Airchexx.com

Mid-South Radar picture from National Weather Service, 5/2/10

Your webmaster captured the audio from two Memphis Television stations, figuring this might have some historical value. No, it’s not a classic aircheck (although someday it might be). But it is of importance for people who might want to know.

Our prayers go out to all the victims and to those frightened by the sheer intensity of it all.

Your webmaster was privilaged to be a radio jock for 29 years. Out of it now, but some great memories remain. Here’s a bit of my work on WGKX “Kix 106″ Country.

FM 100 was the culmination of a career to me. True, I was only full time there for one Summer, but the station’s reputation, the life, the energy… the whole aura that surrounded this station put me in a trance from the first day I entered the building.

I can’t say why I hold such an emotional attachment to WMC-FM. I will say that this particular evening was the last time I was on major market radio, the last time I got to interact with callers or really be myself on a commercial radio station. Given my feelings toward this station, and Memphis, Tennessee, its little wonder why I was very emotional on this day.

At the end of this, is my farewell to Memphis. Nobody does a farewell… I figured what the heck. I wasn’t going to get to be on Memphis radio anymore. So, I had this really good speech I wanted to give, and wouldn’t you know it… my son, who was at the station with me, decided at that moment to enter the studio and just start talking to me while I was trying to speak… thus, lots of long pauses as I tried to remember exactly what I wanted to say but hadn’t written it down. Kids hahahaha…. But in the end, it was my son who was the reason I had to leave in the first place, so perhaps it was appropriate that he be there to remind me that it wasn’t the listeners or even radio that my first responsibility was to.

Nevermind. I’m just rambling.

If you’re a radio person, how did you leave your last gig?

From Henry’s own demo collection which he unselfishly donated to Airchexx back in 2004, here’s Henry Nelson (WMC-FM, WEGR, WRBO) back on the old K97 when it was still a mix of Top 40 and Urban hits.  An 8 minute scope here, one gets a feel for the station’s format, and of what it would eventually evolve into – Memphis’ legendary Urban station that consistantly ranks in the top 3 book after consecutive book.

Both K97 and Nelson are legendary in Memphis.  WHRK was (and still is) the FM station of the mother of all R&B stations, 1070 WDIA.  There is more on the history of this station on the web, so we won’t go into the long history of 97.1 FM.  Henry Nelson – Well, he’s been at nearly every station in Memphis (all of us who worked there seemingly ended up at at least half of them!), did mornings, at least that I KNOW about, on K97 and at WRBO for a few years before Citadel blew out the locals and started airing syndication in 2005.

The list of legendary performers who got their start in part by their exposure on WDIA ‘back in the day’, is seemingly endless, from B.B. King to Barry White and so many others.. and most ended up over the years, at least the latter ones, on K97 after its split from the AM.

True, today K97 is nothing less than a full blown Urban Rap station – and I suppose is earning it’s own reputation for greatness with a very young generation… but for the rest of us who remember what pop music was like, skewed either to a Rock or R&B direction… this quick scope of WHRK Memphis is great, and speaks volumes as to where Urban radio went after 1984.

Just a few days before the cataclysmic landfall of Hurricane Katrina, I was enjoying doing another “Whatever Weekend” show on FM 100. Its funny how fate works. I never thought to record this particular evening and never had a recording of it, yet it’s one of the best from all my years in radio.

Then owned by CBS (now Entercom), WMC-FM was HOT! Trying hard to maintain a decent lead over crosstown WMBZ (the Buzz), which was in it’s death throes, PD Lance Ballance pushed the music envelope right to the edge with these “Whatever Weekends” – CBS’ (Infinity) answer to the emerging “Jack” variety hits format. At the time of this recording, I was at the end of a 4 month run as the weeknight host while they looked for a replacement to the previous host who abruptly quit back in May. So, I was it.

Enough about me. This is the hottest FM 100 sounded in years, and the amount of energy expended on air is breathtaking. Listen for rock, disco, dance, callers asking where to party, and at the tail end of this 16 minute scope, my brother Mike, stuck in New Orleans desperately waiting for a flight out back to Massachusetts. He did get one, the LAST flight out of New Orleans International before Katrina arrived.

Many thanks to Patrick in Memphis for recording this. I never thought THIS show would find it’s way back to me and never recorded it – they say you’re pretty good if others record you, so THANKS PATRICK! I’m flattered beyond words!

Courtesy of Skip Reynolds, CE of Entercom Memphis…

Skip tells us he found this tape at the transmitter site of what is now WSMB 680 a while back. This is an original recording of Harry Chapman, the morning man on what was Plough, Incorporated owned WMPS.

Listen to the old commercials! We couldn’t recreate the “quaintness” of these old swing-era sings. WMPS sounds very Middle of the Road here, playing hits from Ray Charles, the Four Seasons and some lesser known regional hits. Without hearing the rest of the broadcast day it’s hard to get a feel for WMPS’ format, but the station is VERY sold out, with this 45 minute morning show clip being more commercial load than music. Lots of live reads.

Ever wonder what early 60s radio sounded like… radio before the British Invasion? Here’s your history lesson.

You may have heard about the big Arkansas tornado on Saturday. Well, we were watching this aim STRAIGHT for Memphis and coincidently I decided to record the local coverage, just in case.

When you listen to this aircheck, see how detail oriented the local weather guys are, This might be interesting to listen to for those who live outside ‘Tornado Alley’.

As a new service to our visitors, you can now view the latest breaking weather video from AccuWeather.

This one is very much an example of the cause-and-effect of corporate mergers. Consider the previous format change at 94.1 FM. Entercom had just closed on the purchase of WOGY-FM from Sinclair Broadcasting in January, 2000. The ink was barely dry on this purchase when it became obvious to most observers that the writing was on the wall for the country station known as “Froggy 94″. Rumors had abounded for months about a flip to something – top candidate was a format known as “The Buzz” – the slogan for the station 94.1 would become in January ’01. The difference was, in the Fall of ’00, “The Buzz” was the monikker for Entercom’s then hot 80s format, not Modern AC.

When the Buzz format launched, there were high company hopes that this station would fit well between HotAC WMC-FM 100, Alternative 92.9 WMFS and even CHR 107.5 Kiss-FM, while complimenting sister (and ratings/revenue monster) WRVR 104.5 The River. While at the outset the format change and music mix did attract a lot of listener attention and did pull from the above named stations, the effect was not as long-lived as Entercom would hope. The Buzz did manage to sound the death knell for then WKSL ‘Kiss-FM’ (it flipped first to Rhythmic WYYL “Wild 107.5″, then became home to AAA WMPS 107.5 “The Memphis Pig” before returning to CHR in 2003 as WHBQ-FM “Q107.5″), and spark minor format tweaks at WMC-FM, but overall it was not enough.

PD and morning host Kramer was relieved of his duties in 2004, replaced first by the team of Brad & Dana, then later by the syndicated “Kid Kraddock in the Morning” show. Brad & Dana would move to afternoons when perhaps the only format icon on the station, Argo, was released in 2005 to make room for Kraddock. With most of the format staple jocks gone, ratings continued to slump as the music was tweaked from core Adult Alternative crossovers to a more pop mix. In fact, 94.1 began an irreversable downward slide in ’04 which continued until the format was finally put out of its misery, following the purchase of former rivals WMC-FM and WMFS.

This is just about the shortest aircheck on the site, but we’ve added it because there is no audio that we can find anywhere from this era of 98.1 FM in Memphis. Contributed by Henry Nelson, PD of WRBO Memphis in a box of what he termed ‘junk’ (one man’s junk is another man’s treasure…), this will bring back memories to a few Memphians who may remember.

From what we can gather, this station originally had its transmitter on the west side of the Mississippi River (thus, the ‘K’ call) prior to its sale to Barnstable broadcasting in the 90s and subsequent move to Millington, a northern suburb of Memphis in Shelby County. One other interesting point: 98.1 FM has had numerous format changes over the years, this CHR incarnation just one of many formats, including Oldies, Classic Hits and others.

This station is currently owned by Citadel Broadcasting, and known as Classic Rocker “98-1 The Max”

With ratings continuing to slowly fall, aging demos and a business core becoming more unwilling to advertize to persons over 55, Entercom pulled the plug on its AM Standard’s outlet WJCE. The call letters were originally chosen to compliment an Urban AC format called “The Juice” some years earlier and were not changed when that format expired after the emergence of crosstown FM Urban AC 103.5 WRBO.

So, with little fanfare and virtually NO imaging or announcements whatsoever, the music was pulled in the middle of a song and the CNN News feed simply clicked in, followed by the Al Franken show on the Air America Network.

One of the most haphazard format changes heard in ages. We present it to you as a scoped 10+ minute audio time capsule, to serve as a place holder for the next format change that will inevitably happen to this noisy unkempt AM signal which was once home to Rick Dees, Terrence McKeever, Roy Mack and others in it’s heyday of the 60s and 70s as Plough Broadcasting’s WMPS.

And, to confuse you further, Locally owned and operated WMPS now occupies AM 1210, after having been moved by Flinn Broadcasting from 96.1 to 107.5 and then to internet only, only to resurrect them on the aforementioned AM 1210 in 2005.

Lost, are you? This audio clip should explain it all.

Well… Look what we found lurking on the back of a KLIF tape… Dueling Top 40 stations 56 WHBQ (RKO General) and 68 WMPS (Plough)!

Imagine the surprise hearing this tape. Rob Grayson, where are ya! This is from before the Memphis appearance of Rick Dees, before FM 100 was Top 40… even before FM was even popular!

Regardless of how good these stations sound here, the number one station hands down in the city was neither. It was the Soul station, WDIA 1070. And the Memphis sound sure is heard all over this aircheck. Take a listen and go back to a more troubled time, almost 34 years ago!

Was it really that long?

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!

Here’s something totally different for this site. Digital TV. You’ve heard about it and perhaps a few of you have it. For the majority of folks who don’t, here’s what it looks like.

This is one of the alternate ‘channels’ within WREG’s DTV stream. It’s called WREG Anytime. Basically, it’s a framed channel, with an embedded radar image and a continuous looping of the most recent newscast.

I recorded this the night before moving to Massachusetts from the main DTV channel. Wanna know what happened in Memphis Tennessee on Halloween night 2005? Wanna see what DTV looks like before you purchase one? Here’s your chance!

Capt. Pat Adams, Kix 106′s traffic guru and integral part of the Young & Elder morning show, retired after 40 continuous years in Memphis radio.

Adams’ first career was as a Memphis city police officer. Only the good Captain can tell the vast number of stories he has to tell of his time on the MPD, but among the highlights…. he arrested Elvis Presley and he was on duty the night Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Later, while still a police officer, Adams was one of the very first traffic reporters on Memphis radio, doing reports from a helicopter for 790 WMC Country.

During his time in radio since retiring from police duty, Pat Adams has worked with nearly every major figure in Memphis radio, and many in television, and he is known and loved by nearly every radio listener in the market – even County Mayor A.C. Wharton and U.S. Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. call themselves his fans.

So it is that on this hot day in June, it was time for Pat’s many friends, co-workers and his beloved listeners got their turn to show their appreciation to a man that everyone lovingly called “Captain Pat”…

* Click HERE to listen to Part 1
* Click HERE to listen to Part 2

On a personal note, I’d like to say that having had the privilage of working with Capt. Pat for almost 3 years, I can honestly say that he is a warm, caring person, and a brutally honest one who often gave good, fatherly advice. He was always there when someone needed to talk. Someone may be able to competently do his job, but nobody can ever take his place.

Memphis listeners and friends are cordially invited to leave comments under this exhibit. We know he will appreciate them!

“…You love me but you don’t know who I am.”

Well… I AM your friendly webmaster! Wishful thinking?

Hi gang! I don’t usually post ‘current’ airchecks unless it’s something special but what the heck. Your allegedly humble webmaster has a new gig and I thought I’d share my first night on the air with you. I don’t pretend to be the best jock in the city– far from it, and this IS AC radio after all, but there’s more station than me here, and so at 290,000 watts ERP, you can hear what the most powerful FM station in the U.S. sounds like these days.

I didn’t realize that Scott Shannon launched the CHR incarnation of FM 100 back in the 80s before heading to legendary status at Z-100 New York. No wonder. Most of the staff has been here for a long time… Morning guys Ron Olsen & Steve Conley and PM driver Tom Prestiagacamo have all been at FM 100 for over 20 years. It’s with this heritage that I’m humbled to be the newest addition to the staff, albeit just part time.

This is HotAC – but back in the 80s what you hear now would definitely have qualified as bone-fide CHR… the station cooks!

Click HERE to Listen!

Okay, as promised we have more of WSRR in what could be it’s final incarnation as Classic Hits – or so the radio boards are saying. While this website is devoted to classic radio stations, on occasion we feature new material. This is one of those times.

We featured Rich Brother Robin over the weekend, just smokin’ at KCBQ San Diego in 1973. Reaction: plenty! I played that cut for a friend at work and she couldn’t believe that: A. It was Richbro so long ago, and B. It was AM radio! Well, that was in ’73. This is now.

Rich not only programs WSRR, but he’s the crack afternoon guy. Gotta hand it to him, he’s lost none of the energy he had in his younger years. Not to editorialize too much here, but this is something totally lost on this generation of radio. And some wonder why Satellite radio is gaining so much in popularity, and radio listening is down so much in recent years.

My final comment on this, probably the last aircheck I’ll do of WSRR (except for any potential format change), is I can’t understand why this station never, in all it’s incarnations of Classic Hits, ever really garnered decent ratings. It sounds better than anything else in town. Perhaps it’s the demographics. Memphis is an Urban city, after all… but crosstown WEGR ‘Rock 103′ had excellent ratings up till this past year. And they had very little in the way of excitement – your typical Clear Channel Classic Rocker. So, I suppose this post here will become the footnote of another station which will soon disappear in favor of something else.

Click HERE to Listen!

We seem to have hit the gold mine on this aircheck. As of this writing it’s our number one most streamed! Archived Material

Since posting, the Classic Hits format of “The Cat” is no more, replaced, first, by a stunt consisting of all album sides of Classic Rock bands – one of the more popular stunts I’ve seen. Then, the new format launched with very little fanfare. Maximum Rock 98.1 The Maxx was ‘officially’ born on the first Friday in April. Listener feedback continues to be mixed, but you’ll be happy to note that this post with it’s growing list of comments is now (in the words of one poster), the de-facto site for information on WSRR/WXMX Memphis.

How’d we do that?

Anyway, back to the audio feature. This aircheck is from the very last week of the Classic Hits format – featuring Kay Manley and Rich “Brother” Robin. Judging from the number of comments, this station was far more popular than station management thought! If you haven’t yet, listen. It’s good!

Click HERE to Listen!

P.S. – Where are they now? Richbro is in San Diego (and I’m waiting to hear from him) – and Kay Manley? She just did her first show on WGKX “Kix 106″ – about six hours after your webmaster’s shift there on April 16th. She’s just got weekends for now, so you Memphians be sure to call in with encouragement for her, she’s an AC hound but can do anything.

Courtesy of contributor Charlie Allen, we have this look at WHBQ and a snippet of WMPS (then AM 680) Memphis.

This is an important aircheck from a historical standpoint. You’ll hear a bit of Jay Cooke doing an outro and reading a live commercial. Then, Roy Mack on WMPS… what a puker! The aircheck then moves ahead to WHBQ 20/20 News with Charles Allen Reporting.

WHBQ was still broadcasting from the Hotel Chisca at this point. Been a very long time since that was the case. RKO General owned WHBQ and this aircheck is from before Bill Drake took over consulting the station. It was number one in all demos at this time. IIRC, Jack Parnell said he was programming HBQ at this time – I’ll ask again to verify.

Click HERE to Listen!

Here’s a couple of jocks who haven’t been heard in Memphis for quite a few years. The staff at WHBQ was as good in 1977 as at any time in the station’s history and the sound of RKO’s Memphis presence is at least equal to that in their other major markets like Boston and L.A. Think back and remember when these guys were on the radio: Rick Dees & Terrence McKeever, Rob Gracin, Bob Landry, Walt Jackson… and others. It was a great time to be on the radio in the RKO chain, and certainly a treat for listeners who haven’t heard anything like it in decades.

Listen here for Darth Vader, Elton John, John “Q” Public (Dees), Jackson & Landry – not necessarilly in that order. And, for those of you in Memphis, when was the last time you’d be caught dead in Whitehaven? Thanks Mr. Herenton.

Click HERE to Listen!

Here’s your 36-minute history lesson. Listen carefully, there will be a test afterwards.

This is the tale of three legends. A performer, a future game-show host and a legendary Top 40 radio station. Put it all together and you have Wink Martindale interviewing Elvis Presley on WHBQ radio in Memphis.

To many of our younger listeners, this aircheck will have little meaning. In this Usher-Britney-Korn music environment, Elvis is as foreign as Jakarta, which many kids only learned about this week after the tsunami disaster. Wink Martindale hasn’t done a new game show in years (although he is still a dj – on the Music of your Life network), and WHBQ has been Sports 56 for many years.

But there was a time when all three were the very best in their trade. Number one in every respect. It is the time of this aircheck that the three entities began down that long road to stardom – and legendary fame.

On this aircheck you will hear a very young Elvis, a young Martindale… and a WHBQ JUST beginning it’s top 40 broadcasts. In fact, former WHBQ program director (and one of your webmaster’s personal friends) Jack Parnell told me that this aircheck was likely from a few months before the station actually went Top 40.

Click HERE to Listen!

Henry is the current PD of WRBO “Soul Classics 103.5″ in Memphis. Here he is on WMC-FM from the early 90s. FM 100 was transitioning from CHR to HotAC – and still using JAM’s Z-100 New York jingle package!

Click HERE to Listen!

This is an interesting program. I like Kansas and was listening on the day of this broadcast about 2 weeks ago – and decided to record it. In the Studio has been on the air for many years. It’s kind of reminiscent of Robert W. Morgan’s Record Report.

Anyway, enjoy. It starts a bit into the program and runs about 50 minutes or so.

Click HERE to Listen!