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Leader was also heard at WQXI Atlanta and KSTP in the Twin Cities, but surely never better than here on KHJ!

From Contributor Bob Gilmore comes this exclusive Charlie Van Dyke recording of 93 KHJ from 1/24/72. Charlie says he’s the new kid on the block, leading us to believe that this might be CVD’s first show on KHJ.

This is typical of what KHJ was evolving into in 1972, away from the Drake sound that sent KHJ to the top of the heap in ’65, and into what most RKO General stations were going to do. Its the sound, indescribable without just listening. KHJ is playing a lot of album cuts and lesser-ranking hits. Its been said that this West Coast sound was so completely different from the methodical, proven hits that were played on ABC O&Os such as WABC New York, that it made RKO stations so different, yet massively appealing in their own right.

Van Dyke sounds completely at home here, very loose, and so tight – he never misses hitting the post in this recording. Would go on to program KHJ before giving up the morning slot to Rick Dees in 1978… but this is ’72 and Van Dyke’s pipes seem to be a little less deep than later airchecks… if that’s even possible.

This is a GREAT aircheck for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is to demostrate the evolution of KHJ into what it was for most of the 70s. They’re still playing the Johnny Mann jingles… but not for long.

1969 was a good year for Top 40 radio in Los Angeles. KFWB was still around, albeit more like a Middle of the Road station, 93/KHJ was at the top of it’s game, and then there was KRLA. Never the powerhouse hit station that other AMs were, past or future, it was a warm and cozy station that played current music and featured warm personalities. You’d probably call it your parent’s music station.

Russ O’Hara is filling in for Rob Foster (KFRC) here. Russ is a laid-back jock, one you’d perhaps find on a late 70s/early 80s Soft Rock FM station. Its a cozy aircheck, and shows that KRLA was certainly not going to try and beat KHJ at its own game.

The Johnny Mann Singers are still playing in between the records on 93/KHJ. This is 1972 and while Drake is on his way out, the Boss Sound is still present.

Listen now to Barry Kay, as he weaves in and out of commercials and records like a crotch rocket weaves through traffic at high speed. Its one spot, then a record, and it all seems so effortless. 1972 was not a kind year for KHJ, the station was on the verge of ending one era, and launching a new. But it does sound good to our ears, which are accustom to 6 minutes of commercials, followed by the same dozen songs heard the previous hour and the same liners said by the same under-paid voice track. Yes, it was so much better in ’72, and Barry Kay was one of the good guys we remember.

Forget about Boss Radio. KHJ had a LOT going for it in the mid-70s, if nothing else, the programming and voice brilliance of Charlie Van Dyke at the helm of an L.A. legend.

It’s difficult to outline the politics of radio in Los Angeles in this era. The staple KHJ jocks that listeners were used to in the Boss Era (1966-1970) were elsewhere on the dial, and that meant that a whole different group of professionals had to perform brilliantly. RKO management had told programming pioneer Bill Drake to take a hike a few years before this, so, this high-personality lightning fast presentation with it’s unique RKO style was in place at 93/KHJ in 1976. Van Dyke did mornings (until later that year when Rick Dees arrived from WHBQ Memphis), Beau Weaver had his time slot, and then there was this, lesser known jock fulfilling his dream of being on the by now world famous KHJ, at night, Jim Davis.

We don’t know much about Jim, so we hope listeners will fill us in on the details, and of course, we welcome any corrections in this description. Use the comment feature, or start a thread on our Facebook Wall.

A slice of L.A. Radio history is heard in this rare recording of the legendary Charlie Tuna (left) on KROQ-AM. A time before the now-legendary K-Rock on FM, this station started out as an original Top 40, KBLA, and after a number of format changes, returned to Top 40 from the ashes of Country station KBBQ in 1972. The next year (around the time of this aircheck), the former KPPC-FM 106.7 was added, and today’s KROQ-FM was born.

This is so unique. A tradtional, 70s-style, Rock-based Top 40 station on AM, with news and other full-service elements not found anywhere on music radio today. You will enjoy. You WILL.

“…You can trust your car to the man who wears the star”

So begins this all-too-short, rare recording of RDS on 93/KHJ. We join things right in the middle of a commercial break (Texaco). We’re listening to KHJ in ’71, and while the Bill Drake era is all but over, the format is intact with all the familiar Drake formatics.

Digging deep into the Airchexx archives, we find this two sided cassette donated by longtime contributor Nick Sarames several years ago. While I called this “California Composite”, this does include many other markets, mainly west of the Mississippi. Most of these include one or two breaks, then move on to another station. There are so many (maybe a hundred or more), it’s difficult to list in order, so you’ll just have to listen. Maybe your favorite is represented here.

This covers most of the state of California, and some other markets like Denver, Las Vegas, Lansing, etc… and even Barstow, CA in the high desert. A very interesting collection to say the least. Enjoy!

K100 was L.A.’s first serious contender in the top 40 wars, and this short glimpse into mid-70s KIQQ sounds great. Eric Chase was better known in San Francisco at KFRC, and his personality is the same here. He’s an enormously talented jock and this aircheck proves it.

By the time of this aircheck, K100 was on the decline, its best talent, Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele and Humble Harve having recently (at the time of this recording) having quit. This station was the first programming project for Bill Drake after leaving RKO General.

Many of these “East Coast Airchecks” tapes came in undated, only labelled with the jock and station, thus we leave it up to our listeners to pinpoint when the aircheck was recorded.

This is the Banana Joe Flashback Show on Kiss-FM. Lots of promos for Rick Dees in the Morning, plenty of callers and tons of 80s hits are heard in this ultra high-energy scope that we’re guessing was probably made sometime around 1992 or 1993. CHR radio’s approach to an oldies show sounded incredible, especially since they only went back about 5-8 years. So, what hit station today bothers to do a live flashback show with local jocks? Anybody?

Thats what I thought.

Thanks to Robyn Watts for yet another great addition to the Airchexx archives!

Thanks again to the massive Robyn Watts collection, the late Don Steele is featured in this 7+ minute scope of K-Earth 101 from sometime in the early 90s, we’re guessing around ’91 or ’92. Charlie Van Dyke’s pipes are lower than ever in the incredible imaging, and the jingles…. well, KRTH has used a variation of nearly the same jingle sing for well over 30 years now so what does that tell ya?

Very few radio stations have had the same format or call letters, especially on FM, and with the exception of a small stretch of time in the early 80s when it was AC, KRTH has been blasting Oldies to Southern California. As of this writing, it still is.

Its always great to hear the gunner, and this is no exception… but why does your webmaster detect a hint of Dan Ingram sarcasm in Kelly’s delivery? Were it not for this exceptionally orchestrated set of KCBS-FM jingles and Southern California traffic reports, one could easily imagine being on the east coast and listening to 101.1 FM. Obviously this was a cloned station, CBS trying to imitate it’s NYC format in Los Angeles… and perhaps if not for KRTH being so well entrenched in the format, KCBS-FM could have done well.. but that’s a discussion for another time.

There is no date on this recording but we know that this is from a reasonably small window of time between July of 1991 when 93.1 got the KCBS-FM calls (switching from KODJ) and September 1993 when they dropped the Oldies format. Some of our listenters may remember the promotions and give us a better date estimate.

Bobby Ocean is the imaging voice.

One of the original Boss Jocks, the legendary Don Steele is heard puking his way through another fractiously tight show! Puking – thats what we in the business say about this kind of approach to 60s dj patter… you just have to listen if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Actually, its kind of a compliment used to describe RDS. Steele is remembered as one of the greatest jocks in L.A. radio history, along with Robert W. Morgan… together they helped propel KHJ to the top of the heap in 1967. Radio was just not done like this back then!

You get 17 minutes of pure KHJ heaven here, in an original AIRCHEXX recording you won’t hear elsewhere. It starts with a generous helping of KHJ news, a sports report.. and check out those car and Dr. Pepper commercials! They had Dr. Pepper in 1967? Who knew?

One of the early “Boss Jocks” from the most successful era at KHJ, here’s Humble Harve with a brief 7 minutes, ending with a short bit of KHJ news. More ’67 commercials, unedited for your enjoyment!

By the Summer of 1967, KFWB had been knocked down to 3rd place in the Los Angeles Top 40 race, due in part to KRLA’s initial rise to 1st place in 1964, when it overtook KFWB, and again in 1965 with the launching of “Boss Radio” 93/KHJ, which sent IT to first place in the first book. Also a factor was the crushing AFTRA strike which literally killed off the ratings for what had been the premier Top 40 station in 1958.

Its with this background that we present a great sounding, 1st generation recording of the late B. Mitchell Reed (died March 18, 1983). The show is lively and energetic… listening to this, I’m surprised that this station didn’t do better than KHJ. Its been said that one of the keys to KHJ’s success is that consultant Bill Drake managed to fit all the jock personality over a 10 second song intro, and got rid of all the other junk… anotherwords, kept the presentation TIGHT. In that regard, one could understand why KFWB was on the way out – too much chatter from Reed which wasn’t directly related to the music or topical (some of us still like that, though).

No matter which school of thought you’re from with regard to 60s radio formats, this aircheck is historic, at least for this site, as it’s only the second KFWB recording, and this is from a period in time which is less than a year away from the station’s flip to All-News, having been purchased by Westinghouse Broadcasting a short time earlier. Enjoy!

From our ‘annonymous’ donator’s collection from 2004

Courtesy of Chris Beckhouse, whose been archiving primarilly new CHR airchecks, we get this fairly recent recording of Valentine on Kiss-FM. Lots of high energy on this 26 and a half scope of the Los Angeles screamin’ CHR legend! This one speaks for itself…

How does a legend say goodbye to the second largest audience in America, not counting the then budding XM Satellite radio audience? How does this website even pay tribute to this particular morning, a day which many observers mark as one of the largest bloodlettings of all consolidation events since 1996? To be sure, one career’s demise is another’s beginning (we’re talking, of course, about Ryan Seacrest), but at least Clear Channel DID allow Dees one last show.

Chris Salisbury contributes this audio, writing that he used to work for Clear Channel, at an affiliate in Lancaster, CA on the “morning that Dees took his exit”, and recorded the entire show on minidisk. Indeed, he did a great job of scoping the final product down for us, and we have a nearly perfect, studio-quality hour and a half complete final show of the great Rick Dees on Kiss-FM! Thanks, Chris!

Contributor Leo Knott sent us a fascinating set of airchecks dealing with the history of black radio in the Los Angeles area. KGFJ was one of a handful of stations who, in the 1950s, dared to target the black community as its primary audience, with stunning results.

Knott sent in some newspaper clippings which I’ll try to scan and get posted regarding this remarkable station, but in the meantime, this particular aircheck is from a time of KGFJ’s attempted ‘revival’ of it’s glory status. This IS the 90s, after all, so the approach isn’t exactly the same way you might have heard it in the 50s and early 60s, but its good listening anyway.

There is a narration highlighting your contributor’s career milestones at the beginning of this aircheck.

There’s no doubt that Ryan Seacrest is a formidable talent, and this almost ten minute scope of him doing PM drive on Modern AC KYSR proves this beyond a doubt.

That said, I’m trying to come up with the right words for how I feel about a guy who later would push Rick Dees out of his chair at KIIS-FM, Kasey Casem right off of AT40, and become so visible on telvision so as to seemingly own pop culture among young adults. Good, yes. THAT good? I’ll leave that judgement up to you.

This website has chronicled so many great talents which graced the airwaves over the last 50 years or so that when one matches up the pm drivers from the various stations and markets, its really hard to find the absolute champ. I will tell you from MY perspective – perhaps I’m too old to understand why there’s much ‘entertainment’ on this particular afternoon show. Sure, Seacrest can hit the post and has some creative elements to his show, but comapre that with John Landecker doing PM drive on WLS back in ’81, Don Geronimo afternoons on WAVA, or… well, never mind – no comparison to the legendary Dan Ingram on WABC!!!

No, Seacrest isn’t the best, but he’s competent, major market material… and merely a guy who simply found a way with a boyish face to market himself properly to those with the money and position to place himself in the public’s eye. And in the end, aren’t we who do and love radio just a wee bit jealous that we didn’t know how to market ourselves like Seacrest. Just listen to him, just over nine years ago, when he was still just a live, local afternoon jock in Los Angeles, on the eve of de-throning a few legends…

Our good friend JR Russ down in DC sent this in today and I wanted to share it with you all, as this brings back so many memories of nights with my transistor AM radio back in my youth. Perhaps you too, remember…

Before anyone gets too excited, this is a short and rather difficult aircheck to listen to, as it was obviously recorded from a great distance from Los Angeles. Certainly, Terry Nelson sounded great on KFI and this would be an awesome aircheck, except for the fact that this is a DX catch and there’s just not quite enough carrier wave to give this the punch needed. But… for all you folks who sat through minutes, or sometimes HOURS of fading, just to hear your favorite station come in at night… this will bring back memories of a time so long forgotten now.

You know, the kids of today will barely sit through 30 seconds of non music programming on an FM station, never mind a signal that fades away in the middle of their favorite song. That’s the big difference between my generation, and today’s CHR consumer of 16 years old. I’d sit all night and put up with the fading because I loved the STATION more than the music. Oh… for the old days.

Proving once again that the life of a radio DJ is filled with one move after another, here’s the late Big Ron O’Brien rocking southern California on a miserably hot day at Kiss-FM. Yes, Rick Dees is the morning guy by this time, and O’Brien was making the rounds of the nation’s top 10 radio markets. This particular show finds O’Brien working through a rare 90-plus degree Santa Anna heatwave as L.A. bakes its way through early 1983.

If you hated the hit music in the months between March – October ’83, with artists like Culture Club, Kajagoogoo and the like, you’ll cringe – but fortunately this is scoped, so the tourture is short lived. Everything else about this recording is great however, including O’Brien, who sounds like he’s matured… well, okay this is about 6 years after we heard him on WXLO 99X.

Enjoy this, newly discovered recording of a legendary station and jock, both in their prime years.

Jingle freaks will notice the JAM WLS-FM package in use customized for KIIS-FM

93 KHJ returns as an Oldies station after a two year run playing Country music! Dispite the on air promo which mimics KHJ’s original Boss Radio launch in 1965, the first Dick Whittington show is kind of awkward, probably due to the fact that Mr. Whittington is unfamiliar with KHJs control room – and he makes mention of it repeatedly on the air. We know virtually nothing about Dick Whittington’s career but generally, former listeners have fond memories of him.

The formatics are in place, however, and one can easily understand where KHJ was going with this in 1983. The bright spots on this recording are the original KHJ Johnny Mann Jingles, and the news department (although the first newscast features AP Network news instead of the local news team).

Despite the technical glitches, this really is an historical recording. It’s the beginning of a new era at KHJ, even if the station is trying to recapture lighting in a bottle (WE would have just played airchecks of the first day of KHJ in 1965 for the first day of KHJ’s Oldies format – but Airchexx wasn’t around in 1983!). There would be one more after this attempt: Car Radio, which would last until 1986, and a call letter change. That story, we’ll present at another time. Listen for important news items – Columbian earthquake relief, Economic Recovery (doesn’t THAT hit home!), Space Shuttle delays liftoff, and the anniversary of MLK’s assassination.

This mysterious aircheck is chock full of similarities and opposites. First off, compare the music playlist to another aircheck we have here from WKBW, from January 28, 1979. Nearly identical, except for KHJ is REALLY rockin’! Second, August 26, 1977, we have an aircheck of the Unknown DJ on WNBC… That guy was the one and only Jackson Armstrong. Compare that with this one. Now, is the Unknown DJ on KHJ the same guy as the Unknown DJ on WNBC? Compare the voices, because the approach is completely different.

Now that we’ve said all that, a few notes about KHJ. 93 KHJ would change formats from Top 40 to Country later in 1979, a format that would last a few years until it was flipped first, to Smokin’ Oldies, then as a Top 40 / Recurrent format featuring mainly traffic reports known as ‘Car Radio’, before expring as a music format in 1986. This aircheck is from the tail end of the original, REAL Top 40 format.

You’ll notice one very striking similarity between this aircheck, and the Bob Pittman era at WNBC… the music and personality (or lack of) approach on air. It was bland. Good voices, great music, but nothing to attract and hold an audience, as KHJ, WNBC and many other old AM Top 40 stations tried one last valliant time keep the FM wolves at bay. 1979 was really the end of it, not just for KHJ, but hundreds of AM stations, many of which flipped to Standards or some other format in 1980. But this… between the quality of the recording, probably on a wideband table radio (remember, AM still had 12khz of bandwidth back then instead of 9k today) and the music, this aircheck is AWESOME to listen to. Remember kids, this is AM you’re listening to.

Posting a variation on a theme here. We’ve got yet another recording of KOST Los Angeles, this time featuring Karen Sharpe doing Loves Songs At Night. To think… this WASN’T Delilah, but rather a local show!

It’s rather appropriate to do this scoped look at how KOST sounded like at just the turn of this decade… my oh my how things have changed, so drastically in the last year. This one is by popular request!

New contributor Steven Sellers emailed in this quick recording of himself on what was Pirate Radio just before the time of this recording. Steven recalls:

A consultant had just come in at stripped everything ‘Pirate’ off of the air and we were called ’100.3′ . This was just months before we were sold to Viacom and became a ‘light’ station. The aircheck is from morning drive. I was the ‘rock and roll newsman’ on the morning show with Greg Stevens

Steven sent in several recordings and we’ll feature another one soon!

Description by Contributor…

This aircheck features myself at Stevie Wonder’s KJLH (Kindness, Joy, Love and Happiness)… My longest stint as a jock.

Had nice success with KJLH’s Sunday Oldies Show — (#1 Arbitron. Took my oldies act to KACE, LA — #8 Arbitron).

Tape ends with a little bit of KGFJ… I went to their Oldies format in 1990.

Thanks, Leo for a great contribution!

Courtesy of new contributor Leo Knott comes this reasonably low-fidelity recording of various Rick Dees morning shows during his time at 93 KHJ.

Dees fans note that this is so tightly scoped down that there’s barely a hint of KHJ jingles, no music and is otherwise somewhat boring to the average listener because of the stark lack of station programming elements. But, you’ll get a good feel for what the Rick Dees morning show was and how it evolved into what it became when he transitioned over to KIIS after this, the next-to-last morning show on the old Top 40 KHJ.

Here’s what the contributor writes about this recording:

“Rick has a cast of characters on this tape and great impersonations. Starts out with a take on Bette Davis, absolutely hilarious. Plus, Willard Wiseman, The Rev. and others.

The Groaning Barrett impersonation is a take of days gone by GMA’s roving correspondent Rona Barrett. There (are) lots of funny bits on this tape and Dees is at his best in putting it all together.

Newsman Lee Marshall plays well with the gang.”

- Leo Knott

Here’s another in a series of KOST airchecks contributed by Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks – this time featuring Joshua Escandone.

As the 90s drew to a close, almost every market had a soft AC, playing very sleepy, mostly slow, albeit modern music with an occasional uptempo song. Most were top billing stations with real personalities who were allowed to do more than read liners, yet not go into an uptempo talkup over the music. Like the format or not, these stations usually were one of the top rated stations in their respective markets, within their demographics – much of it attributed to at-work listening.

KOST owned it’s demo in Los Angeles. The morning show of Mark & Kim was one of the most respected in the market. The rest of the day wasn’t too shabby either.

As of this writing, KOST station owner Clear Channel Communications is well on it’s way to being sold to SOMEONE in a private buyout deal, and it appears that CC is gutting most of the top stations in an effort to maximize profits. A number of high-profile personalites at many of it’s stations have raised the ire of listeners and some inside the industry… perhaps most notably (for us at Airchexx, anyway) was the recent firing of Kim Amidon from KOST. We hope she’s doing well… but given her impressive numbers for so many years doing wakeups, we think she’ll do fine.

This aircheck is part of a series intended to give KOST listeners a feel for what their favorite station sounded like, from a time not so long ago

With all the comments from listeners who really love and miss hearing Kim Amidon on KOST, after her ouster, I thought it would be nice to dig up an aircheck that goes back almost to the beginning. But first, a word from the source.

Mark Wallengren has a few words posted on his blog about Kim, that KOST has allowed be printed. Whether it’s sanitized to put a positive spin on a sad occasion, is up to you to decide… this is CLEAR CHANNEL, after all.

We really can’t post mark’s entire comment on the subject, but I think it’s fair that a few words make it onto this page…

…”She is a remarkable woman and will always remain one of my dearest friends and family members.

We can all speculate and try to wrap our heads around what ever process occurred that concluded that despite all our past and current success her services would no longer be needed. But let us not forget, she broke ground, was feisty, she couldn’t be ignored and is an incredible example to any woman in this business.

Will Kim be o.k.? You bet. Will I be o.k.? Yes. Will the station be o.k.? With your help, absolutely. Will I miss her? What do you think?”

You may read the entire blog by clicking HERE.

Meantime, while you’re all busy thinking about Kim Amidon, lets all go back to when it was fresh… at 8:20 scoped, here’s the Mark & Kim Show from 7/2/86

From our increasingly-reliable source at our sister site, the Aircheck Trader’s Board at www.radioinsight.com, comes this original recording of HitRadio 93 KKHR. Outside of the year, we can’t really determine the date, but perhaps it doesn’t matter.

CBS really had a good thing on its hands with its’ branded “HitRadio” CHR format. Stations like KKHR, KHTR St. Louis and WHTT Boston all had tremendous appeal, and for a short while the format burned a hole through contemporary music in the 80s. Perhaps that was the problem, however. Songs in extremely tight rotation that burned themselves out with the audience. Perhaps we’ll never know exactly what spelled doom for HitRadio, but it sure was fun to listen to.

It’s wierd, listening to this era once again. While there is a ton of history associated with the few monster Top 40 stations of the day, such as WABC, WLS and KHJ, less is available about the more, Middle Of the Road (MOR) stations heard in at the start of the 70s.

KMPC was owned by Country & Western star Gene Autry. In addition to movies and singing, Autry was also a broadcaster. KMPC could possibly be compared in sound & format to the old WNEW Eleven Three Oh in New York… at least in the area of on-air presentation. This was a personality-oriented station that never achieved, or even tried, to compete musically, with crosstown KHJ or KFWB. And despite the fact that KMPC was always known as an adult station, it always had a loyal following, and some big named personalities.

Gary Owens‘ career was rolling along smoothly in 1970, with a daily show on KMPC and the voice of numerous television shows including Rowan Martin’s “Laugh In”. It sure is good to hear him again!

Thanks to Big Ron O’Brien for this aircheck master, provided via Matt @ BigAppleAirchecks!

Thanks to our good friends at California Aircheck, we have a fresh copy of this excellent aircheck! This is right from the master copy so enjoy, and be sure to visit their website for more goodies!

Certainly, Kiss-FM is and has been the premier Top 40 station in L.A. for decades now, but what’s this slogan, “The Hits of the 80s and 90s”? Sounds AC-ish. Indeed, listening to this recording the music is what we’d think of as Adult Contemporary by today’s standards, but this is CHR and it illustrates just where the format has been.

Bruce Vidal is sounding good here, albeit a bit like Rick Dees (at least the voice is similar).

Simply put, this is by far, the #1 ranked aircheck on this site! Recorded sometime in the 1990s, here’s Mark Wallengren & Kim Amidon and their former wildly popular “Mark & Kim” morning show on KOST 103.5.

Judging from the comments posted about this recording, its clear that this morning team was perhaps the most popular in Southern California. Shortly after we posted this aircheck, Kim Amidon was let go by parent company Clear Channel Communications. The morning show has never been the same, but the listener comments continue posting even today, as this has become THE place for current and former listeners to vent.

Courtesy of contributor Robyn Watts!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of our ole buddy Matt at Big Apple Airchecks, since we’re on the subject of change (the only constant in radio), the final show for master programmer Scott Shannon at L.A.’s Pirate Radio!

“At Pirate Radio, our ratings are so low, it really doesn’t matter what we do. BITE ME!” That’s how this clip starts out, and sets the tone for the whole 14 minute aircheck. 1991. A time before corporate mergers and bottom line mentality trumped creativity. If you’re going to go, go out in STYLE!

Here’s the one aircheck which documents the beginning of a legend. 93 KHJ. A station whose format, conceived and implemented by consultant Bill Drake, began a revolution in the way top 40 radio was presented.

While other segments of this broadcast are available in other places on the web, we have not only the audio from legends like Dave Diamond, Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele, but we also are featuring a few minutes of KHJ’s previous format leading into this ‘Sneak Preview’, and a portion of the “Million Dollar Battle” – a program featuring the hits from 1950 right up to the date of the start of ‘Boss Radio’ played one year at a time. This was a program which tied together the old format with the new… and Boss Radio, 93/KHJ actually began at this program’s conclusion.

So, we have the whole enchilada this week… tell your friends – listen right here, right now!

If anyone disputes the existance of disc-jockeys prior to, say, 1953, this removes all doubt.

Presenting, the oldest aircheck on our site! Here’s what can best be described as a WAY before it’s time live radio show from 1947! You’ll hear car commercials, old records, sped up (and slowed down) commercials of all kinds, and more. The announcer is Jim Hawthorne, who reads back some humorous listener letters and there really is a live cast in the studio! Hawthorne passed on to that great radio station in the sky on November 7, 2007. Our condolences to his family and friends.

Hard to believe this survived from 1947, I suspect this was taped from a record made of this broadcast.

Anyone still around who remembers this station? We’d sure like to read your comments!

Here’s an extremely RARE look at L.A.’s K-Earth 101. This is not the Oldies format that fans know and love, it’s a glimpse back into a very short era when KRTH was AC. Do not confuse this scoped aircheck with another, similar recording posted on this site from around the same time period (I think they are days apart) featuring Pat Evans and Brian Bierne. These are on separate tapes.

Notables: This was recorded by my brother Mike, who was on a vacation visiting relatives for the Summer. He sent this to me in August, ’81… what a nice gift that was (nicer gift was finding this at my dad’s house last week, after all these years!).

Honestly, you won’t believe your ears. While this is scoped to comply with copyright law, I kept the transitions and the old commercials… here’s Brother John (not John Rivers from K-Love) along with spots for The Gap, featuring Terry David Mulligan (remember those?), concerts at The Greek, and a TON of dead segues!

This aircheck was recorded on Scotch brand Highlander tape – some of the lowest quality recording tape you could have bought back then… still, while I converted this to mono, the audio is superb after 24 and a half years!

Yes, gang, 1981 was a long time ago indeed!

Bob Dayton had come from 77 WABC about a year or so before this aircheck was recorded. Its interesting to hear an ‘east coast’ jock doing his thing on a rather laid-back KRLA. The L.A. market was down to just two Top 40 stations at this time; KRLA and of course, 93 KHJ. Nobody was going to beat KHJ and it was obvious that KRLA had to take a different approach to it’s on air style.

This aircheck was provided on reel. It was recorded at 3.75 ips, and despite the slow speed and being 36 years old, the tape survived well. I did some light hiss removal, not because there was a lot on the tape, but for some odd reason the signal had a larger than usual amount of hiss on it. Someone recording next to a telephone pole maybe?

One note, on the tape box, it says ‘Sept. 69′, but Bob Dayton is heard at the beginning making reference to August first, 1969. In context, he’s referring to Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon… but it could have been the actual date of the recording.

Also heard on this aircheck, Russ O’Hara. I know nothing about Russ, so I’d appreciate any comments that our listeners can provide. I will say that I really enjoyed hearing O’Hara’s laid back style and voice tone. Not that it matters in today’s radio world, but the tone of an announcer’s voice WAS important in radio in 1969… for the benefit of our younger audience, that’s just another aspect of good radio that’s very much lost on today’s radio programmers. But I digress.

This ‘check is from a time when KIIS was still simulcasting 102.7 with 1150 AM Stereo. Compare that with this and see why Kiss-FM was such a powerhouse station (some say it still is).

This one’s courtesy of Robyn Watts’ fabulously enormous collection – one which we’ll be posting material from for years, literally!

Beaver Cleaver on 10-Q! Now this is what you call great radio! At only 6 minutes, this one’s short & scoped but you’ll get a feel for shotgun AM Top 40, just about 3 years from the end of it. It’s radio done right, by people who got it.

Click HERE to Listen!

This is one of those modern-day airchecks that sounds good and we think is relevant. After prying this aircheck out of his hands, Lance says this sat on a DAT tape in the back of his car for the last four years (and I thought finding old those baby diapers under the seat was bad… always wondered what that was). For both our sakes, the tape was virtually undamaged despite air temps here in the south in the mid 90s – so you know this aircheck was cooked.

Actually, Lance is COOKIN’ on this scope of Hot AC K-BIG 104. Check it out!

Click HERE to Listen!

Happy Anniversary Boss Radio! Its the Silver Anniversary of a Top 40 format created and nurtured by consultant Bill Drake, and we’ve got one special aircheck for this occasion.

Before you listen to this aircheck, it might be worthwhile to head to a website that’s devoted to KHJ’s storied history. Boss Radio Forever. It’s webmaster, Woody Goulart, has written extensively about the subject of KHJ and Bill Drake’s influence on L.A. radio. So, check it out.

Happy 40th! Radio has never been the same.

Click HERE to Listen!

“KKDJ… With over Eight-Thousand minutes of music a week”

Your humble webmaster has virtually no information on this station. That said, after listening and producing it for exhibit, KKDJ sounds like a complete rip-off of WWDJ Hackensack NJ. That, or it’s just a good guess.

You’ll hear a pretty unknown DJ, what sounds like ripped-off Johnny Mann Singers jingles, and the hits of the day. It’s still good listening. Hopefully, someone knows a lot more than I about this station and will post a comment or two.

Click HERE to Listen!

And now, we head back to the beginning of a legend. This is all too short, but gives you a good feel for what was then a brand new station in L.A., ‘Boss Radio’ 93 KHJ.

If you’re used to hearing later airchecks of The Real Don Steele, you’ll find him a bit stiff here, but then again, he’d develop into somewhat of a legend. And no, Tina Delgado isn’t heard about ANYWHERE on this short look into KHJ history – but if you know what I’m talking about, Tina Delgado is alive, ALIVE!!!

There’s been so much written about this Sneak Preview already – available elsewhere on the web – so just enjoy this clip.

Click HERE to Listen!

An historical relic. KFWB was the first Top 40 station in Los Angeles. Long before KHJ decided to turn up the volume, KFWB’s Swinging Gentlemen cranked out the hits.

It lasted until 1969. Now, hear the beginning of a legend.

Click HERE to Listen!

I ran across this and quite frankly, I’m amazed. I’ll call this the very first example of a Top 40 format anywhere in the country.

I suspect that this was merely a program during the station’s broadcast day, not an entire format – in 1949 radio was much different.

What you’ll hear is a scoped version of a music program featuring artists of the day like Vaugn Monroe and other Big Band/Standards-type songs with were the popular music of the day. It’s a LOCAL program from 930 KHJ – some 15 years before “Boss Radio” was launched.

Click HERE to Listen!

If you haven’t heard this aircheck before, you’re definitely in for a treat. Memphians know that Rick Dees was a huge star at WHBQ around the time of this aircheck. And if you think he was good there, put Dees in the same studio as Charlie Van Dyke and you have a trainwreck… or the funniest morning show ever in Boss-Angeles (oops, sorry.. wrong era).

This is vintage KHJ from 1976. Rick Dees’s Disco Duck record is number one in Los Angeles, and apparently doing a tour of RKO stations to promote it. Obviously someone in Southern California was listening this day and remembered several years later when Dees took over mornings at KIIS.

Van Dyke is definitely right on top of his game here.

Click HERE to Listen!

Back to the old Power-Spins page we go and an add from the Summer of ’03. M.G. (Machine Gun) Kelly is truly a West Coast legend. Here’s a guy who was a power jock at KCBQ San Diego back in the day (somewhere there’s a composite of MGK at KCBQ from ’74… I heard it on vynl some 20 years ago), worked his way up through L.A. radio, then retired in ’79 to go into pictures (well, “B” films, anyway), only to return on 64 KFI in it’s “Amazin’ AM” Stereo days.

Well, this was one of the Gunner’s last gig’s before that ill-fated venture onto the big screen (okay, movies are never ill-fated). Not to diss Kelly, I think he’s one of the very best to ever crack a mic, and man, you can sure feel the rhythm of THIS show! KTNQ – was this an ass-kickin’ station or what?!

Click HERE to Listen!

In researching the format change of KNX-FM to KKHR, I ran across a fact I wasn’t aware of. After the ‘HitRadio 93 era, KKHR returned to the KNX-FM call letters as an Adult Rock station, before flipping to Oldies as KCBS-FM. Wow, I didn’t know that till today. And, wouldn’t we love to have THOSE format changes!

Click HERE to Listen!

We hear that last Thursday was the anniversary of the death of this dance station in Los Angeles. Well, we received this aircheck early this Summer (June, ’04) and figured now would be a good time to post it.

Click HERE to Listen!

Posted by permission. This aircheck is one of only a few from a real Boss Jock. Beauregard Rodreguez Weaver is the clown behind the microphone on this aircheck already available on Weaver’s own website.

One listen to this is reason enough to wish for the good ol’ days of RKO General – undeniably the Clear Channel of their time. Our thanks to Beau Weaver (Amateur Radio W6KHJ) for personally providing this aircheck!

Interestingly enough, Beau is a featured jock on a low powered (LP) FM station, KHJA, Madras Oregon! If you enjoy “Boss Radio”, check out…

In the Summer of 1981, my brother Mike spent his Summer vacation in Los Angeles with relatives and while there, recorded a few tapes of L.A. radio. of the 3 I had at one time, only this survived.

The aircheck starts with Pat Evans’ morning show, then moves on into the mid-day with Mr. Rock & Roll Brian Bierne.

Click HERE to Listen!