Airchexx.com

First posted on the 3rd Saturday in May, 2002, here’s one of the first airchecks we put up! Courtesy of early Airchexx Contributor Rhett Walker, we present Y-107 Nashville and the zany morning crew of Coyote McCloud, Rhett Walker News & Buck Naked Traffic – along with a bit of the rest of the broadcast day.

This station and the Toucan are long gone, and Nashville radio has never been the same.

Runs 30 minutes, scoped.

Originally intended as part of a sales package to potential clients, here’s a production highlighting the entire broadcast day from the morning show right through WSM’s overnight trucking show, the Grand Ole Opry, in house productions, house bands and custom recording sessions. WSM really was a powerhouse in so many ways.

Just as a comparison for those of you who do radio sales today, would your GSM even DARE to create something like this? Hell no, just numbers, charts, arbitron figures, etc would do… and that’s only if you were lucky enough to convince the national chains to at least barter first. Man, y’all got it tough now. No wonder one person works on 7 radio stations at a time these days. But, in 1973– This really was convincing. You had to be there.

No Joke! “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak, as many television stars have, really did their time in radio and Sajak had his turn behind the mic.

Actually, aside from the fact that this is Pat Sajak like most of you have never heard before, this is also a side of WSM that MOST of our listeners have also never heard. Many of you probably know that there was a period of time that WSM had a split format, a Pop format during the day, and Country all night. If you’ve never heard that pop format, it was quite good, so good, in fact, you really won’t quite believe your ears.

Listen now, courtesy of one who recently left the WSM family. Thanks so much to our newest contributor, Jack Shell. Jack writes:

Sad thing is that station has gone from the Air Castle of the South to the Little House on the Prairie employing only seven full time staffers. I resigned a year ago as production director, but it was a nice time. The Sajak aircheck is a treasure.

Thanks, Jack. What your webmaster remembers most recently, was the fight to keep WSM Country and not take it Sports just a couple of years ago. It seemed so important at the time, but now perhaps that importance has faded along with the intelligibility of most of the AM signals these days… maybe due to the millions of computer devices flooding the AM band with digital noise… but I digress.

Y’all just listen to the aircheck now and enjoy, because its great and belongs to the ages!

There aren’t many cities that can claim FOUR major Country stations in the station lineup. Well, this is Nashville, and on one end of the scale lies 650 AM WSM – the heritage Country station that plays mainly gold and hosts the Grand Ole Opry. In between, WSM-FM, which really hasn’t been able to maintain decent numbers for a few years now, WSIX which has been a market leader, and then THIS station, WKDF.

WKDF, a former album rock station, flipped to Country a few years ago and really took the Nashville market by storm. On this 16 minute scope, we get to hear Craig Cooper and Kevin Kincaid, a couple of high energy Country jocks. While Country is a hotter format than a decade ago, most stations are pretty tame. WKDF, while targeting an AC audience, formats itself more like a CHR station playing Country. After having heard all four stations in Nashville recently, one has to really wonder what it is that makes one station top the ratings and the others not, since there is a similar approach and level of talent… but this station in particular has been on top of its demo for much of its existence as a Country station. Maybe its the relative newness or something else. Well… listen for yourself and decide.

We’re in a Country state of mind as we head down to the Mid-South region and one of the nation’s TOP Country stations, then AND now. Courtesy of Karl Phillips, we head back to the turn of the century for this tightly scoped recording of Hoss Burns. This guy’s voice sounds a little like Ray Dunaway who does mornings on WTIC AM Hartford (and your webmaster remembers odd little details like that), only deeper. Could be the processing.

The pace of this Country station is lightning fast. Country has it’s own variations of the format, some stations use an AC approach… this station sounds more CHR, in your webmaster’s humble opinion, this uptempo approach sounds better with Hot Country, but I digress.

Description from Karl Phillips…

WKDF-FM 103.3 (Formerly WKDA-FM – see Bill Berlin) Nashville flips from Rock to Country as “Music City 103″ and returns Carl P. Mayfield and the “P-Team” to the air after being fired from cross-town WSIX-FM a year earlier. Carl P. calls it his “release from radio prison”. Those guys were having fun.

Just to prove that 8pm to Midnight were the ‘rock hours’ on top 40 AM radio, you’ll hear (scoped) hits by the Beatles and even Deep Purple, mixed in with the top Motown sounds. What’s really amazing about this aircheck, while Berlin is a ‘puker’ (weren’t they all back then?), he does a masterful job of getting requests on the air.

Notable here, not many stations were known for airing phone requests in 1968, but there are plenty on this recording. Berlin must have been working up a sweat in a control room with no computers, just manual cueing of carts, 45s and reels. Jocks really WORKED for their pay. Note the sports and even breaking news, all handled professionally by the jock on duty. Gang, this is what we jocks got into the business for in the first place.

Right off the reel, here’s a brand new exhibit from Karl Phillips. WKDA has occupied three AM frequencies, that we know of, since 1968. 1240, as in this aircheck, more recently as a Spanish station on 1430, and currently on 1200 (later info courtesy FYBUSH.COM) after a move there in 2002.

This aircheck is unique for a number of reasons. First, this really is typical of most of the top 40 stations in the late 60s. Sure, there was WLS, WABC and a handful of others which always stand out. But most of the middle & large markets had stations which sounded very much like this. And they sure were popular. Especially when you realize that WKDA was only a 1,000 watt station by day and 250 watts at night. Yet, people remember the DJs who graced these stations.

Bill Berlin is one we’ve actually had numerous requests for. Aaah for the days when radio had this kind of lure. People do remember their favorite jocks, even when the signal didn’t go much outside of the city limits. Berlin had the 8pm to midnight shift. Listen to the echo that he could insert at the push of a button. Listen to the jingles. Who cut these? Heller, perhaps?

This reel was recorded on both sides, thus, it’s in two parts. Enjoy a bit of wacky Bill Berlin, and the hits that virtually NOBODY plays, save for a few Aretha Franklin hits!

Rhett Walker once told me that Y-107 had an incredible listener base right up till the day management pulled the plug. The apparent reason: The station name and logo had become synonymous with such outrageous on air behavior that local Christian preachers were having success in deterring advertisers from purchasing airtime… despite high ratings and incredible fan loyalty.

All that to describe the atmosphere surrounding this station by 1994. About one year before the flip to “The River”, here’s the whole Y-107 bunch, Morning Zoo and all, scoped down to just under an hour.

Nashville. Not Union, MS, as is the current home of those call letters. Everything changes, including this vintage 80s CHR which these days is WCJK from Murfreesboro, outside of Metro Nashville.

Music City has always been a hotbed of radio talent and this was no exception. While the city at that time was very much buried in Country music, the mainstream side of the entertainment world was cookin’! This runs just over 13 minutes.

Description by contributor John Hendricks:

Before WSIX became “The Big 98″ and Nashville’s fast-paced, top rated contemporary country station, it ran a slower, middle-of-the-road sounding easy-country format known as “Metropolitan Country”. Even the jock sounds a little sleepy on this day, having trouble reading announcements. (Gerry House, who would transform the station to its “Big 98″ identity, was then on sister WSIX-AM playing adult contemporary.)

Unique from the perspective that we don’t feature too many country stations here, this aircheck demonstrates the longevity of this now-Clear Channel-owned Country powerhouse in Music City.

I’m struck by how much of an ‘Easy Listening’ approach WSIX used in 1970. For a country station this sounds very much like an old Beautiful Music format set to Country. WSIX is certainly live. They proudly tout being owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting.

This is MUCH different than today’s WSIX! Check it out!

Here’s one of the most unique shows ever aired on AM radio. John Richbourg’s Rhythm & Blues show on WLAC was something most fans of R&B remember, although outside of the south, I’m not sure what the ratings were… or even if ratings were available for ‘clear channel’ (frequency, not the company) stations with popular shows after dark.

At the time of this recording, WLAC was not your run-of-the-mill radio station. It ran lots of network programming and middle-of-the-road fare during the day and only at NIGHT did the station turn to a format which intentionally captured a predominantly minority audience. For the benefit of those not old enough to remember John R., or Hoss Allen, their programs on WLAC literally shaped an entire generation of black entertainers and listeners, and according to wikipedia, is partly responsible for the evolution of rock and roll’s emergence out of the blues from poverty stricken areas of the South. History does not adequately acknowledge the enormous contribution to modern R&B radio that this one nightly program lent to radio. One thing is certain: WLAC was to R&B what WSM was to Country Music.

Thanks to site friend Jack Parnell for this excellent recording. It’s a slice of history of great importance, and one you’ll find nowhere else. Thanks Jack!

Sometime in the late 1980′s, the evening news program ’48 Hours’ did a segment on top 40 radio. Or, should I say, outrageous radio. Y-107 was so outrageous, it was prominently featured as a classic example of ‘sinful’ lifestyle (yes, Jerry Falwell was shown preaching against it.).

This is priceless, if only to showcase just how big Nashville’s Y-107 was. If only they hadn’t blown it up – and a great many fans would agree with me.

Click HERE to Listen!

More Y-107 Nashville. This was the second offering from Rhett Walker – and it’s even better than the first. More of the broadcast day is heard on this one.

Click HERE to Listen!