking over at 98.5. WBCN (lives) on off the radio waves as a Web and HD-radio broadcast.

- Rolling Stone Magazine, July 16, 2009

Part four of this four-day retrospective concentrates on PM Drive. Bradley Jay is an in-studio guest, as is Ken Shelton (continued from the previous segment), and others. You’ll hear more WBCN Lunch songs, lots of promos for “The Sports Hub”, the new Sports station WBZ-FM 98.5, some mention of the new WBCN format going to 98.5 HD2 and WBCN Progressive going to 98.5 HD3… but oddly enough, thus far in their broadcast, no mention of WBMX taking over as “Mix 104.1″.

Meanwhile, Boston.com, the Boston Globe’s online presence, has put up an interview with former WBCN Morning Mattress personality Charles Laquidera. They allow sharing, so, let me post this interview for all to watch… from Maui! Never let it be said that radio jocks don’t get to live the good life sometimes!

And now, WBCN Boston says goodbye – Part 4..

If you’ve landed here and are wondering what happened to WBCN’s internet stream, which they said would remain along with the WBCN Rock format on WBZ-FM HD2? Well, click this link. It points to wbcn.com, which CBS has turned into an information page along with ‘listen live’, and a link page to the other Boston area CBS radio stations.

In this part you’ll hear more of Ken Shelton and his recollections, part 2 of a long, live segment with Howard Stern, best wishes recorded by artists like Bono, and more. Runs almost two hours, scoped.

With very special thanks to contributor Jeff Lehman, we are proud to be the only place to chronicle the end of an era: A four-day celebration of the “Rock of Boston” WBCN.

The history of WBCN is described in various places on the web, but the technical and historical aspects of 104.1 can be viewed HERE, courtesy of The Archives @ BostonRadio.org.. We provide this historical link because we feel that the history behind WBCN is as important as the entertainment value of the airchecks featured in this series.

After 41 years as THE Rock station to turn to (some would argue that it was the first 30 years that actually counted), owner CBS, inc. pulled the plug on the format in a move that saw sister station call letters and format of WBMX 98.5 (formerly WROR, WRKO-FM) moved to the 104.1 frequency, a format change on 98.5 to Sports with new calls WBZ-FM, and a format which resurrected the old WBCN ‘Freeform’ radio days of the 60s & 70s placed on the WZLX-HD3 sub-channel (100.7), and the then-current WBCN Rock format re-started on WBZ-FM-HD2 sub-channel.

Here at airchexx, our mission isn’t to describe the stations’ history, but to feature the captured audio for posterity. This is the first in a multi-part series that will showcase the last four days of programming on WBCN 104.1, WBMX 98.5, along with the first few hours of programming of WBMX “Mix 104.1″ and WBZ-FM 98.5 “The Sports Hub”.

The music and commercials have been edited out and only programming content remains, in order to comply with the various copyright laws concerning current commercials and recorded music (for those of you who may be CBS lawyers ). Still, segment one, 3 hours of the original 5 hour file, run about 1 hour 24 minutes long.

There are plenty of programming highlights in this first segment, beginning with a segment of “The Big Mattress” – the Charles Laquidera morning show from sometime in the 80s… then Bradley Jay hosts the rest of the show, with segments of past programs from Ken Shelton… guest disc jockeys Bill Murray (yes, THE Bill Murray the actor) and former jock Albert O.

Stay tuned… there’s plenty more to come in the four day celebration of the history of WBCN – “The Rock Of Boston”

Thanks again to Robyn Watts for this four minute flashback to J.J. Wright’s afternoon drive show on Richie Balsbaugh’s ORIGINAL Kiss station (not Clear Channel’s copycats). Wright sounds great on this all-too-short recording. This is from an era of great sweepers and very tasty jingles. Wish there was more…

This tape is from one of many in a long series of “East Coast Airchecks” – a popular subscription aircheck service from that era.

Al Gates is featured in this excellent copy of then-new Bill Drake WRKO. Interesting items on this recording are reverb, which sounds fantastic and not overdone and a simulcast with its FM sister station on 98.5. Historic mentions (Bostonians will especially remember) Curt Gowdy doing sports… although he’s not heard, just announced during news. Gates announces song positions in the Now 30.

WRKO is a HOT station at this point in it’s history, having launched earlier that year and you can feel the excitement in the air.

In trying to find an appropriate photo to post with Dick Summer’s mug (one should never really try to do that… aren’t publicity photos copyrighted or something)… I realized that there are more words written about this true radio pioneer than most seekers of broadcast history would imagine. Summer was not a ‘Top 40′ innovator. He didn’t care about the one liner and the same lame hit played every hour. No, Dick Summer was a man who wanted to really connect with his listeners. His concept of radio, was a music show featuring album cuts from popular artists whose songs fit the mood of whatever the topic of discussion was, which in the 60s and early 70s was usually romance, to go with the theme of his after midnight “Lovin’ Touch” program on WBZ. Summer worked at WBZ Boston, then at WNEW and WNEW-FM New York, returning to Boston later to program WMEX. Later, toward the end of the 1970s, Dick Summer would reprise his “love” theme on WYNY New York, but its this long running first stint at WBZ that most fans remember as his best.

Contributor Alan Vesely describes how this recording came about:

When I was 15, back in the summer of 1966, my folks moved into the house they still call home in Manitowoc, WI. My Dad took the single car garage that came with the property, cut it in half, stretched it out and made a double garage out of it. He helped me insulate the attic, put in a kerosene heater and make a little den for myself. My buddies and I, lacking imaginatioin as we prepared to enter our sophmore year in high school, named the place the Wisconson Club, after the local beer we were drinking at the time. Over the next seven years, through high school and college, I spent most of my summer nights there.

The wee hours were spent listening to Dick Summer apply the Loving Touch on WBZ. From this distance I cannot recollect why, but one night I hit the record button on my Teac reel to reel. Dick Summer begins by soliciting calls from naysayers. Dick Summer took three calls. They had nothing nay to say. I think you’ll agree, these conversations captured the essence of what the Loving Touch was all about.

After the second caller, I turned the recorder off, but not the radio. When I heard the third caller, the most extraordinary of all, I regreted my haste. I hit the record button once more and caught the rest of the show.

As bad as the world sometimes seems to be, you just know it’s at least a tad bit better because these folks were, and I hope still are, in it.

Thanks Mr. Summer.

There’s a good reason why we don’t feature many clips of Oldies stations… usually, they’re dull, boring and play the same songs over and over with very little personality. WODS Boston is an exception to this. Like New York’s 101.1 WCBS-FM, this CBS-O&O has remained true to the personality oriented top-40 style of radio that we love to remember so much, from morning guy, legendary Dale Dorman, to J.J. Wright and others who graced the airwaves of Boston radio.

While this is NOT a local WODS guy, Tom Kent’s syndicated “Hall of Fame Coast to Coast” show is a perfect fit for a station that, even in ’04, still unabashedly touted the fact that they played the music of the 50s, 60s and 70s. It’s different now in ’08, with the playlist now skewed more toward a target of music from ’75-’85, but the personalities remain true.

This aircheck is a scoped 50 minutes of an original 3 hour program, the audio quality is absolutely PERFECT, recorded off the air close to the transmitter. TK is simply AWESOME, with an intensity level and set of jingles that’ll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. This is really, a MUST LISTEN!

Here’s a refreshing look at a great Boston morning show which has been around for almost 3 decades… almost as long as crosstown Loren & Wally.

Matt Seigal has been at Kiss 108 since the end of the Disco era… essentially the entire time that WXKS-FM has been doing CHR! This is good. Don’t look for music from this era, however. You won’t find much at all. This is a ‘Best Of’ program, probably aired on a Saturday morning.

Aircheck courtesy of brand-new contributor Rob “Hollywood” Rhodes, who was an engineer at Kiss 108 during this time period.

In all of it’s history, RKO General’s WROR (98.5) may be best remembered for the personality driven Adult Contemporary format launched just weeks before this recording was made. Out of the ashes of what was Boston’s first full-time Oldies station came this – a station where listeners were known to call and request WROR’s “I’d Rather Be In Boston” jingles!

Boasting a revamped playlist and a staff of personalities whom are still talked about today, WROR took the market by storm. Morning man Joe Martelle is best remembered for his “Saturday Night At The Oldies” show that ran for over a decade… he’s still revered today. Jim Roberts did middays. He would return to the NEW WROR when it launched on 105.7 in the mid-90s. PM Driver Larry Justice was well known to Bostonians from his days at WBZ “Radio 103″ in the early 70s, and would stay at WROR for almost two years before hanging it up, but making for one of the best afternoon shows in the market.

Heard here, is Frank Kingston Smith (WRKO, WBZ, WABC, WVBF), doing morning drive, since Joe Martelle hadn’t quite arrived just yet. Then, later in the aircheck, Martelle makes his appearance, but it’s not the morning show, its a Thursday night. You’ll even hear a promo for the “new” Saturday Night At The Oldies show, to make its debut the following weekend.

One could speculate that had RKO General simply moved the WRKO (AM) format over to 98.5, it could have remained a powerhouse Top 40 station, one which could have easilly rivalled the success of crosstown WXKS-FM “Kiss-108″… and indeed, in 1983, WROR DID try personality-driven top 40, but it was too late, as by that time, WHTT 103.3 was already doing the format, along with Kiss 108 and WCOZ 94.5 was just about to enter the race as WZOU. Thus, with all the entrenched competition, WROR ended up reverting to AC by October of ’83.

But this is the beginning, in January of 1980. And for the next 12 1/2 years, this would be THE at work station to listen to, one that many of it’s fans say, was the best middle-of-the-road pop station Boston ever had.

Yes, the disco era is in full swing, and WRKO is doing its part to burn a hole through the genre… but there’s plenty of Rock to be found on this Christmas day 1978. True ’nuff, this is a scoped presentation but you will hear the artist titles, and promotions for picture disk giveaways, concerts and more, with Mike Addams. Notice, there’s no Christmas music? Interesting.

It’s just a typical day at the legendary 68 WRKO – this aircheck very representative of the late 70s when we all were in a different state of mind.

This ‘check includes a ’60 second news update’ – that’s the way they used to present news from about 1976-1978.

Continuing the broadcast of WVBF from January (we suspect the 15th), 1979, here’s midday guy JoJo Kincaid. Nevermind that he’s one of your webmaster’s radio heroes from my youth, talk about talent! WVBF is still giving away free money, and hopes listeners will call in to say how horrible AM radio is…. because this is FM RADIO!

I’m still amazed at the amount of effort was exerted to get listeners to tune out the big AM stations… WVBF’s main competition during the 70s was, of course, 68 WRKO. But since WBZ (1030) was and even today still IS the reigning king of Boston radio, it was in WVBF’s best interest (along with the rest of Boston’s FM stations) to move the audience off the AM band. And, it worked. Eventually.

This is another really great look at WVBF. The salad days would continue, for the next year or so, but while FM radio would take the market by storm by 1981, the writing was almost on the wall for WVBF in ’79.

Its the dead of a New England Winter and Dale Dorman is doing wakeups on Fairbanks Communication’s WVBF! Kiss 108 just arrived a few months before this – so, note the conspicuous lack of Disco music (there are a few, but spaced well apart).

Today is inauguration day for new Massachusetts Governor Ed King (who was a nice change from the previous governor, tax-aholic Mike Dukakis). It’s colder than a witch’s you-know-what outside, and Pete Falconi not only does news for WVBF, he does live broadcasts. And, just to prove that there really was a guy named Joe Giotta (you’ll recognize the VOICE, anyway, on today’s ‘FLASHBACK’ syndicated Classic Rock show), he’s ALSO a WVBF newsman. Extra credit if you know the name Giotta goes by today.

From the final year of ‘VBF as a Top 40 station, Dorman would soon find himself out of a job, as Loren Owens and Wally Brine would take over the morning slot later in ’79, and stay through several format changes to become the longest running morning show (on the same frequency) in Boston history…. they are STILL there (see 105.7 WROR’s Website). By 1980, Dorman would be heard doing afternoons on Kiss-108, and by 1981, WVBF would morph into a very unremarkable, very SOFT AC known simply as FM 105. It sucked then, but in ’79 it was STILL an awesome station!

Here’s probably the best overall composite of 70′s WRKO featured on this site. From January ’79, it starts with Sandy Weaver and continues on through this cold Winter day, where a major winter storm is brewing.

Noteables: Where are all the jingles? You won’t hear even one, but you will hear a big Steve Martin promotion. No reverb (RKO never really used any), a very tight presentation, and WOW… talk about a lot of Disco music! WVBF, on FM was already ahead of the power curve… disco was in it’s final year and ‘VBF ditched the Disco about 3 months before this aircheck.

WRKO here was about a year from a format change to AC, but a few elements were creeping in already… Jordan Rich did weather (Rich has his own talk show on WBZ now), and RKO was doing a flashback show. Charlie Van Dyke, IIRC, would take over as PD and take over the morning show in just a few weeks from this aircheck, in a last ditch effort to save the Top 40 format.

WRKO really did sound good during this period (you won’t think so if you hated disco). The format was well constructed and executed and everything is ultra-tight. But it certainly was the end of an era.

Courtesy of Matt Seinberg, here’s a wonderful look back at Boston’s KISS 108 in it’s prime! Its a mid-summer’s day and you’ll hear Matty In The Morning, J.J. Wright, Dale Dorman and JoJo Kincaid!

Audio quality is somewhat marginal, but you’ll enjoy this otherwise excellent representation of Kiss 108 at the start of Boston’s CHR war with rivals WHTT HitRadio 103 (Now WODS) and 94.5 WZOU (Now WJMN) which got it’s start later that year from the ashes of then AC WCOZ.

Sitting home at work a few nights ago WXKS-FM was coming in in near HD quality (the HD indicator was flashing on my Boston Acoustics receiver), which is pretty good for being 75 miles from Boston, and I thought it would be a good time to make a new recording of Kiss-108.

It’s the Jackson Blue night show on Kiss, and while this isn’t the Sunny Joe White days, compare the old personality oriented Kiss with this lightning fast presentation of today’s hit music with the old days, and I swear there is still some good left in radio.

You may or may not enjoy the music of today (I do), but you’ll appreciate the formatics of this RARE live night show on the FIRST and BEST ‘Kiss’ station… even if Clear Channel Communications trademarked the ‘Kiss’ name some years back!

Thanks to contributor Jeff Lehman, we have this TV spot from then newly-hatched WJMN “Jammin’ 94-5″ – a hip hop / R&B station that grew out of what was a great CHR, WZOU.

Here’s the first in a series contributed by Jeff Lehman. The history of 105.7 is rather storied, and WCLB was the station formerly known as WVBF (Fairbanks Communications). The station’s history is documented at the Boston Radio Archives.

We’re talking a Boston radio LEGEND! Dale Dorman’s career in Boston started at WRKO, having come from San Francisco’s ‘Big 610′ KFRC. After WRKO, he was the morning guy for a time at Fairbanks Communications’ WVBF – in it’s subdued top 40 incarnation as F-105. By 1981, Dorman was firmly entrenched as Kiss-108′s afternoon guy, a position he held until 2004 – where he was considered by many to be the oldest Top 40 deejay left in America!

Enough about that. Dale can be heard now at WODS “Oldies 103″. We can think of no other best suited to play the music that he knows all so well…

…”Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa, and his name is Greater Media!”

Now on to part two of this simultaneous aircheck. Just for fun I thought it would be cool to put the 99.5 frequency on the right, and the 102.5 frequency on the left and hear it that way… but, well.. not. Way too confusing hahaha!

Here’s the recording of 102.5 for your listening pleasure. And, yes. We are going to make you listen to 20 minutes of classical music going into the arrival of WKLB Country 102.5! It only helps to build excitement… plus, Classical is certainly in the public domain so we’re quite sure we’re safe on this one.

This is exactly how it sounded at noon Friday December 1!

Please, LISTEN to this entire aircheck. WKLB arrives right on time after the National Anthem, and Carolyn Cruze (a fixture on WKLB for so many years) does a fantastic job moving and serving up songs on the Country Cafe with LOTS of calls. This part has to be scoped, but it moves along quickly. It’s GREAT radio. And… you’ll LOVE the kickoff at noon!

Writeup forthcoming -

While I usually try to have a comment to go along with things we post here, the explanation of the WKLB/WCRB frequency swap is far too involved for me to finish writing at the moment. It will come, and we invite visitors to leave their own comments below. This is a major event in Boston, one that has taken over a year to accomplish.

Our thanks to contributor Bob Nelson for this BREAKING aircheck!

Here’s the first part, monitoring of 99.5

The date on this aircheck is unkown (we suspect ’91 or so), but Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks dug it up special for us…
Sunny Joe White was what this was labelled but … hey, we don’t hear him, except perhaps a cameo in the beginning.

Lots of high energy packed into about 4 minutes.

For the fans, this is VINTAGE Z-94! Across town, CBS had just thrown in the towel on Hitradio 103 WHTT, moving it to AAA right around the time of this aircheck. As you’ve read elsewhere on this site, WZOU nearly went back to rock, but gave CHR new life when their crosstown rival cashed out.

Here’s two capable jocks with all the great formatics the 80s version of this station was known for. Compare this to our 1991 aircheck and see how far the station had fallen by that time.

It was the waning days of CHR at 94.5. WZOU would eventually morph into Urban WJMN “Jammin’ 94.5, which is still on the air today. Very music intensive, much less talk and personality oriented than it used to be, you can tell that this station is in it’s final days. While she doesn’t say her name once in this 45 minute original (it’s scoped here, of course), it sounds like Julie Deveraux. Perhaps someone knows exactly.

You’ll enjoy the jingles, used fairly regularly each hour, and the imaging voice of the great Ernie Anderson. Even toward the end, WZOU still sounded great!

It almost went back to Rock. WZOU was at a crossroads in ’86, that is, until CBS’ HitRadio 103 WHTT threw in the towel and flipped, first to AAA as ‘Quality Rock’ WMRQ, then to the long standing and current Oldies 103 WODS. So, it was that by 1987, WZOU was in full CHR glory, with it’s only competition being WXKS ‘Kiss 108′.

Brian Pierce sent in this aircheck of his show during this period, and honestly we wish it were longer. At 2:43 in length, this must be his demo tape. This, gang, is GREAT CHR from the heyday of FM Top 40!

We’re going to try out a new feature here on Airchexx. With the advent of video publishing sites like YouTube, a number of radio related video clips have made their way online. Every Wednesday we’ll spotlight a couple of these clips for some quick midweek fun.

First up we go back to Boston with a commercial for CHR 94.5 WZOU. Looks to be from about 1988ish.

Now, from the 50kw Boston blowtorch reaching 38 states, Dick Summer’s legendary night show on mid-60s WBZ!

The history of WBZ is a long, storied one reaching back to the beginnings of commercial broadcasting. Only the second licensed station in the US (although not in it’s inevitable form), WBZ was generally a pop station, first in the golden age of radio (pop in the respect that it ran the popular programs and music of the day, having been a part of the NBC ‘Red’ network in the 40s), and later, as Boston’s second top 40 station, lasting until 1966.

Smack in the middle of WBZ’s top 40 era was Dick Summer. He ruled the nighttime airwaves in Boston and all up and down the eastern seaboard until the station shifted to nighttime talk in the late 60s. Summer’s ‘Nightlife’ show was a mix of music and mystique, as you’ll hear in this aircheck. There were, of course, the top hits of the day with a generous dose of ‘oldies’ from the 50s and earlier in the 60s decade, but Summer adds in some strange radio dramas and talks about men from Mars… the stuff that certainly would fit today’s “Coast to Coast AM with George Noory” ((C) Premier Radio Networks).

Strangely enough, there are no snappy WBZ jingles, few commercials and one frequent PSA about Systic Fibrosis. This show, at least on this tape, is very much just Dick Summer and a stack of records. Fun and interesting listening for those who remember the early to mid-60s.

Thanks to Matt @ BigAppleAirchecks who sent this in over a year ago and we’re just now getting around to posting this. Thanks again, Matt.

Your webmaster has always wondered why it is that radio companies can’t respect heritage call letters. Well, here’s another set of calls that went away in 1992– at least off the 98.5 frequency. WROR was the FM station to WRKO until RKO General was forced to sell off all it’s radio properties. Before WROR they were first WRKO-FM – ARKO-Matic, the automated top forty station in the 60s. Later, it was Boston’s first Oldies station as WROR. In 1980, they went live AC, with some of Boston’s most melodic and historic jingles (JAM’s “I’d Rather Be In Boston” series #1). In 1983 they experimented with CHR using a version of the WLS-FM jingles… but later reverted back to AC, which they stayed until ’92.

WBMX remains to this day on 98.5. The WROR calls were launched on 105.7 when the Country format and calls on 105.7 WKLB moved to 96.9 (and later to 99.5). Confused? There is more information to be learned about this at the Boston Radio Archives site.

New Contributor Stuart Gitlow comments:

The original recording suffered from several issues: my reception of 103 wasn’t
great, the gain was turned up a bit too much (I was just getting used to using dbx), and the tape is 22 years old. All in all though, it’s not too bad.

Since posting, we’ve had numerous corrections and additions which merit posting here. One very interesting description was found in the Archives at the Boston Radio Interest Group.

Emailed courtesy of Paul Connors:

CBS had to sell WEEI-AM 590 in Boston to meet FCC ownership regulations (in 1983, it was still 7-7-7 in a market) so that it could make room for the purchase of Metromedia’s KRLD AM 1080 in Dallas. ‘EEI was the weakst signal (only 5k watts) in CBS group’s
portfolio while KRLD and Dallas represented more powerful signal in a bigger market.

While Metromedia petitioned FCC to keep both KRLD AM and a UHF station(ch.33) in Dallas, it also had agreed to sell KRLD to CBS convinced that FCC would reject their petition. Suprisingly, FCC bought Metromedia’s argument(KRLD was going to produce news and public service programming for the UHF station) and allowed Metromedia to keep both, KRLD and the UHF station, despite one-to-a-market rule. In turn, it spoiled KRLD sale to CBS. At that point it was too late to retain WEEI which was already going to Helen Valerio, of the Papa Ginos’ fame.

13 years later, CBS ended up with KRLD through a swap with SFX. In 1996, CBS traded its longtime oldies signal KKWR/Houston for KRLD.

…So, that’s the story of the ownership changes as per the Boston Radio Archives. We encourage our ‘listeners’ to verify any of our material from Boston there, at www.bostonradio.org.

Now, Connors goes on to add the following to this aircheck:

The date of the call letter change was 3/9/83, not 3/1. WHTT lasted until until 7/7/1986, when the calls were changed to WMRQ. The station was still owned by CBS at the time. As a matter of fact, the station was an O&O when the series of corporate cannibalisms began in the 90′s. The WEEI call letters stayed on 590 until 9/8/1994.

Thought you might like to hear what somebody who was there remembers.
I also remember how I had a cassette deck in the WHTT studio that was hooked up to record WEEI. I used to listen to and write down the Kevin O’Keefe traffic reports, and then read them as my morning show traffic updates! He was in the chopper above Boston for 32 years – 1960-1992!!

Paul Connors

Credit, once again, our good friend Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks for this look at Boston’s legendary 68 WRKO!

No I can’t give you an exact date on this aircheck but we’ll just narrow it down to sometime around August 1979, based on one news item about Windsor Locks (CT) recovering from a tornado. I recall that event and remember seeing the planes flipped over by one of the hangars on the way to Bradley International shortly thereafter. The music kinda gives it away too. One of our listeners will have a better idea (so be sure to post where it says ‘comments’ at the bottom of this post).

This is the same Harry Nelson as heard in our KFRC San Francisco Composite Part 3, but there is a bit of a difference in that Boston’s a bit more laid-back than the city-by-the-bay, and it shows here. This day, Harry’s filling in for Dennis John Bailey (and I suspect he’s programming WRKO at this point, too).

You’ll hear one liners from Harry Nelson, News from Carol Ann Murdoch, and a bunch of tunes from the new Fleetwood Mac album (intros only), since WRKO claims to be the only station in New England with a copy before it’s released…. and Harry Nelson says he locked the studio door to make sure he doesn’t get a cease and desist order from the record company for playing it!

This aircheck is definitely very close to the end of the top 40 era at WRKO… within a year (just a couple of months, actually) it would drop the hits and go soft AC in a downward spiral that would inevitably lead to TalkRadio 68 and a new era of talk legends like Jerry Williams and Gene Burns in the mid-80s… and the not-so-legendary Howie Carr today. But for now lets go back to a fun time – 1979 with Harry Nelson on 68 RKO!

Here’s a very interesting aircheck of Fairbanks Communications’ then recently-retooled WVBF as Top 40 “F-105″. The ‘check starts out with some strainge sounding robot promos (for lack of a better word), then moves into Frank Kingston Smith opening the F-105 Fantasy Parade in Framingham… conducted from the station rooftop.

Sure sounds like they had a fun time. Much of the airstaff is heard on this aircheck including then morning man Dale Dorman! This is the very FIRST aircheck I’ve been able to get my hands on featuring ‘Uncle Dale’ on WVBF so it’s a rare treat!

Audio quality wise, this starts out kinda bad, but quickly improves. Much tape hiss heard in the first 2 minues but by 5 minutes in this is perfectly acceptable, as it might have sounded this way on a tabletop radio had you been listening in ’77.

Jon is these days a national voiceover artist – just go to his website and see what services he has to offer. But, while Jon is definitely a contemporary voice, he’s also definitely one of US – Just listen to these SHORT, but wonderful microscopic-sized QuickChecks from Jon’s days in 70s and 80s-style Top-40 radio!:

* 1977 – Musicradio 68 WMPS Memphis
* 1983 – “All Hit 105″ WAVA Arlington
* 1984 – “Hot Hits” 94.5 WZOU Boston

… more to come from John “Rock & Roll” Anthony shortly!

…don’t bring any kind of fire water into the city!
Salvaged from my personal collection, here’s Mike Demambro on a somewhat subdued WVBF toward the end of the ‘F-105′ era.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and WVBF was in the waning days of Top 40 before going what would be VERY soft AC within a year. Still, listen for all the hits as a Boston legend rang in 1981!

Most notable on this aircheck, jingles which hadn’t been used on WVBF since about 1977. Not sure who made em, but “New England Listens to F-105″ was a great theme for these jingles… thematics, of course, nothing new to Boston. These might have been put on the air in response to 98.5 WROR’s legendary “I’d Rather Be In Boston” jingle series… jingles which literally got requested more than songs!

Recorded just before the ‘original’ WROR at 98.5 flipped to WBMX, Paul Connors is featured here filling in for Joe Cortez. Connors emailed it to us with these comments:

Hi Steve,

Here’s another aircheck for your posting pleasure. It’s me on WROR, Boston on October 13, 1990. That’s the original WROR… at 98.5. I was part-time there for a year or so… originally working for PD Harry Nelson and leaving just after the format flip to Mix 98.5 WBMX in the spring of 1991. The studios were across the street from Fenway Park at the time, along with those of sister station WRKO. I had regular weekend shifts but also filled in a lot on the 10PM-2AM weekday shift. Harry had a nice, tight up tempo AC format going there, and I had a lot of fun executing it. The only negative was negotiating Kenmore Square traffic after a Sox game!

Thanks, Paul!

By the way, for our visitors, the audio quality of this aircheck is so good, we’re providing it for you in two forms: One for people with a luxurious high-speed connection, and one for the rest of us stuck on dialup. Yes its scoped, but it’s in stereo so crank up your speakers and show your co-workers what one of Boston’s best radio stations of all time sounded like – was it really 15 years ago? Wow!

* Dialup connections click HERE to listen!
* High-speed connections click HERE to listen!

Thanks to Paul Connors, we have yet another great clip of him, this time holding down morning drive on HitRadio 103 WHTT!

Paul commented that when he took over mornings, WHTT was in a three-way CHR war with WKXS-FM “Kiss 108″ and 98.5 WROR, which had taken a CHR direction earlier in 1983. By the time of this aircheck, WROR had returned to the AC fold, and 94.5 was still AC WCOZ… a few short months from morphing into “Boston’s Zoo” – WZOU!

WHTT really cooks here! One thing we Bostonians remember were the HitRadio jingles, and honest-to-goodness variety (not diversity) in music. Sadly, it all came to an end in 1986 when CBS blew it up and flipped, first to AAA as WMRQ (those calls eventually went to Hartford) as “Boston’s Quality Rock”, then, 9 months later, to the now legendary Oldies format as WODS “Oldies 103″.

Paul Connors is our newest contributor – so it’s certainly fitting that we take an aircheck straight from the source!

WEEI-FM was a mainstay in the FM ‘Soft Rock’ arena, having been developed by CBS out on the west coast at Los Angeles’ KNX-FM in the 70s. While WEEI-FM in Boston had decent ratings and was highly regarded by audiophiles, CBS brass decided it was time for a change, and in January of 1982, that change was to the newest, hippest version of Top 40 – CHR. Initially, the plan was to slowly transition to CHR out of Soft Rock using many of the old format jocks but as time went on it became evident that new voices needed to be brought in. Paul Connors was one of these new voices.

Heard here, Connors is doing weekends on WEEI-FM, but later, Connors would do the morning show on 103.3 FM. Also, shortly after this aircheck was recorded, CBS would change the call letters from WEEI-FM to WHTT (see WHTT Buffalo, NY) – and a much harder form of CHR would ensue… or, to paraphrase some comments Connor made at our Yahoo! Classicairchecks Group, it SEEMED like the format was harder but it was just the music at that point in time. At any rate, HitRadio 103 has a unique and under-rated position in the history of Boston FM radio.

Total Time: 5:29 | Format: Real Audio G2 | Monaural

We’re re-posting this aircheck because we’ve received more information about it. This was originally donated to Airchexx.com by Steve McVie a couple of years ago. Well, to illustrate the strange twists and paths that some of our materials take in getting to us, the following was sent in from the person who actually recorded it back in ’75 – Jack Kratoville. He writes:

As a freshman at Emerson College in Boston, I was amazed at how many FM stations were automated. Growing up on Long Island, I had never heard automation except for Beautiful Music. Since I possesed a reel to reel recorder, I decided to capture some of these stations one night. My portable radio was susceptible to multi-path, but WVBF and WPRO were clear that night, hence their inclusion. WCGY is featured the most because I couldn’t believe how sloppy they sounded. You could hear the automation “click” between segments. The sign-off was Sunday night at midnight.

The original recording contains more music, slightly longer commercial segments and countless false starts. I left on the General Tire commercial because it was the impropriety of that company that lead to the downfall of RKO Radio.

Thanks,
Jack Kratoville
WLTW New York

Thanks, Jack!

Here’s a composite of a station which was something of a legend – WVBF. The “Electronic Mama”. Stereo 105. The station named for wife-of-the-owner Virginia Brown Fairbanks. It was one of the few live contemporary FM radio stations in Boston and had, some say, somewhat of a cult following.

You’ll hear a bunch of different jocks on this clip, including Ron Robin, Austin In Boston and Harvey Wharfield (briefly at the end), and LOTS of jingles – some of the most unique you’ll ever hear anywhere.

Click HERE to Listen!

Jackson Armstrong seems to be one of airchexx.com’s favorites – his name shows up in our search page almost as frequently as Dan Ingram – and little wonder why! One of the fastest talkers ever, Armstrong has a long history of gracing radio stations with his mouth, one of them being WMEX Boston.

I found this on a tape in that large, annonymous contribution received around Christmas. I’ve been posting from this one tape for the past two weeks. There’s something like 300 more tapes like it just waiting to be discovered.

Here’s a young Jackson Armstrong with vocal cords engaged – certainly revving up WMEX – which at this time was in hot pursuit of WRKO. This aircheck literally rolls along at light speed! Listen how Armstrong plays the Rolling Stones jingle, then never misses a beat in ‘fixing’ it. You’ll also hear those custom PAMS jingle cuts exclusively for WMEX. The “Good Guys” were definitely cookin’ in Boston in ’68!

WRKO airchecks are relatively hard to come by, so this is a treat. Here’s J.J. Jeffrey on The Big 68 playing the hits on a Golden Weekend. It’s still the Bill Drake era, complete with jingles from the Johnny Mann Singers and the typical formatics.

Jeffrey would go from WRKO jock to station owner in the 1970s. Word has it he’s in Maine these days.

“Unity Through Music – Ten-Nine-Oh, WILD Boston…”!

This Soul station has been around for a very long time. Several years ago, the Nash family sold out to Radio One, which has continued the Urban formatting and remains one of the few remaining AM Stereo signals in Boston.

Considering the work done by Radio One to constantly improve their FM station, once known as Country 97.7 WCAV, now Urban WBOT, one has to wonder what will happen to this daytime-only station that still pulls numbers in the city despite being on AM. With that in mind, now’s probably a good time to post an AM Stereo aircheck from WILD.

With IBOC just a few short years away from being fully implemented, this may be very rare indeed!

Click HERE to Listen!

56kbps connection highly recommended.

This is a very unique aircheck of Robin Young on WBZ, sometime in 1974. Based upon the fact that mention is made of the fact that most of the WBZ equipment and music is NOT in the studio, I think this was recorded just after the conclusion of WBZ’s ‘Grease Weekend’. They did two or three of those in the early & mid 1970s.

On this aircheck, you won’t hear any jingles, you’ll hear long pauses between songs and virtually no imaging elements. Apparently just about everything WBZ used for on air was taken for whatever special remote the station was doing that weekend. Robin Young does a great job hosting a show with virtually nothing. It’s part talk show, part music, and really shows how much talent Young had. I believe she later did some work for WBZ-TV 4 a bit later in the 70s or 80s… somebody knows.

For you Bostonians, we’d REALLY appreciate any comments you could share with our listeners!

WCOP was an early Top 40 competitor in Boston. In 1961 there wasn’t much competition for the format, WBZ 1030 certainly, but it would be a few years before WMEX and WRKO would chime in with their own brands. WBZ would ditch Top 40 in the mid-60s for MOR and nighttime talk.

On this aircheck, we hear Bud Kelly, a very capable announcer during his show sometime in 1961. It’s one of our oldest airchecks, and likely one of the rarest available anywhere on the web. It’s a great example of how radio was done at the dawn of the Top 40 era.

Here’s a legend who was let go from a longtime gig at WXKS-FM just prior to appearing on this day on Infinity’s ‘Oldies 103.3′. Dale Dorman was likely the oldest CHR jock in the nation when let go from Kiss 108, and after this audition, was hired to augment a great staff at WODS.

This one is courtesy of another heritage jock, J.J. Wright. He’s listed under Featured Jocks, since we can’t list him in both contributor and jocks catagories.

Click HERE to Listen!

From the early days of Oldies 103, we have this QuickCheck – at about 5 minutes you can hear the stark difference between today’s WODS and it’s beginnings after flipping from WMRQ “Boston’s Quality Rock – a station that lasted barely 9 months (basically, the ashes of what was WHTT “HitRadio 103 FM”).

WODS began in the fall of 1986 – this aircheck is close to the one-year anniversary, at least by a month or two.

Click HERE to Listen!

Now we’ve kinda come full circle with the WVBF airchecks. We’ve hit the WKOX-FM era from 1969, the F-105 Top 40 era from 1978 and now here’s a clip from the beginning of the last era of WVBF- as an up tempo AC station, known at the time as “The Wave of Boston”.

There’s plenty of imaging and promos from morning guys Loren & Wally (Loren Owens & Wally Brine, now on 105.7 WROR – these guys survived about 4 different incarnations of 105.7), but otherwise this is kinda dry. No jingles and cheesy, familiar 80s tunes all packaged in a laid back typical 80s AC approach. And this is what “Hot” AC would have sounded like at it’s very beginning. Still, for those who follow the evolution of WVBF under the ownership of Fairbanks Broadcasting, it showcases an important era of 105.7 – a station which ol’ grampa Fairbanks would flip to Country as WCLB just 5 years later in an effort to head off Greater Media’s WCDJ 96.9′s imminent flip to Country as WBCS.

That story, we’ll get to in a later post.

I’ll just bet this is the very first aircheck posted online for WKOX. Everyone knows that Fairbanks owned WKOX AM and WVBF – in fact, he named the FM side for his wife Virginia Brown Fairbanks… its kind of a legendary story. What almost nobody (including me) knows is what was this station before Fairbanks bought it? Well, this aircheck may give you some insight.

Frankly, I’m not sure when Fairbanks purchased 105.7… could have been long before 1971. I’m sure someone out there remembers. What you’ll here on this six-minute scope is a really good attempt at a Drake format. A small amount of reverb, concise positioners (the 105 Sound – wasn’t that a rip off of WRKO’s “the NOW sound?) and a W I D E playlist, much wider than the average AM Top 40 station of the day.

I thought that prior to WVBF on 105.7, this was like the former WNAC AM 68 & FM 98.5… just some sleepy network operation. Listening to this – well… yeah I was wrong, wasn’t I?

It’s really hard to envision this kind of format on FM – in 1969! but hey, I was in the first grade back then, so it’s hard for me to figure out much of anything relating to pre-1970′s FM. I’m sure many of you listeners will REALLY enjoy this!

Here’s our very first aircheck of WMEX 1510! It’s only a QuickCheck at about a minute and a half but listening to it you can see just how hard this station was rocking! During this time period, the competition was hot between WMEX, WRKO and WVBF (FM) for dominance of the Top 40 format. Ultimately, WMEX ended up the loser… but it was after PD John Garabedian (of “Open House Party” fame) was let go when the new owner came in.

This is from a very short period in which WMEX was simply being called X15… Slick, and very tight but with far more creativity wrt the jocks than crosstown WRKO. We’re looking for more from this great station so if you have something to donate… speak up!

Much has been said over the years of Fairbanks Communications’ WVBF… The “Electronic Mama”, as it were back in the early 70s. The station certainly was unique in the respect that it was the first FM station in Boston to pull decent ratings, as early as 1972.

But… This aircheck isn’t from 1972.

In 1978, the radio landscape was much changed from 6 years prior. AM stations were still trying hard to compete playing music, and much of the FM band was packed with stations carrying some sort of contemporary music. ’78 was the year Ritchie Balsbaugh launched WXKS-FM “Kiss 108″ with it’s now infamous all-Disco format out of the ashes of what was once Beautiful music (and before that, Country) WWEL-FM… a station which shot straight to number 1 in the market in it’s first book. It was the era of ‘Night Fever’… of Star Wars and disco balls. And in 1978, Fairbanks had morphed what was once a hybrid AOR/Top 40 station into a straight-ahead CHR machine, playing the hits as “F-105″.

This aircheck features none other than JoJo Kincaid, at a station which would make “Mama Kincaid’s favorite son” hugely popular– so much so that he, along with one “Mighty” Mike Osborne, would eventually make the rounds on just about all the big FM CHR’s in Boston in the 1980s… before heading out west.

This is really one of my favorite airchecks on the site… and for good reason. You just gotta listen!

This was a very recent addition to the archives back in the Summer of 2004. Charlie Van Dyke was perhaps, the best morning personality on WRKO during their tenure as a Top 40 station. CVD was hired as both morning man and PD in 1979, after relinquishing mornings on 93 KHJ in Los Angeles to former morning guy Charlie Tuna only a week before this aircheck.

This is Van Dyke’s very first day in Boston

In 1980, Van Dyke took WRKO away from Top 40 and into a year long experiment with Adult Contemporary music before throwing in the towell and moving to talk. But at the time of this aircheck, both WRKO and Van Dyke were hotter than a firecracker!

One of my prized possessions is this aircheck I received from Contributor Steve McVie about 2 years ago. WEEI-FM, soon after this aircheck to become WHTT, had been a favorite of mine as AC “Soft Rock 103″. Looking back to that era (I had just graduated from Mahar Regional High School in Orange, MA), I think it was New Year’s day or darn close to it, 1983 that the format flip to CHR occurred. It matters for historic purposes.

WEEI-FM as a CHR station was fantastic! Before the call letter change to WHTT later that year, “HitRadio 103″ as it was known really had quite a balanced playlist. It seems to me that station management kind of eased into CHR, musically speaking. After the call letter change, the music seemed much harder edged.

Oh well, I could talk to the moon forever concerning 103 FM back then. It was my favorite station that year. So, I’ll be quiet now and just let you listen to Rod West – a guy who would hang with HitRadio 103 FM for a couple of years, and the NEW WEEI-FM from 1/15/03!

This originally posted in April of ’03. Back then, your webmaster predicted WQSX to strongly compete with WJMN… well it didn’t materialize, but the station is still there.

I think this is a great format, although for Boston, historically a Rock town (but leaning more Urban every year), it hasn’t performed as well as it probably should have. At any rate, whether you enjoy Beat music or Rhythmic (or whatever it’s called now), this will surely pick you up.

We have a composite of the Boston FM dial from 1975 elsewhere on this site. Now compare that with this look at Boston’s FM stations in 1983. At one point that year, there were three CHR’s jockying for position: WXKS-FM Kiss 108, WHTT HitRadio 103 and for a time, 98.5 WROR. WCOZ would flip to CHR as WZOU in early ’84, so they didn’t quite count at this point.

We mentioned in the WROR/WBMX format flip that WROR had gone CHR… well, this composite shows what it sounded like. It only lasted a few months before WROR went back to AC… but IMHO, it was the best sounding CHR in the market– while it lasted!

Frank Kingston Smith actually started out in the Boston market at WRKO – The Big 68, under the name Bobby Mitchell. He had a long successful career which took him through WABC New York, WROR Boston… and a short fill-in gig in 1979 at WBZ.

WBZ was one of those full-service AC stations. A real mainstay in the market though. The regular morning guy in ’79 was Carl DeSuze. He began at WBZ in the 1950′s. 1979 would be his final year as a full time morning host.

That brings us to this cold winter morning. Frank Kingston Smith sounds just as at home doing sleepy AC as he did doing top 40. A true professional in every respect.

In 1986, the New England Patriots made their first Super Bowl appearance.. against the Chicago Bears. They were miserably crushed by a physically much larger team. The Red Sox got into the World Series… and lost to the Mets (everybody blames Bill Buckner but it was a comedy of errors by the pitching staff).

For your humble webmaster, it was a holiday season to celebrate. I was in the Navy and home on leave. Took my boombox up to the attic (for the elevation- FM came in much better) and landed on WBOS.

This is the Country incarnation of WBOS.

Just like it says, this one runs by quickly. This is mostly some scoped Z-94 WZOU, but with one WHTT (Boston) break at the end.

Incidently, both call letters are gone from the Boston market. At last report, WZOU was in use in NH on some AM station, and WHTT is in use in Buffalo on an Oldies station.