Airchexx.com

Available in parts elsewhere, the complete, unedited broadcast as heard on WLS 890 Chicago as recorded by new contributor Michael J. DeLaRosa. He writes:

Hope you are able to use this. I cannot believe we are coming up on the 25th of the 25th. I recorded this as it aired at 6:00pm April 8, 1985. I have heard similar pieces voiced by Jeff Davis and played at various WLS parties…but this is the original voiced by Tommy Edwards.

Running over an hour in length, this then history of MusicRadio 89 WLS is well chronicled, from the jocks, to the music, the promotions, commercials and more!

Contributor Leo Knott sends in this studio quality ‘check of a great Chicago Soul station…

One of my favorite jocks of all-time. I don’t know all the stations he worked at but he did work the San Antonio market at one time. I heard Jay on Chicago’s WGRT (Later to be WJPC)… he was Orange Juice Jay in the morning. He was wooed away to WVON – the urban music giant at the time.

WVON had great personalities from Joe Cobb (the voice of Soul Train… at least at the beginning, Herb Kent “The Cool Gent”, Bill “Butterball” Crane, E. Rodney Jones, Cecil Hale, Richard Pegue, Pervis Spahn and others.

After WVON, he ventured to WTLC in Indianapolis to serve as PD and on air duties. He was Super Jay in his twilight at WVON and carried over into the Indianapolis market

Another too short listen to Landecker, finds him reading off the names of people who will be going to eat dinner with the Osmonds and then see them in concert. Hard to believe Donny & Marie were ever a big deal (if today’s oldies stations are any guage), but JRL sure talks it up.

Listen for a great promo for the WLS Monster Bonanza as Bob Sirott produces this piece that shows WLS giving away a Mazda!

We have a similar aircheck here most likely from the same night. How’d that happen?

Jim Channel, aka “Capt. Whammo” is heard here on 95 1/2 WMET. Note the disco music and the WCFL-style jingle package in use at the time which kinda sounds out of place considering the year. They sound good at this point, but I’m at a loss as to why WMET had some of the worst jingles ever heard prior to ’78… low budget, maybe? And, in your humble webmaster’s opinion, the imaging voice is and was horrible, but that’s made up for the fact that the format itself slams, and Whammo is in top form on this aircheck… lively and energetic.

This is a good quality recording, one you’ll enjoy as an alternative to samples of WLS around the same timeframe.

Labor Day weekend 1986… not particularly memorable except perhaps if you were lamenting the fact that Summer vacation was over. Smokin’ Joe Dawson sent this in himself and explains that at this period in time, B-96 had no jingles!

This was about a month before I left to go to Seattle to burn off a no compete before coming back to Chicago at WFYR. The powers that be had B96 sounding like a cross between ‘GCI and Q101 in their Hot AC days.

More original audio from the site that brings radio back to LIFE!

Hour two of the Fred Winston show is much like the first hour (12-1Pm) and features Catherine Johns with news, and by this time we’re all starting to get irritated with Les Grobstein’s sportscasts. What is it about this guy that grates on our nerves? There was a bit of negative reaction (based upon what we’ve read on the message boards) to Les’ sportscasts, which ran longer in many cases than the actual news itself.

Listen for the first appearance of Lyle Dean and a promo for “Choose your news” – a longtime feature of the old Fred Winston morning show back in the 70s and 80s.

And now, the real fun begins! Rewind, for the first 7 hours, was (IMHO), kinda boring unless you really loved hearing jocks just talk. Winston here is STILL funny, and able to quip a one-liner over a song intro just as good as the old days. And that voice is still as deep as ever, if not a bit gravely these days.

We still get hourly news, clips of the old WLS, and of course, steady reminders that this IS TODAY, Chicago’s Talk Station – 890 AM WLS!

Here’s the final part of the Larry Lujack / Tommy Edwards show… more sarcasm wrapping up with another installment of “Animal Stories”. Oh, and more of Les Grobstein’s incredibly long sports reports injected and infused with enough editorial to fill a full newspaper page!

What we haven’t described for you is Jeff Davis’ incredible production efforts in putting together sweepers, intros, outros, Top of Hour IDs and pulling in all the great jingles from the musicradio era. They are heard all throughout Big 89 Rewind and this certainly would be far less an event without Jeff’s undying efforts.

In the next segment, it’s Fred Winston’s turn to sit in the big air chair. Trust me, the formatics alone are good enough to spend another hour with your computer!

Lujack & Edwards make a great pair… were it not for retirement maybe we could get these two in syndication, no?

Listen for “Celebrity Worship”, Lujack’s “Commencement Address to America’s Youth”, news from Linda Marshall and Sports – including a long RANT about syndication in Sports Radio (taking direct aim at crosstown WMVP and ESPN) by Les Grobstein. This is another MUST LISTEN segment!

Its the last hour of the Chuck Knapp show featuring a touching tribute to fallen soldiers in Iraq, and out-of-format songs by Toby Keith & Carrie Underwood. Reading about this on the ‘chicagolandradioandmedia.com message board, there were many complaints from listeners who, apparently didn’t understand that, while this is a tribute to WLS’s musicradio legacy, its just as much a tribute to the PEOPLE who were on the air, and their skill as communicators. The Knapper did just as a WLS jock would have done in the Musicradio years, buck the format and communicate a relevant topic to his audience. After all, Memorial day IS the day we remember those who served and still serve our great nation.

It’s on to news, traffic and weather, then Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards’ first half hour – and they’re “just as lousy as the last time they were on the air”, at least jokingly according to one caller. Remember, after all those years (okay, ONE year since they returned in 07 for the first BIG 89 REWIND), these two were ‘Back in the Saddle Again…”.

“…Somebody thought it MIGHT be a good idea to present still another broadcast in the never-ending story of John Landecker and his job…”

Wow! Picking up right where he left off in 1981 is the one and only John Records Landecker, starting the show with the ‘family music hour’ – a fancy name for a bunch of Oldies (which WLS had begun to backslide into by this time). Sure, the Big 89 is still a rock station but there’s way more talk than music in this show. Landecker has a new feature just about mid-way through this aircheck – notes from the day’s WLS staff meeting, which, as JRL notes, was his first in almost 5 years. And his commentary from the staff meeting, wherin he comments on PD John Gerhon’s reminder of all air personalities’ FCC responsibilities as public trustees and the first line of public information… absolutely PRICELESS!

This is a long aircheck, it’s in AM Stereo, but the separation isn’t all that great – hi-fidelity nonetheless, and you’ll really love going back and reliving the end of the music era at WLS, that while sad, was still an exciting time in 1986, before the station sank down into oblivion within the next year.

Going through the archives of donated materials, I seem to have forgotten about this one.

Who remembers this re-incarnation of WCFL as a contemporary music station? Apparently, according to WCFL Chicago Radio Timeline**(see note below), WCFL returned from MUZAK land, first as an All-News station in 1978-79, then flipped to an Adult Contemporary format in 1980. Who knew? Well, by 1981, then owner Mutual Broadcasting decided to add some popular personalities… Winston being one, Gary Gears another… and voila! WCFL was back, although quite a bit more subdued than the previous Top 40 years.

This is kinda funny, Winston is still a wisecracker, and someone calls in to say they are recording this for posterity, Winston fires back, ‘what, are you crazy? Trying to blackmail me or something hahaha‘

We’re lucky this survived all these years. Its from a time when WCFL tried a last ditch effort as a music station before going religious, then the huge days as WLUP-AM. Now, be forewarned. This took a lot of processing and sounds kinda wierd, since it was apparently an AM Stereo recording – from one of the early attempts at it like Khan, Hazeltine or something, and while there’s stereo separation in parts of this 30-plus minute aircheck, the receiver used in recording made it sound a bit grainy and there wasn’t much bass. That’s fixed here but it ain’t perfect so if it sounds funny, its not your computer! It would have helped if the person who originally digitized this had used a higher bit rate, but we can only use what’s available.

** The WCFL Chicago Timeline has apparently disappeared and in its place is we found a site with a trojan infection, which is why we removed the link to it. For your protection we strongly advise listeners to NOT search for any links to the WCFL Chicago Timeline.

Who knows what became of this 1970′s FM competitor in the Windy City? Certainly, there’s plenty of personality on 95.5 FM (including ol’ Captain Whammo aka Jim Channel), but the jingles in use are probably the worst ever heard in contemporary radio. I suppose that would be unique enough to keep an audience, but one would think that MET had enough personality playing the hits to give WLS a run for its money. Not being from Chicago, I know next to nothing about WMET other than it existed and that Captain Whammo went on to become a preacher with his own ministry sometime after his MET days.

Come to think of it, the jingles and top 40 approach seems similar to the John Long sound at X-Rock 80 down in Juarez, Mexico… minus the cutsey Mexican female voice

This composite runs approximately 46 minutes scoped. Its in mono, but pretty clean sounding considering it’s now 31 years old as of this writing. 31 years! wow, was high school that long ago?

Another from contributor J.R. Russ, here’s Steve York, a guy who sounds a bit more ‘authoritative’ with his approach to rock music in Chicago. This kinda reminds me of Tony Taylor on WOR-FM, the way he annunciates his words. It’s a good representation of how the top 40 wars heated up between ‘CFL and WLS.

1976 – The final year that WCFL played Top 40. Before flaming out, this was an incredible station – fast paced, screamin’ jocks, and a harder edge to the music than even crosstown WLS, which billed itself as the “Rock of Chicago”. Unfortunately for all of us who loved the format, the American Federation of Labor Union that owned the station was pretty much finished with playing radio, and WCFL was just about done with Rock music in general. That story we’ll tell at another time.

By 1976, WCFL had fallen substantially in the ratings race, due to increased visibility and promotion by both WLS, and the emergence of FM Rock stations which were gaining prominence. You’d never notice if you were a listener to the Voice of Labor though, as you’ll hear in this short but high-energy scope of the late Big Ron O’Brien. This station was hotter than a firecracker.

This aircheck, we guarantee, has NEVER been shared with anyone before, and we thank contributor Keith Teicher for passing this never heard before recording along via our good site friend Matt Seinberg. Many thanks indeed!

The heated battle between WCFL and WLS never was hotter than this… in 1973, ‘CFL actually BEAT WLS in the ratings – it happened only once. But what a year and what a sound the Voice of Labor had. Having ‘stolen’ Larry Lujack from WLS, and the addition of some great talent, including Big Ron O’Brien (who went on to bigger fame at WXLO 99X New York), WCFL really cooked during this time period.

Restored by your humble webmaster in honor of O’Brien, who passed away on April 27, 2008, here’s a 22 minute high quality aircheck recorded just after WCFL came off the number one rating book, the best book it would ever get. One listen to the fast pace of this station and you’ll know why they knocked the Rock of Chicago off its pedistal – even if only for a short time!

During perhaps what was the best era for the Voice of Labor, WCFL was flying high mornings with ol’ Uncle Lar and his sometimes snarky attitude! Scoped down to a nice long aircheck of this particular morning, our biggest and best contributor, Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks really sent in a gem!

Lujack would go back and forth between ‘CFL and ‘LS a couple of times in the 70s before finishing out the decade at the Big 89!

Thanks to Patrick of the Aircheck Traders board at Radioinsight, we have a virgin aircheck of this mid-Summer midday show on WLS! This is an original, complete with commercials for 1975 and the scoped hits from artists like Queen, the Carpenters and Elton John! Oh, to be in the Windy City with WLS!

Just got an email today from Greg Brown, former Chicago wakeup guy and WJMK (the former Oldies station) & WKQX jock reminding us that he’s been written up on Rick Kaempfer’s blog, “Chicago Radio Spotlight”.

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!

Out of chronological order, here’s the best four hours of radio we’ve heard in a long time! Big 89 Rewind continues on WLS with the personalities who made the station great.

This starts with three breaks from former jock and current WLS imaging voice Jeff Davis. Another guy with HUGE pipes! From there, it moves on to the complete night show from John Records Landecker! Landecker hasn’t lost anything from his years as the night teen jock on WLS in the 70s. Included in this incredible show, Americana Panorama, GottaGetaWitness News and, in the last hour, the most incredible BOOGIE CHECK! According to Landecker, the first Boogie Check he’s done in 35 years – going back to his last night show on WLS in 1979!

Then, to wrap up this segment of Big 89 Rewind, Tom Kent (yeah, the syndicated 70s guy) (WAVA, G98) arrives to the same mic he left back in the 1980s. We’ll have the complete Tom Kent and Jeff Davis shows in a later post.

This audio was recorded from the internet stream, but after some painstaking editing and processing, I think I got this to sound almost studio quality. Some digital artifacts remain (and I’d much rather have an over the air recording), but overall this is really fantastic to listen to.

This, more than any other, is the best retro format execution we’ve ever heard. Hope you agree…. be sure to comment by clicking the link below this post!

Welcome back Fred Winston! In this segment, which covers from 9 to 11am, you’ll hear a real recreation of top 40 radio! Winston makes this sound easy. WLS here sounds like the music station everyone remembers, with great talkups, clever lines and a good selection of music. We’ve had to take the actual songs out to comply with copyright laws but you certainly will get a feel for the station.

Several complete newscasts featuring Lyle Dean, and sports with Les Grobstein are heard in this segment, all in-format, the way it used to sound on what was MusicRadio 89 WLS!

Hour 4, 8am – 9am:

Fred Winston sues Larry Lujack and ABC for 3 million dollars! Pretty cool story. WLS salutes the late Yvonne Daniels, former newscasters including Lyle Dean and Jeffrey Hendricks. Classic commercial and one classic aircheck segment. Another episode of “Animal Stories”… Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards Memorial Day Address to the Nation.

In this segment, a ‘random act of kindness’ and another episode of “Animal Stories”. One can’t help but wonder that part of the deal to get Larry Lujack to come on the show was an agreement for them to be able to promote their website where Lujack and Edwards sell cd’s of Animal Stories. No matter, be sure to check it out!

Lujack takes a moment to diss his former digs at AM 1690, the former “Real Oldies” station that’s now a sports station. More Les Grobstein with sports and another full newscast. And, of course, those wonderful MusicRadio WLS jingles going into music and stopsets! The format was done RIGHT!

Here’s the second big hour of Big 89 Rewind with Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards. Now, Uncle Lar’ is a bit rusty, tries to ‘hit the post’ and ends up laughing over a couple of intros… but man, is it good to hear WLS with a live music format!

Listen for a flashback of J.J. Jeffries doing a live commercial from the 60s, a short aircheck of Kris Erik Stevens, and, about 10 minutes in – Animal Stories! Its the second hour of Rewind from 6-7am, scoped down to 33 minutes because we have to take out current commercials and the songs due to copyright constraints.

Taking a cue from their New York City sister station WABC, Chicago’s News Talk station 890 WLS dropped its normal format for one day and remembered it’s heritage as the Rock of Chicago! MusicRadio 89 WLS resumed where it left off, some 18 years ago (1989, technically). But, this was no sleepy rememberance with narrated airchecks… WLS really did this right, inviting many of the jocks who once graced the airwaves at the Big 89.

Here in part one, you’ll hear a brief narration by former WLS jock now imaging voice Jeff Davis, then Larry Lujack and L’il Tommy (Tommy Edwards) in the morning! Ol’ Uncle Lar’ sure sounds good after all these years! And, yes, somewhere in the first 3 hours of this program, there is an “Animal Stories” episode that you won’t want to miss! Perhaps the best part of this, the full, uncut latest edited year-end music montage that WLS used to air at midnight on New Year’s Eve!!! DON’T MISS THIS!

Listen, and be sure to comment on this most excellent of programs!

Here’s another undated aircheck for our visitors to guess. Not provided on this cassette sent in by Robyn Watts is the date for this morning show from Ron Brittain. The scoped music played in this exhibit shows a very laid back station, back in the days when AC REALLY meant soft, adult oriented hits.

I’m putting my guess at 1988 – Now, what’s the actual date? It’s your call.

Listen all the way through on this one, and see if you can guess the ‘Secret Sound’.

Dawson’s pace is perfect for this high-energy taste of FM Top 40!. Remember, WLS was STILL a Rock station, so there was a lot riding on the success of WBBM-FM.

And, as one of our visitors pointed out, this isn’t actually the Hot Hits!(tm) era, but quite ‘hot’ nonetheless.

Here’s a slice of the end of WLS as a music station. WLS is running the ‘serial number’ game and Landecker handles the call perfectly… it’s not a boogie check, but good nonetheless.

This next series of airchecks is courtesy of our old friend Matt @ Big Apple Airchecks. Look him up online if you’re willin’ to make a deal, pardner…

Here’s DG on the ‘Bee’… and he sounds incredible here. Perhaps it was the processing that lowered his pipes an octive! Geronimo is heard elsewhere here at airchexx.com, on WLS, WPGC, WAVA and more. Simply click on his name at right.

Almost 18 minutes of pure heaven. Thanks again to Matt @ Big Apple Airchecks, a huge slice of WLS!

Included: tons of early 70s commercials and those awesome WLS Jingles! J.J. Jeffrey would go on to station ownership later in his career. WLS would go on to number one status later that year.

The Rock of Chicago sure is rockin’ on this aircheck! Here’s Don Geronimo (WPGC, WAVA, WXLO) during a short stint in the Windy City! WLS is still doing the faux-AOR format, and this is right around the time that WLS-FM 95 (94.7) came into the picture in a big way.

By 1986, the rock audience would evacuate the AM band, leaving WLS on a dark road toward the bottom of the heap before it’s ultimate flip to Talk, but here in ’82, “The Rock” was still a huge deal in Chicago. Enjoy a very hi-fi, albeit mono, slice of the ENORMOUS 89, WLS!

In an exhortation to think for yourself, WXRT – “Chicago’s Finest Rock” launched this brilliant, if not somewhat abstract TV spot. Note: if viewers don’t stay with this spot through the entire :30 seconds, how will they ever remember to listen to WXRT? Brilliant move, guys…

Summary contributed by Jeffrey T. Mason.

I think I am qualified to give a summary of the 80′s Channel/Chicago sign-on, seeing that I was one of the folks who orchestrated it!

Contrary to popular belief, Big City Radio – not Chancellor Media – was the first company to debut a “Jammin’ Oldies” type format. It was not called “Jammin’ Oldies,” but “103.1FM, Chicago’s Heart & Soul.” They purchased WVVX/Highland Park and WJDK/Morris, both at 103.1 to create the simulcast. Call letters were changed to WXXY and WYXX. Due to a poor signal, and some bad judgment in their outdoor campaign (billboards placed in areas that could NOT receive the station), “Chicago’s Heart & Soul” didn’t see much success. It was definitely a valiant effort, however…with BCR hiring market veterans like Robert Murphy for mornings, and Fred Winston for afternoons.

In late 1998, Chancellor Media flipped WRCX (Rock 103.5) to “Chicago’s Jammin’ Oldies, 103-5 The Beat.” They offered to sell the rights to the entire WRCX format (including name, call letters, etc…) to BCR in exchange for Heart & Soul. BCR declined, and Chancellor did Jammin’ Oldies anyhow. With a full signal from downtown, it was a no-brainer who would prevail. So in early 1999, Chris Shebel (PD of sister 92.7 Kiss-FM) was named PD of WXXY/WYXX. Just as BCR signed on the first Jammin’ Oldies format, they also were the first to sign-on an “All 80′s” format. After about 6 months of planning, Heart & Soul ended it’s format at 12 noon on Thursday August 5, 1999. 24 hours of movie clips & TV theme songs from the 80′s followed. At 12 noon on Friday August 6, 1999…”The 80′s Channel – 103.1 WXXY” signed on the air. Robert Murphy, Dona Mullen & Fred Winston continued in their dayparts, and Jeffrey T. Mason was brought on-board from Kiss-FM as APD/MD and evening jock. Steve Davis from Zapoleon Media Strategies consulted.

What set this station apart from the other 80′s stations that followed (including ABC’s “94.7 The Zone”) was the musical direction and overall presentation. Most 80′s stations programmed a rock or new wave leaning format, with a very Gen-X sound. WXXY was straight down the middle CHR. The classic 1980′s JAM jingles and ballsy Eric Edwards sweepers were also VERY reminiscent of 1980′s Top 40 radio in Chicago.

After numerous requests and several years waiting, here’s a great recording of ol’ Uncle Lar on the Rock of Chicago, WLS! This recording was made off the FM 94.7 side, so the audio is a clean as can be.

Listen for the WLS jingles, that AWESOME reverb, the incomperable Larry Lujack, AND…. a complete ANIMAL STORIES, with Li’l Tommy!

Another, from Robyn Watts, who so graciously donated a ton of material in 2004… and we’re not even a third of the way through that collection!

The competition was incredible, and so was the air talent heard every morning in Chicagoland during this, the heyday of FM CHR!

Courtesy of Robyn Watts’ fabulously wonderful collection, we bring you Robert Murphy and his style of morning show on WKQX. This is another incredibly high-fi recording from Midwest Aircheck, so turn up those 7.1 surround speakers and enjoy!

Who woulda thought Dick Biondi would still be doing Top 40 some 33 years after his first gig at WLS? This is Chicago’s BIG CHR B96! Biondi is… well all i can say is it starts out a bit slow, at least for him.

Just an opinion, mind you, but considering the various morning shows in Chicagoland in ’84, Dick Biondi, at least on THIS aircheck, sounds bland by comparison. Still, he has his moments, and for those of you who fondly remember, this extremely high-fidelity recording will bring a tear to your eye!

Once again, it’s back to the Robyn Watts collection for this bit of Morning lunacy from Bob Wall at WGCI – before ‘GCI was playing hip hop and R&B! Its 80s CHR to the max as Wall is a man of many voices. This partucular morning he’s taking your calls to see who is today’s school fool

This aircheck comes to us on a collection which was entitled “Morning Madness” from MIDWEST Aircheck (and you thought we came up with all these wonderfully creative titles!). The source cassette is in excellent condition, and no audio restoral or processing was necessary to render this one listenable, it sounds great all by itself!

And now, what finished off WLS’ personality rock format for good! By 1984, WLUP was THE king of rock stations in Chicago (and by 1986 the grand experiment to turn the rockers into talkers by moving the most popular personalities to AM 1000 WLUP-AM was ON!).

Brandmeier is heard here starting his morning show on ‘The Loop’. As was the trend in the mid-80s, this is lots more talk than rock, lots of phone calls, laughs and plenty of news & information to get the day started. Check out the notable news events of the day on this ‘check!

This one will take you way back, way before Jammin’ Oldies, way before Classic Rock, AOR and Active Rock and back when RKO General still owned “Fire”!

It’s Monday morning and CK’s first day on the job. His first official change… no more Monday mornings, now they will be called Tuesday-A. You get the picture.

This runs just over 10 minutes and showcases a really good sounding soft AC station, although some have called this an Oldies-based station. You can click HERE for some interesting historical information about WFYR. And, interestingly enough, here’s a link to the station known as WFYR today.

From the Robyn Watts Collection, (I’m sure this time LOL), it’s back to Chicago where the on air WAR between Z-95 and B-96 was as heated as anyone’s ever heard.

Over on the ‘Killer B’, morning guys Eddie and JoBo are having a BALL! It’s ‘Confessions Wednesday’ and you’ll hear one caller who says she’s in the mob and almost got caught (real or made up? You decide). There’s a GREAT contest where B-96 gives away a CD player worth $300 bucks – listen to what they made this poor woman go through to win it! Talk about great contesting!

Later, in the Z-95 portion of this aircheck, you’ll hear TONS of produced bits making fun of B-96, to the point of overkill. True to their claims, according to what we hear on this ‘check, Z-95 really IS much more music in the morning with very little of what you’d expect from a typical morning show. It’s mostly dance music and hip-hop at this point, not the rock oriented format on the former WLS-FM, and still a couple of years before this station returned as WLS-FM TALK RADIO.

This is a very interesting and exciting time in Chicago radio – Click our links and LISTEN!

Those of you from Boston are probably thinking… What the?… Yes, WBMX was a Chicago FM station before the call letters were dropped and subsequently picked up for 98.5 in Boston after they dropped the WROR calls. Confused yet?

This aircheck isn’t about format changes. It IS about Chicagoland CHR, with some really good jingles and hot personalties. From 1986, recorded at the same time as the WGCI aircheck posted on this website.

This one is for the early ‘old skool’ hip hop & r&b fans! WGCI is definitely hot here, and has some great jocks, including Tom Joyner, who is of course a nationally syndicated morning show host today. Here, Joyner (I think) is doing afternoons on WGCI.

The whole station really cooks throughout this aircheck. It’s scoped but listen for fresh music (well the START of the songs anyway) from the late Luther Vandross, Madonna, and more! There’s a major contest going on where listeners will be awarded a trip to Rio De Janero to celebrate the new album by Sergio Mendez – Brazil ’86. There are other contests here too.

It’s an EARLY hip-hop station from before the phrase hip hop was even in vogue!

It’s been nearly 42 years since this aircheck was broadcast (and we can’t find a graphic anywhere that relates to this station in 1963). Imagine yourself listening to the radio back then. Ads for Pimple cream fill the airwaves, along with the hit songs of the day (edited out by law for this exhibit, of course).

This is the “Winner’s Lucky Cordelle” show – and yes the theme is horse racing! A *bit* different than what you’d hear on a typical music station today. Check out the big contest…. “Call Your Shot”. This is much bigger than you’d expect for a radio contest in 1963!

Here’s a pristine aircheck which sounds very much like it came right out of the studio skimmer. Larry Lujack on WLS!

Discovered in this box of cassettes which the donor asked to be called annonymous about a year ago (really), this is a great look at Mr. Lujack’s morning show in 1970. Includes a few commercials and “The Jeffrey Hendricks Report” from WLS News! Hearing Hendricks and that delivery style – WOW! That was news!

From Landecker’s first year as night guru, this recording may explain his enormous popularity.
Talk about energy! John ‘Records-is-my-middle-name’ Landecker proves how aptly he was named. Landecker mellowed some when he took over PM drive in 1979, but its this power approach that he had right from the start that endeared him to millions of listeners.

…There’ll be no high today, sorry…. I’m high… no no no… I’m kidding. I wish I was high… no haha just kidding…

If we had a ratings system, this would get four stars! Wait! Actually, we do! Try it.

This aircheck comes to us from Ira Menacker via Matt Seinberg. Thanks to both of them.

Now, the story behind the story… so to speak on this bitterly cold March day, is that Dick & Doug had been fired from crosstown rival WCFL. Many of you who come to this site probably already know the story, but for the benefit of those who don’t, here it is in a nutshell. WCFL was changing formats from Top 40 to Beautiful Music (Elevator music, Easy Listening… whatever label fit at the time). D&D were being blown out along with most of the staff, EXCEPT, Larry Lujack who would continue doing afternoon jock playing Chicago’s most beautiful music.

Apparently, the morning team was given an opportunity to do a ‘last show’. Well, they spoke a little too much about the impending format changes, and about mid-way through the show, management arrived and took all the microphones, and politely escorted the two out of the station!

What you hear on this aircheck is a hilarious morning show. Fred Winston invites Dick & Doug to appear on his show and what follows is anarchy. The duo even lock Winston out of the studio at one point!

This is what radio used to be like. Spontaneous and enormously funny! 37 years ago. Seems like yesterday.

Found on a mis-labelled cassette containing some other miscellaneous goodies was this unscoped aircheck of 94.7 in Chicago. Scoped down it runs a bit over 3 minutes, thus turned into an official Airchexx.com QuickCheck.

A few notes about this one. First, for those who follow the history Chicago radio, this was the station which once was WLS-FM, simulcasting the AM 89 programming mornings but which was it’s own CHR formatted incarnation of WLS in the 80s. After 1986, when WLS-AM was on it’s way out as a major AM music station, the FM side flipped call letters to WYTZ (and why, we may never know, since with the legendary WLS calls they could have kept the tradition alive, so to speak) and remained CHR for some time under a couple of different slogans – ‘Z95″, Z94-7 and in the 90s, ‘Hot 94-7′.

Brant Miller sounds upbeat here, but in your webmaster’s humble opinion, he sounds more like an AC jock. Still, it was a good mix of music.

ABC eventually returned the WLS-FM calls to 94.7 (and for history buffs, it would be the THIRD time they graced the FM band in Chicago; it was WLS-FM in the 60s for a time), but not as a CHR station, but rather as an FM talker to compliment AM 89′s evolving Talk format. Sometimes simulcasted, others not, that format was short lived, and the inevitable, magical format wheel would spin several more times, including (I believe) Smooth Jazz, AC and whatever… hard to keep up with when formats come and go this often.

Anyway, listen to a slice of time which I believe to be around 1992 – but I can’t nail it down since there’s no documentation with the source cassette. One of our listeners probably knows, and we’d sure appreciate your comments on this aircheck!

Click HERE to Listen!

Posting this aircheck is like getting an ice cream cone and getting only one bite. This is WAY too short!

What can be said about John Landecker on WLS that hasn’t been said already? Here he is from Summer, 1975 – just as energetic as ever!

Click HERE to Listen!

Now for something totally different. I’m not terribly familiar with the early 1960′s and prior history of WCFL but this does show the direction they were heading. For those of you in Chicagoland who remember, this should bring back fond memories.

Dick Biondi was known in the Windy City as a famous jock on WLS when they launched their top 40 format (1961?). He was subsequently fired over a trivial matter. Now we hear Dick Biondi on the Mutual Radio Network hosting a show known as “Young America” – a really great program airing nationwide. Biondi was a bit less spontaneous on this show than his live local gigs at WLS and elsewhere.

It’s the “Voice of Labor” like you haven’t heard it before!

Here’s our very first look at the Chicago Federation of Labor’s WCFL. “The Doctor” is a SCREAMER! How many jocks in this era sounded like this?

Larry Lujack went back and forth between ‘CFL and WLS – so did many other jocks. WCFL threw in the towell in ’75, but not before creating a rivalry which served to make for the best radio listening in Chicago.

One of my favorite airchecks on the site, this composite showcases one full broadcast day – nicely scoped. The legendary lineup includes:
Larry Lujack in the Morning
Bob Sirott Middays
John “Records truly is my middle name” Landecker Nights

If you’re a big WLS fan as I am, you’ll really love this one.