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Contributor Ray Bozzanca sent this in some time ago. The source recording was obviously made for someone wanting the music only, as the tape was a 40 minute reverse-scope with most of the deejay talk and imaging removed… but what remains of this station’s identity is presented here. This is from a short period in the history of WPAT-FM, which at the time was still an AM/FM simulcast. WPAT had then recently gone soft AC out of a longtime Beautiful Music format, and was programming to New York City proper, from its signal in New Jersey. Later in the 90s, WPAT AM and FM would each get separate Spanish Formats and leave the English language audience permanently.

Runs 3:30, Scoped.

Listen now, to the ORIGINAL broadcast of “Match Game 1984″ as broadcast on 66 WNBC New York. This is NOT a re-creation, but a recording of the authentic broadcast, made by contributor Bob Gilmore as it was heard in 1984.

In your webmaster’s opinion, the whole of WNBC’s format in the years 1983-1986 was one of the most entertaining and best all around radio that was ever done in New York… maybe anywhere. You got music, information, laughter… this is a comment about WNBC radio, not Stern. WNBC IMHO, was at least as good in it’s own right, during these years, as WABC was in it’s heyday in the 1960s. This is what radio was SUPPOSED to be like, and NBC actually got it right!
Even after Stern was gone, the Soupy Sales / Joey Reynolds era in 1986 was hilariously funny, even as the Top 40 format segued to a mix of contemporary hits and Oldies (and oh, what we wouldn’t do for a Joey Reynolds show with Roz Frank and Al Rosenberg!). There is nothing like this anywhere that we know of in radio today, and that’s too bad, considering the shot in the arm to any station that would dare air something close to the WNBC format of the 1980s would do in this era of consolidation. End Rant.

Appearing in no particular order: Robin Quivers (WNBC News), Donna Feducia (WNBC Traffic), Bruce (the Engineer), Sid Ronkus, Janie LaCue (The WNBC Cleaning Lady), ‘Ringo Starr’, ‘Lou Ferrigno’, ‘Richard Dawson’, Don Imus, Howard Stern (as ‘Gene Rayburn, Jr.’). Particularly pay attention to the “Podishua Shaving Cream” live spot at about 25 minutes in. Music by The Police & Chaka Khan.

66 WNBC New York, 1980s

WPLJ’s last try at the CHR format was this super-hot version of the format which lasted for a short period of time. Mojo Radio sounded great and gave crosstown Z100 a run for it’s money before flipping to HotAC.

Here’s A.J. Hammer, a voice that fits right in with the format. Its a Friday afternoon, and there’s a Top 5 countdown that begins towards the end of this recording… you’ll hear number 4 before it ends.

No jingles, but some hot sweepers! This station had potential…

WPLJ 95.5

For those of you in a Summer kind of mood, here’s the HotAC version of 95.5 WPLJ as they play Classic Hits for the 4th of July holiday! Considering the position this station is in today, they couldn’t get away with it with WCBS-FM playing all these hits in rotation now, but in ’96 this was a big deal!

WPLJ is one of those stations that’s just… there. Once WABC-FM in the 60s, WPLJ evolved into an early AOR and stayed there until late 1983 when it slowly evolved into CHR. It sounded great and for a time, even used some of the WABC Jam jingles resung for WPLJ. The CHR war evolved into a head on collision with CHR powerhouse WHTZ Z100, a war which WPLJ eventually lost. The station threw in the towel as a hit music station after it’s hottter-than-hell “Mojo Radio” incarnation (Thanks, Scott Shannon for some great times!) ended, finally moving in a more adult direction in the early 90s.

It’s a more current-based format now than in 1996, but the AC factor is ever-present in this Independence Day recording of classics and Oldies, neatly wrapped in an exciting HotAC radio station. This is 95.5 WPLJ – and in July, 1996, it definitely was mom’s radio station!

One recording we didn’t post when Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks sent us a bunch in ’07 was this aircheck of AOR station WAPP. Now, WAPP, for a time, was a great rock station after having changed formats from WTFM Beautiful Music sometime in 1982. By 1983 it was time for a change, and while this is essentially still a hard rock station in January of that year, it would flip to CHR a few months later. Darryl Hall & John Oates sounds conspicuously out of place sandwiched in between Jethro Tull and Journey, but it’s certainly a sign of things to come – Best example of this kind of change might have been 94.5 WCOZ Boston, which after ditching the “Kick Ass Rock n Roll” hard Rock format from John Sebastian, found itself lost in a world of some hard rock, New Wave and even soft rock. 1983 was a year of change in the AOR format, which essentially split into two new formats at the time: early Alternative/Punk and Classic Rock. There are very few Album Oriented Rock stations anywhere these days, and 1983 is the year it essentially came to an end.

The jock is listed as ‘unknown’, but to your webmaster’s ears, this sounds like Pat. St. John. It’s probably not, but one can’t help but wonder since his voice is so unique. Somebody out there knows. Meanwhile, enjoy a few dead segues and two jock breaks in a Two minute, six second recording of “The Apple” – 103.5 WAPP!

103.5 WAPP Lake Success, Logo circa early 1980s

NewsTalk 77 WABC New York logo circa 2007

For those who have not heard this show, WABC added this program right after WCBS-FM dropped oldies in favor of the “Jack-FM” format, trying to capitalize on the tremendous heritage that WABC had as a music station. Mark Simone is a consummate professional, able to host a talk show on WABC and be very serious talking politics, and yet still be a fantastic disc jockey – he should, having worked at stations like WPIX 102 doing top 40 and WNEW Eleven Three Oh as a standards jock.

This really is a noisy aircheck. Recorded in your webmaster’s back room with all my electronics lit up, the WABC signal often faded into the high computer noise which is so prevalent around the AM band everywhere these days. But, its not unlistenable. Recorded on a wideband AM Stereo receiver from Radio Shack (one of those vintage 80s models), where the signal is good (about 70 percent), WABC actually sounds very good despite having wrecked their audio chain in recent years to accomodate HD radio. Its nice when you hear AM in full 13khz, even though they transmit as all AMs do these days only 9khz wide. This does fade out and get difficult to listen to in spots, but hang in there. Mark Simone and the old WABC jingles are worth every minute of the 8:23 that this scoped recording offers.

Recently, we featured the legendary Bobby Jay on WCBS-FM. Now, after numerous requests, here’s something from Norm N Nite. Contributor Ray Bozzanca says of this aircheck,

On May 1,1982 Norm N Nite would start the Top 20 countdown shows on WCBS FM N.Y. The first Top 20 countdown show featured the year 1966.This aircheck is from Novemeber 22 of 1981 when Norm N Nite would countdown the Top 10 songs of 1961 in his last hour of his show.

101.1 WCBS-FM Logo, pre Jack-FM

Contributor Ray Bozzanca offered this long ‘check of the legendary Bobby Jay doing what he does best, presenting the hits of the Do-Wop era on WCBS-FM. The reverb is ON for this recording of the Joe McCoy era, Top Oldies station in its prime!

From the best era of WCBS-FM - New York's OLDIES Station!

1983 might be considered the year that 66 WNBC finally hit the post as a true Top 40 station. Nights were full of the hits of ’83, one of the top rated shows in New York, and the station was boasting Imus in the Morning and Howard Stern in the afternoon. Having witnessed the demise of WABC almost a year earlier, WNBC finally achieved what it couldn’t all throughout the 70s – ratings superiority over 77 WABC. And, it sounded great, also!

This era is largely forgotten by nearly everyone but its important to remember that while Z-100 launched in 1983, WNBC really took over for a time as THE Top 40 station in the Big Apple. With a largely California Top 40 sound, no reverb, and a personality based Top 40 sound, WNBC had it all. It only lasted a year or so before talk began to kill the music outside of drive time, but it sure sounded great. Here, Steve York is playing oldies on a 60s Saturday. Man, we’d sure like to hear the 7-Midnight weekday show during this time (one of these days….)

WNBC composite graphic from the 80s

In this all-too-short QuickCheck, Sky Walker runs a TIGHT board, playing the hits of the day in the CHR incarnation of WPLJ. It wouldn’t be long before the station would morph into a HotAc station, but here, it’s all Top 40!

WPLJ New York - Power 95

Those who’ve been in the radio industry for a long time probably remember the day WPLJ flipped from Rock to CHR. Many even remember former WPLJ jock Carol Miller’s comments to a trade publication of the day (which escapes your webmaster at the moment) saying that WPLJ wanted to switch formats while on top – it WAS the top rated AOR formatted station of the day.

“Lets Hear It” was a forum in which Program Director Larry Berger could talk to the audience and get a feel for what they were thinking about WPLJ at the time. What station would do that today? Back in 1983, Berger used this forum to explain the impending format change to CHR, and why the station was going in that direction. Whether this was the real reason or not, he sure made the case that WPLJ needed to change, as the times were changing along with it.

Courtesy of our old site contributor friend Neal Bowden, whom we haven’t heard from for a while, this really is a MUST LISTEN… it dispels many myths of not only WPLJ, but many former AOR stations that either went CHR or to Classic Rock. You won’t learn this in college…

Courtesy of Matt @ BigAppleAirchecks, here’s Ron Lundy at a very sold out WABC! While this is scoped, the unscoped version still has more commercials than music. You’ll need patience to listen to this, as the source audio as we received it is choppy and a bit muddy, otherwise its a great representation of America at the height of the Vietnam war. Listen for a full newscast including stories about fish with mercury, extreme pollution, a heatwave causing reductions of electricity, and more.

And of course, our memories of Ron Lundy. I tell ya, Heaven’s got one hell of a radio station!

There’s a lot that’s been said about Big Wilson – he’s a legendary personality on the old WNBC. Problem is, when people think of radio in the 1960s in New York City, the first station that always comes to mind is WABC. So, WNBC was always dwarfed… and never really tried to compete in the Top 40 arena anyway, as NBC, the network, always had features running on air which disrupted the music presentation.

Big Wilson is captured here in a recording that sounds like it was made with a microphone placed in front of a table radio speaker. The audio quality isn’t the best. But its worth remembering Big Wilson and a radio station with more heritage than any other station in America… WNBC. The station has been gone since 1988, but certainly not forgotten.

1980 was a year of change for WABC. By the end of the year the music would begin to shift to a more adult sound, but in the early part of 1980, WABC was still a hot Top 40 station, as evidenced by this short scope of the wacky Howard Hoffman show. Hoffman is really out of control on this night. How does one describe the Howard Hoffman show? Well, lets just say that he wouldn’t be allowed on the air with this approach anywhere today.

WABC, with Hoffman in the lineup, is a much different sounding station than that of just over a year prior, when PD Al Brady cleaned house, getting rid of most of the staple WABC jocks except for Ron Lundy and Dan Ingram (who, at the time of this aircheck, was doing mornings). Still, this is Top 40 WABC and the brand with it’s late 70s Jam jingles is still intact.

There aren’t many recordings of the end of the Top 40 era at WABC, and this one from 1980 is an original recording available no place else but right here. We invite you to listen now to this unique slice of history!

The Late George Michael is tagged here doing a great show on WABC from 2/28/77. This is an original recording, donated by Bob Gilmore. Notables here include much signal fading and white noise on the tape, which suggests this was recorded some distance away from New York City. No matter, Michael is in top form, as was the norm on the George Michael Show – he never misses a talkup or hitting the post!

These are the pre-disco days of the 1970s. Sure, a few stiffs are sneaking in, like The Sylvers – Hotline, but this is real Top 40 variety, with a generous dose of Jam jingles, Dan Ingram voiced imaging and that hot reverb!

Here’s an original, never posted on the web anywhere – so pass the word and tell your listener friends that WE have the airchecks most coveted around the world!

Seven years into a CHR war that WPLJ was losing to ratings giant WHTZ, the station leans Rhythmic and Wendy Williams is one of the stars that make up a talented airstaff. That’s what you hear on this four minute restored scope courtesy of Robyn Watts.

Power 95 is voiced here by Charlie Van Dyke, and they play some decent, if not un-remarkable jingles. In your webmasters opinion, WPLJ never really found its niche after dumping AOR at the TOP of its game in 1983. Still, this short glimpse into it’s CHR format near the end of it’s run is typical of many stations of it’s kind as the 80s drew to a close. And while this may be somewhat unremarkable, what you hear here is, in our opinion, far better than most radio post-Telcom ’96, and in particular, radio at the twilight of the first decade of the 21st century.

Z100 is celebrating its 6th year as New York’s Number One Hit Music Station, and all sorts of people are congratulating the station including (then) New York Governor Mario Cuomo. We love it when politicians and other celebrities personally voice station liners!

This is Z100 in all of it’s glory, playing ALL the hits with an airstaff that reads like a who’s who of blockbuster jocks. Jo Jo Morales sounds great here, but this is no different than any other day on this station.

Lightly processed and restored to near perfect condition, here’s a three-plus minute scoped listen to one of America’s finest FM CHR stations ever!

 JoJo Morales Z100 1989 [3:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

There are few recordings out there from before the Oldies format took hold at WCBS-FM. Still, many do remember the somewhat-progressive Rock format which was heard at 101.1 FM prior to 1972. Its an odd format that took many elements of AM top 40 radio – the jock talking over the music, Jingles, and one or two spots every other record or so. Hardly what one remembers as progressive rock. But what makes this stand out is the playlist. No doubt, Bill Brown is picking much of the music himself. Some album songs, a few hits (Its nice to hear “Mercy, Mercy Me from Marvin Gaye), and some low charting music, like the Steppenwolf cut early on in this scoped presentation.

Our Contributor, Steve Green, says this is one of his recordings. Taken from the source tape, it held up pretty well over the years, aside from some tape rumble and lack of low end frequency response. We’ve tried to clean it up a bit with some light processing, but essintially left most of this intact, as recorded from 1971.

Listen to the wide variety of cuts in this pre-Oldies WCBS-FM jingle library. They are used often, out of stopsets and in segues. Runs 14 minutes, total.

This has to be the best Haloween special I’ve ever heard. WCBS-FM really did it up right, letting John Zacherle take over the hosting duties for a night of scary fun. Contributor Ray Bozzanca sent this in, in pieces (and unscoped for future use by us if we ever are financially able to pay royalties…) which your webmaster lovingly scoped down to something acceptable to the powers that be.

The music is scoped out, but anything not subject to royalties is left over, which is most of this 3 hour show. Zacherle has a wierd sense of humor, but so appropriate as he picks just the right music for a Howlin’ good time!

Adding to the frightening nature of this aircheck, about halfway through, WCBS-AM Newsradio 880 Meteorologist Craig Allen cuts in with the old EBS (Emergency Broadcast System) alert sounder to give a weather emergency. A word about this… the old two-tone alert and the way the announcement was made really gave a sense of urgency to the situation. In your webmaster’s opinion, the current EAS alert, which is a series of computer tones to trigger an automated message, doesn’t do much of anything to scare the pants off listeners – but that’s what its SUPPOSED TO DO! The old system DID wake up listeners. I know, I used to drop what I was doing to listen to it. Editorial finished.

This runs 1 hour, 15 minutes, scoped.

This is a great comparison between two competing Top 40 stations. 1961 was so early in the top 40 game that WABC was just in its infancy with its then-new format. This recording doesn’t include ABC.

WINS, of course, went on to become the nation’s first All-News station. WMGM simply reverted to the previous call letters on 1050, WHN, and then became synonymous with Country Music in New York for the next decade.

NewsTalk 77 WABC, The Most Listened to Talk Station In the Nation becomes MusicRadio 77 WABC!

Each May comes a special event in New York City radio. News Talk 77 WABC has sort of a format change each Memorial Day, and takes the time to both give it’s talk show hosts a day off to honor our veterans, and rewinds back to the days when it was America’s premier Top 40 radio station – MusicRadio 77 WABC!

We don’t have all the years, because some years people donated a copy of a narrowband dialup internet stream. I thought that was just the wrong way to present this, so there are gaps. Still, perhaps one of your favorite segments are featured.

Rewound 2009
An internet-only broadcast this year, each segment was presented without current commercials – less editing for your webmaster! Note that these files are a bit out of order this year, just listen at your leisure.

Cousin Bruce Morrow from 7/13/74

Earlier in the same broadcast day, Cousin Brucie, 6-7 PM July 13, 1974

Back to the early days of WABC – Cousin Brucie from October 1963 and Bob Lewis from June 1965

Dan Ingram, April 1st, 1971. Starts out at the end of ABC news… check out ‘ambassador’ George (HW) Bush. Historic, yes! This includes part 2 of an April Fools’ day joke (see below). Plenty of old commercials and WABC jingles!

Dan Ingram, January 19, 1971. Its Big Dan at his best!

Back to the year the Beatles invaded! Dan Ingram and Bob-A-Loo (Bob Lewis) from 1964.

Another Dan Ingram clip, this one from March, 1965

Morning Mayor Harry Harrison from New Year’s Eve morning, 1976.

Here’s a rare recording of Jay Reynolds. October 8, 1974

The great Johnny Donovan introduces himself for this segment from 1974, then its on to 1968 where the strange (Paul is Dead!) Roby Younge is featured.

November 14, 1970 – Ron Lundy, then Dan Ingram. Part of a great broadcast day on WABC!

No ‘post Rewound show’ this year. Enjoy WABC Rewound 2009 – we hope it wasn’t the last!

Rewound 2007

IMPORTANT – Because of the way this page is built, the rest of WABC Rewound archives are in REAL AUDIO format. Be sure to have RA installed to listen. One note about Rewound 2007… the commercial load is almost unbearable. I’m sure the audience stayed with WABC for the show but this was rediculous. Along with WLS Big 89 Rewind, WABC apparently was VERY sold out! Then-current commercials have been edited out, along with music to comply with copyright issues.

Hour 1 – November 21, 1981. This hour is dedicated to the “Middle of the Road” version of WABC – “New York’s Radio Station”. You’ll hear Ross & Wilson, Ron Lundy and Johnny Donovan, and the AC hits of the day.

Hour 2 – December, 1967, the Top 100 of the year. Starts out with Cousin Brucie, ends with the late Chuck Leonard.

Hour 3 – December 31, 1976. Waking up with “Morning Mayor” Harry Harrison! He’s counting down the Top 100 of the Year. This segment is dedicated completely to Harry!

Hour 4 – Everybody’s favorite, Dan Ingram. First half is from 1966 (When Frank Sinatra was still making number 1 songs, according to Johnny Donovan), then it moves on to 1977, about 2/3rds of the way through… gotta love those Bee Gees!

Hour 5 – Roby Younge fills in for Dan Ingram, February 3, 1968. The hits of the day, along with plenty of classic commercials including one for Coca-Cola sung by Aretha Franklin! Plus, one complete newscast describing the war in Vietnam.

Hour 6 – Back to December 19, 1974 and the George Michael show. Listen carefully and you might hear George miss hitting the post by a microsecond… as Johnny Donovan says, that’s the first time anyone ever heard that!

Hour 7 – Chuck Leonard and Charlie Greer count down the top 100 of 1967. This gets a bit boring from the standpoint that without the music, we get to hear the “Superhit of the Year” jingle over and over… you get the point. Right off the bat to start things off, the cart machine sticks on Chuck Leonard. You won’t hear that these days with everything hard drive based!

Hour 8 – Check out the waning days of 1974 with George Michael. This one will make you go WOW! Listen to George Michael’s incredible talkups… he never misses the post here. Includes commercials from ’74, and some early and INTERESTING WABC George Michael jock jingles. From the early days of the George Michael show after Cousin’ Brucie left for WNBC.

Rewound 2003

* Harry Harrison wakes up New York City – Memorial Day, 1972! 6-7AM. Here’s one of the Big Apple’s most beloved DJ’s with music, coffee, time checks and traffic. It’s a great day to listen to Harry Harrison! Thanks to contributor John Troll of Danbury CT, via Matt Seinberg in New York!

* Here’s Howard Hoffman, as recorded during his night show on December 20, 1979. – 1-2PM. Hoffman is… well, Hoffman. He’s wacky, whitty and a fast talker. Hoffman, IMHO, really didn’t ‘fit’ the typical WABC jock image as far as his presentation goes, but in this era of WABC, the station was desperately trying to return to the number 1 position after having taken a beating from FM– not the least of which was 92-KTU, which went from worst to first earlier in the year with it’s Disco format. Still, it’s a great recording. Listen!

* A composite spanning the entire broadcast day in 1973 – 2-2:15PM. It starts with Harry Harrison’s morning show and goes right through the overnight hours. Harrison, Ron Lundy, Frank Kingston Smith, more…

* Hour 9 of WABC Rewound 03 from 3-4PM. The late Chuck Leonard, “The best who ever got away with it”, from his 9-midnight show in 1969. In your humble webmaster’s opinion, this is the best that WABC ever sounded. Tight, all the programming elements that made it sound ultra-contemporary, lots of PAMS jingles and plenty of one-liners. If you listen closely enough, you can almost feel the darkness surrounding that year… the Vietnam war was raging and if you place yourself back in time, you can almost smell those perilous times… A FABULOUS aircheck donated by Jared Kindestin. Thanks, Jared!

2004

Many of these airchecks come to us from various sources. Most of 2004 was donated on VHS and soon as I find the person’s name who contributed it, he’ll get credit. Thanks to my bad memory, LOL. Thank you!

* Dan Ingram fills in for Herb Oscar Anderson one Sunday morning in 1967. Restored for WABC Rewound ’04, 12:00 – 1:00 PM. This link plays for approximately 45 minutes. The final segment of this aircheck has a separate link (below).

* Part 2 of the above Dan Ingram for HOA on WABC, 1967!

* Ron Lundy handles middays, 1975. One hour long, restored for Rewound ’04 – 1-2pm. Includes all program elements!

* Bob-A-Loo on WABC! 2:00 to 2:30 PM. Included are plenty of promos and hype about Roby Younge, who started this day in 1968!

* Dan Ingram returns to his former Afternoon Drive program on WABC in 1981. 2:30 to 3:00 PM. Ross & Wilson began mornings this same day. This is yet another historic day in broadcast history- Dan Rather’s first day anchoring the CBS Evening News, which Big Dan makes reference to at the close of his show.

* Howard Hoffman, January 9, 1980.3-4PM. Hoffman is a big time voiceover talent these days working from California – where else? Check out his site at Toonvoices.com. Howard was WILD on WABC! Unfortunately, he only got about a year to do his thing before ABC decided to quit the Top 40 race and started doing nighttime sports, landing the New York Yankees in 1981. The beginning of the end is heard here… it was great, but too little, too late.

* Big Dan Ingram, slammin’ the hits on a hot summer day in 1964! 4-5PM. You’ll hear something on this aircheck you’ll never hear today – cigarette commercials! Plenty of old commercials for cars and lots of New York businesses, many of which probably aren’t around anymore. Once again, in pristine condition, restored by Rob Frankel for WABC Rewound 04. *Programming note:* In most of these airchecks, I’ve taken the liberty of REMOVING the then *current* commercials (done in this case in 2004)… but of course the ones which are included in the actual broadcast have been kept for historical purposes. Enjoy more of Big Dan Ingram!

* The WABC Post-Rewound Talk Show, Part 1 – 6-7PM. After the airchecks were done, WABC Program Director Phil Boyce hosted a two hour call in talk show to talk about MusicRadio 77, and he had as his guest Dan Ingram! Dan wasn’t able to join them on WABC in prior years because he was under contract from WCBS-FM, but had been let go just weeks before Rewound ’04. Also joining Boyce & Ingram is Allan Sniffen from www.musicradio77.com. In part two (to post later), more of Big Dan, and those wonderful WABC PAMS jingles!

2005
* Notes * – After receiving copies of the show from a couple of different sources, we’ve decided to blend the best audio quality of all the recordings. Thanks to Alan Fletcher, Matt Seinberg, Jared Kindestin and others who sent in portions of this year’s show. All recordings featured here were made ‘off the air’, as opposed to the internet stream.

On a different note, all segments of rewound 05 had to be scoped this year. Please accept our apologies in advance. Rules regarding music streaming are becoming very strict.

* Hour 1: The show opens by paying tribute to the late Chuck Leonard, who passed away earlier this year. Great show from 1975 – listen to how much echo there is!! Lots of commercials from the era also.

* Hour 2: Harry Harrison, August 1979 – Here’s the king of New York morning radio from what would be one of his last shows at WABC. You’ll notice that the station is still playing Top 40… Rock, Disco, etc. This is from just before PD Al Brady began the massive changes that would inevitably lead to the end of musicradio 77 – staff changes, AC music, etc. One noteworthy news/sports item on this aircheck: Yankee team captain Thurmon Munson had just been killed in a plane crash and Harry mentions the funeral on the air. Sad day… IMHO, the two best Yankees in modern history were lost – the other being Manager Billy Martin. Yeah, ’79 was a LONG time ago…

* Hour 3: Cousin Bruce Morrow, June 1965 What an incredible aircheck! What surprises me more than anything is the amount of talk, live spots and clutter Brucie has during his show. Bucking the conventional wisdom of today, Bruce does a real SHOW… not just four songs in a row before cracking the mic. And he did it with some of the biggest ratings in modern radio history! This is a unique aircheck for a number of reasons. First, notice the WABC chime WITHOUT the jingle! Also, the early news sounder. And, Dan Ingram is voicing everything! While scoped, you can still pick out the hit songs of the day done by Frankie Valley, The Beach Boys and even Elvis Presley! Also included… News 5 minutes sooner on WABC at :55 and :25! Cousins, this one’s a gem!

* Hour 4: Harry Harrison, August 1979, Part 2 – More Harry Harrison in the Morning! Yes, it’s scoped but if it weren’t, you’d certainly be having a flashback to Studio 54, gold chains and all that. This is from probably the last month WABC played disco music, there’s LOTS of it in this aircheck. Contrast this, very music-intensive 9:00AM hour to Rewound Part 3 and Cousin Bruce’s night show, which is more talk than music in the very time slot you’d expect it. This is how radio evolved from what it was to what it is. Harry sounds great here!

* Hour 5: Ron Lundy, September 10, 1975 – Here’s loveable Ron Lundy from his midday show in 1975. WABC is very much into contesting at this point – obviously beginning to feel the pinch from WXLO 99X-FM. Listen to the amount of echo…. it still amazes me the extent to which echo was used to make WABC seem louder and bigger than the competition. Obviously it worked… until FM became so big that WABC could no longer maintain it’s number one status in 1979. Course, as everyone knows, it took a new Disco station to knock off the ‘alphabet’ station. Here, you hear big echo and big contests… and Lundy sounds as good as we’ve ever heard him!

* Hour 6: Farrell Smith, 1961 / Dan Ingram 1965 – Okay, now it’s back to the 60s. Actually, this segment is unique for a number of reasons. First, it begins with Farrell Smith, who was with WABC in the very beginning of the MusicRadio era. As Johnny Donovan illustrates in the introduction, the audio quality is pretty awful. But, this goes way back to when WABC was just starting out on it’s musical journey. The aircheck then moves on to Dan Ingram in 1965. Now, I gotta tell ya. After listening to this aircheck where Big Dan plays about FOUR records in the entire hour, it makes one wonder how WABC kept it’s listeners. It’s nearly ALL COMMERCIALS! No wonder WABC had to play jingles about every other spot – ‘Program Content’, as the late Rick Sklar called it. So, yes, this is scoped… but we can keep the old commericals in and thats pretty much all this aircheck really is anyway, so enjoy a trip back to when Tackle was more than just pimple medication!

* Hour 7: Cousin Bruce Morrow, November 5, 1968 – This one was recorded on Election night in 1968 and there is a lot of news from Election HQ! This is one aircheck that’s more news intensive than music… Bruce was apparently out of the room at one point, you hear one DEAD SEGUE into Creedence Clearwater Revival. Honestly, I’ve never heard a dead segue on WABC airchecks. I’m sure they happened in the 70s but never back in the 60s. Listen…. excitement builds as WABC news airs a bulliten saying Hubert Humphrey is in the lead. Was it really that close? There are some good breaks from Cousin Brucie in this but not much in the way of music (its scoped anyway)… Enjoy hour #7 of WABC Rewound 2005!

… More to come from MusicRadio77 WABC Rewound!

This only runs about 10 minutes long but you get a good idea about what Murray Kauffman’s show was all about. Son Peter Altchuler is interviewed about mid-way through this aircheck and comments briefly about his father’s career. Listen carefully to Ronnie Spector’s long comment’s about Kauffman’s career. Did you realize that a handful of these huge NYC DJs took their shows to the stage as an act? How many jocks today could be creative enough to create their own Broadway-type show? And one wonders what happened to radio? Listen to this. It’s truly a fascinating look at a man who really fashioned the early days of AM top 40 radio, and unfortunately we only get 10 minutes, cut off in the middle of Ronnie Spector’s comments.

Thanks Ray Bozzanca for the donation!

Thanks to Ray Bozzanca for digging up this original tape of the old WINS with Murray the K at the helm. This one starts out wierd…. didn’t all his shows start out that way?. Now, this isn’t scoped quite the way you normally hear them. It IS scoped, but its kinda in haphazard fashion, in the sense that, Murray jumps in whenever he wants in a record, so the recording starts and stops in wierd places. Rather than attempt to fix it, I just left this recording as recieved

One thing I forgot to ask our contributor but I’ll assume from the sound of the recording… Is this from the original Reel?

Contributor Ray Bozzanca added this one from his stash… Cousin Brucie’s show on CBS-FM only 5 years ago! Notice all the elements are there… and the music? Priceless, includes everything from the 50s 60s and 70s, the way a real Oldies station should.

actually, this appears to have been recorded AFTER midnight on January 1st. What the heck – the darkness hours are still new years eve to the revelers… they still haven’t hit the hangover stage haha.

This is a great way to roll in a new year. We’re glad you can do it with us!
Thanks Ray!

Note: Thanks for the post about the date – corrected to 1992 vice 2002… old age sucks, doesn’t it!

Talk about great airchecks!!! We hit up the Radioinsight.com Aircheck Trader’s Board, where radiobruce was kind enough to contribute this absolutely AWESOME recording of your webmaster’s favorite Al Bandiero, doing his thing on the great 99X! WXLO kicks some serious Azz here, in what was surely the peak of 99X’s popularity.

It don’t get any better than this!

By the way, for those interested, Al Bandiero maintains his own website. You won’t believe the career he’s had… and your webmaster thought he was just a WKBW jock back when I was just 16 years old!

Another great Dan Ingram performance is demonstrated here on what’s yet another near-perfect recording from 1992. Listening to ‘CBS-FM, you’ll notice everything at the peak – the jingles, the format (with a nice variety of 50s through the 80s), that wonderful reverb… and Dan Ingram and his famous one-liners.

Another from contributor Ray Bozzanca

Courtesy of Ray Bozzanca, here’s a short scoped listen to Dan Ingram and his one liners. This one is in excellent shape, an original recording in superb quality!

Its a 1950s weekend, something WCBS-FM doesn’t do anymore with their core music now the late 60s into the 70s, but man does it sound GOOD!. You’ll hear plenty of old fashioned reverb on the WCBS-FM signal, and Ingram is in good form on this recording. He’s the king of one-liners and it stands out so much here! It’s a Wintry day with a big snowstorm about to hit New York… Can you guess the EXACT date? Hint: Listen to the commercials (at least the ones not edited out).

Dick Summer himself checked in with your webmaster recently and was kind enough to send in a few recorded goodies for our listeners. Here’s a humorous bit done on WYNY sometime in (we’re guessing here) 1975. The contest is “Mouth vs Ear”, a segment likely done before the top of the hour news.

Thanks to those who posted comments about this aircheck (below), we stand corrected – this was erroneously described as being on WNBC – an assumption made due to the fact that Summer wrote in his notes along with the airchecks that there were some WNBC airchecks, the fact that the tracks weren’t labelled and the recording sounded like an AM station… so it was just a guess on my part. As my kids would say, my bad…

Dick has his own website: www.dicksummer.com, where visitors can order many of his “Loving Touch” CDs, which carry on the theme of his 1960s and 70s radio program on WBZ. Dick is also a pilot and owns his own airplane, which he’s quite proud of and loves flying…

Just found this site. Thank you for the memories.

Its great to have Dick Summer among the thousands of others who have found and enjoy Airchexx.com!

Given to us by Ray Bozzanca over the Summer of ’08, here’s a scoped down composite of some of the best of this most awesome countdown presented here by Walt “Baby” Love and Lee Douglas, presumably over a weekend back in the year when Nixon resigned (now why would we remember THAT right now?)

In typical early 99x fashion, this station is lightning fast, the jocks in and out of breaks with one and two line quips then right back into music. They had to, WABC still was king and this was a major challenge to the throne, although in 1974 and on FM, they didn’t really stand a chance… but had this been on AM, can you only imagine how different the radio landscape might have turned out? This brings up an interesting discussion. What if RKO General had an AM station in NYC in the 70s and that 99X sound had come along on the AM dial to challenge WABC? There’s fodder for discussion…

This aircheck was scoped by the contributor, and with the exception of one or two edits for song length, its been left intact. Runs about 17 minutes.

Contributor Chris Beckhouse is the Ops Manager for B105 in Brisbane (thats Australia!). So what’s the connection? Well, none that we can tell other than he’s been holding on to this quick aircheck of Cubby on Z-100 for a few years. Perhaps a recording made during a visit?

This is WAY too short but it is a great break or two from Bryant on the nation’s premier CHR station, Z100!

Wow, a high energy, more music morning show on this ABC owned FM sister to the legendary now talking WABC. At this time, a CHR competitor to crosstown giant WHTZ Z100 and sounding larger than life, WPLJ is almost in over its head, the 3rd CHR in a race that also includes Hot 97 which is more Rhythmic. Still, Power 95 is the more mainstream of the 3 and sounds awesome in its slot.

An original recording from Matt Seinberg, the audio is crisp, an original dub from cassette preserved all these years for posterity right here. The original was unscoped but of course, we must comply with copyright law and remove the music (sorry bout that), at least at this time. You’ll still enjoy the old commercials, and not one, but TWO full newscasts. The format is tight as can be. Jingles are used sparingly, but enjoy the BIG top of hour ID. A real gem, from a time when WPLJ really tried to continue the heritage that was WABC, before throwing in the towel and going HotAC like many CHR’s of it’s time.

Wow, What I wouldn’t give to hear more than just the 6 minutes-plus of this partly-scoped almost-perfect reproduction of Sue O’Neal on WXLO! Demonstrating that, even while in late 1979 this station had a bit of an identity crisis (couldn’t decide if they wanted to be AC “FM 99″ or Top 40 “99X” – you hear both), it still was a hot station to listen to! Contributor Ray Bozzanca enthusiastically writes:

“This is all I could find on her, wish I had more. Back in those days who knew some 30 or 40 years down the road that with technology you be able to have someone or even a large mass of people being able to hear what I recorded then! Back then also I was taping mostly for the music too.Its a little more of her than you have on the site.”

Trust me, Ray.. I do too. Sue once told your webmaster that she kept almost none of her old airchecks, so we rely on people like you, our contributors, to dig up those old recordings. Keep em coming!

Here’s Dick Summer (WBZ) featured on a pristine tape preserved by contributor Ray Bozzanca, who writes:

This Aircheck features Dick Summer on WYNY in 1979 doing his show
Love and Touch with his comic one liners and sexy bits. Along with his played love songs includes a scratchy record of Julie Londons “Cry Me A River”. A short interview with Eric Weber “How To Pick Up Girls” is included with this fun aircheck.

Courtesy of new contributor Ray Bozzanca in Florida, here’s a high-quality 14 minute scope of WYNY in its “New York 97″ incarnation. Ray writes:

After hearing the Larry Kenny aircheck and hearing Margaret on that aircheck, I dug out some of my old reel to reel tapes.Back in those days of radio if you sent in a letter to the radio station to the DJ, if you were lucky you would get back a signed photo to see what the DJ looked like! I have such a photo of Margaret you can post with the aircheck

(See top left corner).

This ‘check starts out with Margaret Jones talking to Steve O’Brien (WABC, WCBS-FM, Sirius), who was apparently in the studio but off mic.

I was involved in a internet radio station as a sidekick in 1997. I am not involved with that anymore but have radio friends in the business in Long Island. I now live in Florida. One such friend was Mike Erickson who sent a aircheck on himself which I saw posted here on your site

You can hear Mike Erickson on WSHR Ronkonkoma NY HERE.

We get contributors from all over the world, it seems, and now thanks to Rene´ Bjorngaard, we get a superb recording of The Birdman and our site friend Sue O’Neal (WVBF / WXLO) from sometime in 1990.

Rene’ explains how he got this aircheck:

I am writing to you from Denmark in Europe (Yes, the European Union J ), and I have the last couple of month been digitalizing my collection of tapes, which most obviously contains Danish radioshows from the last 20 years or so. But However I felt over one special tape, which I almost forgot I had. It is an recording from N.Y radio WQHT from approximately 1990, which was
distributed over Europe by the astra satellite. Unfortunately I didn´t know what an special station I had access to, and therefore I only have this single tape L. The Dj´s on the tape is Tim Byrd, and Sue O’Neil. I have this session cut down to a regular aircheck, without music, but with
commercials with a total playtime of 23 min.

I find this totally amazing that American Radio was and still is very popular across much of Europe, and now with internet access, around remote areas of the globe. If you’re from anywhere outside of North America, we’d sure like to hear some of YOUR radio stations, especially if they broadcast in English.

Our special thanks to Rene’ Bjorngaard in Denmark for this really GREAT recording of Hot 97.

Always known for it’s high-energy jocks, 99X is featured here with Walt Baby Love, one of the station’s best remembered and most loved personalities. This is 1974 and RKO General has all of it’s stations wound up as tight as ever, but it’s in New York City where the big FM experiment is going full-tilt.

It’s hard to fathom why the one pioneering FM station in Gotham, the ONLY FM to really seriously challenge WABC for Top 40 ratings until about 1979 ended up a relic which changed to an Urban station in the early 80s, but one thing is certain… this slice of 99X will capture your attention for 3 of your precious quarter hours – and that’s better than most stations today can claim.

Just how many format changes happened at 103.5 in the New York Metro area? WAPP (like WYNY & WKTU now) was licensed to Lake Success, with a big city signal covering all of NY and the suburbs.

What really happened here, is that by late 1985, the year-old CHR format adopted at WAPP wasn’t doing so well, so in an attempt to bolster ratings, management skewed the format in a more rock-oriented direction. But, there were so many changes afoot here…. Beebe is heard calling this station “The Apple”, “New York’s Rock Station” and, ironically, “Hot 103″. The Hot 103 slogan would come into its own the following year as the station went rhythmic, before the big switcheroo came in 1988, sending THIS station under the WQHT calls to 97.1. Wow, its all so confusing, and its no wonder listeners never did seem to be able to write WAPP in their diaries.

All that said, this station cooks and Alan Beebe is SO on top of his game here. This is a short, but great aircheck to listen to – and we sure wish this format had survived, had it succeeded, I think Z-100 woulda had serious competition.

Meat Loaf as a disc jockey? Well, yes and no. Bobby Rich has as his guest the guy that Ace Frehley would later call ‘Pot Roast” on as his guest… playing Mr. Loaf’s favorite songs and taking calls from fans.

There was about an 18 month stretch where WXLO was trying to be a top 40 / album rock hybrid, with a staff of jocks encouraged to be personality top 40 guys (and girls – sorry Sue O’Neal haha). One of their on air slogans was ‘playin your favorite songs right off the albums’. This is definitely during that period. Disco was in full swing, but 99X didn’t completely jump on that bandwagon the way WABC did, and disco was certainly a major factor in the demise of the Super X in ’79 when Disco 92 WKTU came along. In my opinion, WXLO had its very best sound in the 1977-1978 time period, and listening to this fantastic aircheck demonstrates that.

Imagine… Meat Loaf, Ace Frehley, Elton John… a radio station that brought in major recording stars to be DJ for a day. That’s one hell of a promotion, and something that no station does today, at least none we know of.

From the good ol’ days when the reverb was still on and 50s/60s were the station’s mainstay, here’s a grainy, but great window back to 1987 – when Gotham’s radio landscape was so very much different than today..

Voiceguy Charlie Van Dyke says CBS-FM is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary as “New York’s Oldies Station”… heck, they don’t even say “Oldies” anymore, but ironically, CBS-FM is currently running promos for their 35th anniversary concert this Summer. Its as if they never got ‘Jacked’…

How many ways can you use ONE shotgun jingle? Listeners who remember the great 99X WXLO do remember… except for one several month period in 1972 when 98.7 FM morphed into WXLO from the old WOR-FM, WXLO used just ONE shotgun jingle… for about four years. Why change something if it works? The formula at 99X was simple, play the hits, let the jocks entertain, and have FUN. Certainly, no station was going to dethrone WABC in the Top 40 world, but 99X TRIED… and nearly succeeded in 1978. But this is all 99X lore that is evidenced by the many airchecks we have posted here about this great station.

What you’ll hear on this extremely tight scope, is an incredibly talented and excited Ron O’Brien, fresh out of Chicago’s WCFL and having a BALL! O’Brien passed on to that great transmitter in the sky on Sunday, April 27, 2008, but we remember a man who helped shape the face of Top 40 radio, and who belongs on a list of the biggest and best of the radio legends during the Top 40 era.

Imagine your favorite rock star making an appearance as a DJ on your favorite radio station… and they let HIM do all the announcing just like your favorite DJs…. not like today where this would be some sort of quick 5 minute interview, back in 1975, WXLO 99X brought in Elton John as a promotion, and he did a couple of hours on air. For the most part, he’s left to do the announcing, which is good, but beware… our PARENTAL ADVISORY (we don’t have many on this site) is that ol’ Reginald Dwight utters a few things that are a bit racy at times. In fact, Stern listeners might blush during part of this.

This aircheck takes a bit to get into. While Lee Douglas handles the first half of this show, EJ shows up about mid way through the aircheck. But, it’s entertaining nonetheless. Definitely worth 3 of your quarter hours!

Fans got to hear Bandiero on 101.1 WCBS-FM in New York during one of their recent Radio Greats Weekends, which we plan to post sometime soon. Now, check out this GREAT, albeit somewhat short aircheck of the Italian Stallion on 99X!

This is a high-quality recording, so sit back and relax, as the top 40 days of 98.7 FM in New York come back to life! Warning: Disco music plays prominently!!!

A bit of processing was required to make this tape listenable, but once you get a few minutes into it things clear up a bit. Here’s Big Ron O’Brien from his East Coast days at 99X! All the hits, high energy and one lone shotgun jingle make for a memorable listen on this ‘check – chock full of mid-70s NYC advertisers. This is so old, the store owners are probably either on Social Security or long gone!

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A lively Chuck Leonard plays the Disco hits of ’79 on MusicRadio 77. One of our original recordings posted way back in June of 2003, here’s one restored in higher fidelity. Only three years away from News/Talk, WABC is still a HOT station here, with all the energy fans remember.

Note the static crashes in this recording… obviously recorded from some distance from NYC. Believe it or not, listening even with the static from distant thunderstorms just added to the excitement of a Summertime of listening to AM radio. I could tell how bad the storms were going to be by the sheer number of crackles. Am I the only one who felt this way? Sheesh, radio really was an illness one should have been treated for haha!!

When you think of Top 40 radio, what stations normally come to mind? What personalities? Here’s an aircheck which is really a composite look at WABC – Musicradio 77, probably the most popular top 40 station in the history of AM radio.

An original recording from Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks, this spans a four day period. In order, you’ll hear the following personalities in this 45 minute scoped recording:

Chuck Leonard
Bob Cruz
Harry Harrison
Ron Lundy
Dan Ingram
Johnny Donovan

The name of this aircheck is “Still Number One” – that’s the name Matt gave it and we’re keeping the name here on Airchexx. I think it’s most appropriate, since at the time, while WXLO (99X) was giving WABC a run for it’s money, WKTU had not yet hit the New York airwaves, and WABC still had the number one overall ratings all to themselves. The end was still four years away, but for much of this airstaff, the end of their time on WABC was only about a year down the road (see the “Massacre of 1979″), as FM competition would create near-panic with the ABC brass.

Listen now to this long recording, made at the very height of the Disco era, and compare that with other WABC airchecks we have featured here.

In a last-ditch effort to topple WABC as the king of Top 40 radio, this one day in August 1977 saw the firing of nearly the entire airstaff of WNBC was fired in one day as the station tried to go to a more-music approach. From the final day of the old personality approach, listen to the final Imus in the Morning program.

Imus was transferred to NBC owned WHK, where he’d play Country during a painful two-year hiatus before NBC brass decided ratings were better with Imus than without. Ironically, the second “Imus” era turned out to be far better than the first!

This recording is only available here on Airchexx!

Listen for a full newscast from Sam Hall.

With all the attention focused on Don Imus this year, it seems logical that a museum dedicated to the history of Radio should exhibit great recordings of a legend who was best known, not as a talk show host, but as a disc jockey. This particular recording takes us back to just before Imus was fired from WNBC, in 1977. Recorded just days before his final show, Imus is here rocking New York, and competing with crosstown WABC’s Harry Harrison for listeners!

Plenty of music and commercials from 1977, and TWO full newscasts from then and current Imus newsman Charles McCord.

This is a WORLD PREMIER aircheck, virgin audio never heard before anywhere. Courtesy of Matt @ Big Apple Airchecks!

Emailed in to us about two weeks ago is this rare recording of Larry Kenny, doing his first night on the old WYNY New York on it’s old frequency back in the days before rap, hip hop or hair bands. This is the ORIGINAL New York 97 WYNY

This begins with the end of the overnight show, then goes into a complete newscast featuring newsman Jack Welby and an update on Hurricane David just off the Florida coast.

This is in great shape, with only a small amount of tape wear evident in the fidelity. Check out the welcome message from meteorologist Pat Pagano. I believe he’s still around!

It was the most anticipated radio event of the year. Don Imus, fired from CBS & MSNBC over perceived racially insensitive comments about the Rutgers Womens Basketball team, returned to the airwaves to an excited group of listeners on 77 WABC!

WABC’s corporate owners, Citadel, say they will syndicate Imus from WABC to many of their stations nationwide, starting around the first of January. The first station to sign up for the nationwide broadcast was Greater Media’s WTKK 96.9 in Boston about a week ago. This particular broadcast, however, while drawing national attention, was a WABC only broadcast.

Love him or hate him, WABC is banking that Imus will do better than the longtime morning show of Curtis & Kuby, who have moved into a new time slot. Will the audience return? How was the first broadcast? Listen for yourself as we present an original recording by Matt @ Big Apple Airchecks - all four hours of Imus in the Morning, on 77 WABC!

Here’s 30 minutes of Murray the K from the Summer of ’73. Wolfman sat in at a lot of radio stations, seemingly. WNBC was making a half-hearted effort to be a psudeo top 40 station, but still with so much network programming on the air, never could get close to the success of crosstown WABC. Still, there were some shining moments. Here’s one.

WCBS-FM is back and better than ever, with Radio Greats Weekends featuring some of the greatest personalities who ever graced the airwaves of Gotham city. One of the reasons I post this is because Al Bandiero was the one jock who influenced me to get into radio all those years ago after hearing him on WKBW Buffalo. Another is that this has to be one of the best sounding airchecks we’ve posted of CBS-FM, from an audio quality standpoint.

For those of you who know Al Bandiero’s style from his days at 99 X, Hot 97 and even KTU, you’ll find his style remains true, the music mostly spans his best years from the 70s (WKBW, WIFI) and 80s, and the format is ALL CBS-FM! It’s the best of both worlds in a 3 hour show compressed down to 43 minutes scoped.

Perhaps one of the most popular features of WNBC during its final years on the air was the Time Machine. Overnights & Weekends were definitely a special time, as WNBC recreated the sound of its 60s and 70s crosstown rival, WABC. In your humble webmaster’s opinion, WNBC actually did a better job with the old format than WABC did originally, if that’s even possible.

While an assortment of big named jocks like Dan Taylor were often a feature of the Time Machine, Big Jay Sorensen (who became legendary from this program!) is heard on this 11 minute scope of pure heaven. Included: a full newscast and a great Record Pig feature!

From the Aircheck Trader’s Board at our sister site, RadioInsight.com

Don Imus… love him or hate him, he’s sure been around a long time. Suppsedly starting a new gig on 77 WABC after the mess at WFAN… well, lets go back to 1988 to a related event: the final broadcast day of the old WNBC.

In this particular aircheck, you’ll hear the I-man clearly state that he’s not doing a final show… because, after all, tomorrow morning he’ll be right back on the same frequency at the same time period, “so, what’s the point?”

Lots of great memories here, from a time just hours away from the most profitable format New York had seen in years – SportsRadio 66 WFAN!

After trying for 3 days straight, I was finally able to record a very short AM HD clip of 77 WABC-HD New York, Monday night 9/17/07. It decoded for about one minute before the signal dropped back down below the HD threshold.

Listen and judge for yourself. Is this a workable system, allowing AM stations to broadcast their HD signals at night? Reports of severe digital interference to first adjacent signals are widespread, so if HD can’t be reliably decoded by the few available receivers, is this even a good idea?

Noteable only because we’re in the middle of the strongest tropo skip opening I’ve seen in years here in Massachusetts, here’s a short clip of relative newcomer Rick Stacy on CBS-FM!

Unbelievable reception today at a place I tried for nearly 30 years to receive New York City FM stations, and today ALL the big ones are in. I figured I’d post some of my results, starting with 101.1.

This begins with Top-of-hour IDs from WWFS “Fresh 102.7″ and “CD 101.9″ before heading into today’s brutally hot weather forecast from CBS-FM. You then get treated to about 10 scoped minutes of a scoped 30 minutes of New York’s Greatest Hits.

It’s the final hour of Rewound ’07 and Cousin Bruce Morrow and the late Chuck Leonard do it for you from 1974!

It’s not often I get New York FM stations up here in Massachusetts, but this particular July morning we had a bit of a tropo opening along the east coast, giving me the opportunity to hear WCBS-FM for the first time ever from this location (It’s never been heard at this location due to a line of hills, and I’m at the bottom at about the lowest elevation in the area).

Enough about my DX hobby. This is a unique aircheck for another reason. Dan Taylor is back at the helm of WCBS-FM’s morning show, after first relinquishing it to a Monkee (Mickey Dolenz), then the station flip to Jack-FM. Taylor sounds superb, even if the signal isn’t so good from about 200 miles away.

This is the re-tooled WCBS-FM, playing “New York’s Greatest Hits”!

I’ve converted this recording to mono, to improve audio quality.

When Dan Mason returned as President of CBS Radio in the Spring of 2007, the first thing he did was make it clear that many of the blunders of the past few years needed to be fixed. The “Free-FM” brand was slowly dissolved, leading to the return of K-Rock. San Francisco’s KFRC was relaunched on a new frequency just a few months after that station had dropped its heritage format. All that remained was dealing with that pesky Jack in New York.

On July 12, 2007 at appropriately 1:01pm, Jack shifted over to 101.1’s HD-2 signal and made way for the return of a slightly modified WCBS-FM. Dan Taylor and Bob Shannon were brought back, but were joined by newcomers Broadway Bill Lee, Joe Causi and more 80’s music.

This version is nearly 45 minutes long and includes a scoped last hour of Jack-FM and the first scoped hour of Oldies WCBS-FM. Our thanks to Frank Bruno for this particular recording.

A shorter, high quality recording is available thanks to Lance Venta at the Format Change Archives!

Mark your calendar – Thursday, July 12 at 1:01 PM, WCBS-FM, the premier Oldies station for 28 years in New York until 2005 returns to the airwaves! We here at Airchexx are celebrating with airchecks and your recollections (your comments at the bottom of this post).

Listen now as All News WCBS 880 interviews Cousin Bruce Morrow and Bob Shannon about the return of CBS-FM! Narrated by your webmaster, this includes a great WCBS-FM jingle montage at the end you won’t want to miss!

Thanks to contributor Gary Podoto for providing the WCBS 880 aircheck!

WPIX blew through several different formats in the 80s, before finally ditching the WPIX call letters and settling on Smooth Jazz. Towards the end, it was a soft AC station.

This is a perfect example of what SOFT AC really was. Very few stations go this soft today.
Owned and operated by Tribune Broadcasting, the WPIX calls now reside only on the TV side.

How appropriate that during this second weekend of July, we hear that CBS may (most likely) return Oldies to 101.1 in New York City. Time now to look back TEN years ago to what was the 25th anniversary of WCBS-FM as an Oldies station.

All day, WCBS-FM brought back the old jingles and even played airchecks of the station over the years since 1972. This particular aircheck is of the last hour of Bob Shannon’s show, which ended early so that WCBS-FM could air a special retrospective.

Heard throughout the aircheck, plenty of weather as severe storms were moving through Queens and Brooklyn, having caused considerable damage as the northern end of the line moved through Connecticut. Also features a full newscast.

Our thanks to Frank Bruno for providing this fantastic aircheck!

The second half of Big Dan Ingram from 1975.

…”just think of us as your 6-pack of music, icy cool WABC”
Its the Summer of 1975… imagine yourself on the beach, hearing Dan Ingram say “Roll your Bod”! Its almost 100 degrees, in an era before we worried about global warming and Big Dan plays the music as the northeast bakes under one of those legendary heat waves.

Listen for live commercials for ‘Shrunken Heads’ and more!

Back to 1973 and this great show from Dan Ingram! Dan is in great form, and mentions survey numbers here on his Saturday show. Includes commercials!

Check out the waning days of 1974 with George Michael. This one will make you go WOW! Listen to George Michael’s incredible talkups… he never misses the post here. Includes commercials from ’74, and some early and INTERESTING WABC George Michael jock jingles. From the early days of the George Michael show after Cousin’ Brucie left for WNBC.

Chuck Leonard and Charlie Greer count down the top 100 of 1967. This gets a bit boring from the standpoint that without the music, we get to hear the “Superhit of the Year” jingle over and over… you get the point. Right off the bat to start things off, the cart machine sticks on Chuck Leonard. You won’t hear that these days with everything hard drive based!

Back to December 19, 1974 and the George Michael show. Listen carefully and you might hear George miss hitting the post by a microsecond… as Johnny Donovan says, that’s the first time anyone ever heard that!

Roby Younge fills in for Dan Ingram, February 3, 1968. The hits of the day, along with plenty of classic commercials including one for Coca-Cola sung by Aretha Franklin! Plus, one complete newscast describing the war in Vietnam.

Everybody’s favorite, Dan Ingram. First half is from 1966 (When Frank Sinatra was still making number 1 songs, according to Johnny Donovan), then it moves on to 1977, about 2/3rds of the way through… gotta love those Bee Gees!

December 31, 1976. Waking up with “Morning Mayor” Harry Harrison! He’s counting down the Top 100 of the Year. This segment is dedicated completely to Harry!

December, 1967, the Top 100 of the year. Starts out with Cousin Brucie, ends with the late Chuck Leonard.

November 21, 1981. This hour is dedicated to the “Middle of the Road” version of WABC – “New York’s Radio Station”. You’ll hear Ross & Wilson, Ron Lundy and Johnny Donovan, and the AC hits of the day.

Thanks to longtime contributor Matt Seinberg @ Big Apple Airchecks comes this original recording of Z100!

To us, this sounds unremarkable, albeit unmistakable Z100. This larger-than-life station still sounds good on this somewhat fuzzy recording (although the audio quality is pretty good), but there are so many slow songs it’s hard to think of this as the same station which jumped on the grunge bandwagon in the early ’90s. Still, with all the competition in the #1 radio market, it’s a very balanced music presentation that you’ll hear.

1999 commercials, Lisa Taylor and Paul Bryant all intact…

Another step in the evolution of WPLJ 95.5, at the time of this aircheck known as “Power 95″. For a time, ABC corporate actually changed the calls to WWPR, but it’s still ‘PLJ here. Notice the “WPLJ New York” Legal buried in a stopset.

Jim Kerr is a capable morning jock, and this, thankfully, is still a time before high-powered morning shows with foul language and sexual innuendos. Kerr is entertaining and this is very much a music-oriented morning show. We’re sure you’ll enjoy hearing about the events of the day – two full newscasts are included along with New York City commercials of the day.

This is in INCREDIBLE, STUDIO QUALITY…. It sounds good enough to have come right off the board, but we know this is off a perfectly tuned FM receiver. Long before HD radio came along this proves there was nothing wrong with good-old analog radio!

New contributor Brian Redman emailed this in a few weeks ago – a reasonably hi-fi recording of Sue O’Neil on 99X. We’re not sure of the date but considering there’s ice and snow its a safe bet that we’re talking about the Winter of ’78.

At a whole 58 SECONDS long, this is the shortest aircheck on our site! This starts with a promo voiced by morning guy (and current Sirius host) Jay Thomas.

In the long story of Don Imus’ career until this week, few events could be stranger than NBC management’s decision to fire the personalities of WNBC radio. Among those let go in late ’77 were Cousin Bruce Morrow and morning man Don Imus.

Imus had been a new face in the hallowed halls of the flagship station of the NBC radio chain back in 1971, at a time when WNBC radio was still just rolling out from under a middle of the road format that was ostensibly 50 percent still network programming. With Imus in the Morning and Brucie at night, when he arrived in ’74, WNBC began to transform itself into a modern top 40 station.

But, it wasn’t quite enough. To even think about competing with Top 40 ratings giant WABC, NBC brass decided to flip the station to a less-talk, more music approach. So, one day in 1977, nearly the entire airstaff was let go. New faces, like Alan Beebe were introduced in the next two years, and a new, streamlined sound, it was hoped, would bring ratings up. In the end, it failed, and the lesson learned was that personality, coupled with the music was what brings listeners.

So it was that in September 1979, WNBC re-hired Don Imus for the morning show. Armed with a feisty attitude, a stack of rock & roll records and a leather jacket that said, “Imus is Back”… the Imus in the Morning show returned to 660 AM. Its been there ever since.

Now would be as good a time as ever to go back and hear some early Don Imus.

Courtesy of our good friend Matt @ Big Apple Airchecks, here’s a listen to pre-exile (to Cleveland) Imus in the morning on WNBC. Included: complete newscasts from Sam Hall and Charles McCord, several complete stopsets (for the historic commercials, y’know), a few scoped songs for copyright protection, and a subuded, stoned-sounding, southern drawled Don Imus.

Even if you loathe Imus’ show today, You’ll enjoy this. Trust me.

The date which accompanied this particular aircheck says February ’79. Obviously wrong, but this is another great aircheck from your webmaster’s favorite DJ (yea, the guy who inspired me to go into radio in the first place… to think of all the instability I could have avoided… thanks Al!). This is from 1985 – proven by a couple of commercials and the music (someone care to guess the date?). Notable, because later that year the CHR format would go away to make room for WXRK, 92-3 K-Rock.

You’ll hear two different Bandiero segments, recorded at different times. Commercials have been left in, and will someone tell us, what was “Go 92 KTU”?

Its not terribly long, at just over 9 minutes in length but it is in stereo for you with a good sound system. After listening to this, and realizing that in the 80s, NYC was a hot bed of Top 40 stations like WPLJ, Z-100 and KTU… Where did the fun go?

Thanks to Matt Seinberg for this excellent recording!

This runs less than 2 minutes, but audio is audio! This was recorded on the 1st anniversary of the launch of New York’s second most important Top 40 station right behind WABC… Z-100!

This one was sent in by our great friend Matt Seinberg – Thanks!

PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED!

Part one of our Greaseman Tribute takes us back to 1993. Here’s Grease doing what he does best (if you can understand “Grease Lingo”) on K-Rock. And we wonder why the good folks there never had the presence of mind to bring him back when ratings were slumping… this is GREAT!

We at airchexx.com thank Steve Green for sending in Greaseman material for our special this week!

Here’s a look at early-80s WHN… there’s not much life left in the biggest and most memorable Country station New York ever had at this point, but it sounds SO good! The music is scoped, the jocks some of the most talented, and the audio quality of this aircheck pristine.

No, this isn’t Top 40, but it’s an important high-quality aircheck for many reasons – one of which is that this is one of the very last music stations on AM in this market, and also because this is one of only two stations in modern history that played Country music in New York. There hasn’t been one since the demise of WYNY (97.1/103.5/107.1), which itself, became home to many of the former WHN jocks.

Give this one a listen, then please remember to post your comments below.

Here’s Tim Byrd, with a fantastic set of pipes! WPIX went through a series of format tweaks and changes in the 10 year period from 1975-1985, and here, it’s very AC, with the likes of Lionel Ritchie and Billy Joel in tight rotation, mixed in with 70s AC hits. Not exactly the Top 40 station Howard Hoffman was once heard on in the 70s.

This really is a great aircheck for a number of reasons. First, it exhibits a mainstream AC station which was so common around the US and Canada during this time. Second, this features two full newscasts and full-length commercials as important historic events in the Big Apple.

Thanks again to Matt @ Big Apple Airchecks for this one!

With all this talk of format changes, we here at airchexx.com thought it might be interesting to post what it sounded like the day BEFORE WHTZ Z100 came on the air way back in the ancient year of 1983!

WVNJ-FM in the period just before becoming Z100, was a mix of beautiful music and jazz. Ratings weren’t all that exciting, but there were a number of these BM-type stations still broadcasting at the beginning of the 1980s… these would go away by the middle of the decade.

See if you can pinpoint the exact moment of this aircheck. Z100 was born at exactly 6:08 AM on August 2, 1983, and to help with a point of reference, they began with Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger”, played by PD Scott Shannon. Again, this is from the day before.

Thanks to Karl Phillips we have yet another look at radio in the Big Apple. This time it goes back to ’73 and it is an excellent cross-section of AM and FM stations and includes all the big ones.

Included in this composite:

Jonathan Schwartz on WNEW-FM (Begins with a skit called “Nixon Confesses”)
WPLJ
Walt “Baby” Love on WXLO
Norm ‘N’ Nite on WCBS-FM
Jim Quinn on WPIX-FM
WBLS-FM
WWRL-AM 1600
Sean Casey on WWDJ 970
Cousin Brucie on WABC
then more WPIX-FM & WABC till the end.

This is not a long aircheck but at about 14 1/2 minutes, it’s packed with the best of ’73

Courtesy of Henry Nelson, here’s one of the earliest incarnations that we can find of Oldies 101 WCBS-FM!

Ed Williams is doing the overnight show and this is SO laid back! Lots of do-wop songs in format, and while it’s cool to hear, certainly way out of place is hearing “If” by Bread, a then-current song back in ’72.

Also heard toward the end of this aircheck, Bill Gillian with the news. Obviously the format was in it’s beginnings since the first element in the newscast is news from that date 10 years ago (a nuclear test explosion). You’ll hear about a total eclipse occurring in NYC and seen around North America this date before the recording runs out.

Nothing is off limits to these two! This recording of the O & A show on XM Radio was made shortly after the duo’s satellite radio start, and they go off on their former employer, Infinity Broadcasting (now CBS, Inc), the new format on WNEW.

This features a recording of the Frankie Blue show on WNEW which O & A are playing on their show. And, you’ll probably agree after listening… yea, Frankie Blue sounds like he’s schnockered!!! A bit of advice for you high profile local jocks… don’t open yourself up with this kind of a show, because you’ll be rewarded with national publicity, at least if Opie and Anthony hear your tape!

PARENTAL ADVISORY – for vulgarity and sexual innuendos. This is definitely not something for kids! You’ve been warned. This goes on for 21 minutes, and if you can get by the foul language, you’ll be rolling with laughter!

It could be said that the show which eventually evolved into a national phenomenon for the “King of All Media” started right here. It was following Stern’s firing from 66 WNBC earlier that year that he moved back to a format which was more in line with his rock and roll roots, as he kicked off a new program on New York City’s “K-Rock”….. which itself was a new rock station rising from the ashes of top 40 WKTU – the once-Disco station which dethroned WABC in the ratings.

Stern had been a large personality at WNBC, and before that, WCCC (106.9) Hartford, so to say that Howard Stern wasn’t already a talent to be reconed with would be incorrect. But, it’s here at WXRK that Stern perfected the show format which he’d later use in syndication, ironically from K-Rock, and then in January of 2006, at Sirius Satellite Radio.

So much radio history can be traced here that it’s difficult to make mention of it all. So rather than describe this first day of the rest of Howard Stern’s career, listen to a recording of an event which marked a change in the way radio stations’ morning shows are presented.

Its been said that WCBS-FM began to lose its music focus in the few years leading up to the station’s inevitable demise (was it really inevitable? CBS brass thought so). Even if that’s a true statement, the talent was always right on the mark!

Here’s a glimpse of our favorite Oldies station with it’s core air talent still intact. What CBS/Viacom corporate never understood fully, it was the air personalities and the way this format was presented that made it all so wonderful. The music was secondary and always could have been tweaked. So, from 2003 by numerous requests for more CBS-FM…. here you go, courtesy of Justin Case (sorry for the ommission!).

Your friendly webmaster made a long awaited trip to NJ – part business, part pleasure. While there, I managed to record about an hour of various stations early on Saturday morning.

This is very interesting, in that you’ll hear a good cross-section of AM & FM stations. It begins with the Mark Simone talk show on WABC, and moves through WOR 710, WFAN Sportsradio 66, then onto FM on the left side of the dial (88.1 for you digital junkies). Sometimes I lingered for a short while on one station and others I moved right along.

Recorded in Boonton, NJ (close to the junction of I-287 & I-80), the highlights: 95.5 WPLJ, 101.1 Jack-FM, Z-100 and New Jersey 101.5 (which features a FULL set of 70s-era WABC resings for jingles!)

Now, thanks to new contributor Norman Riczu, aka “Stormin’ Norman, the current morning guy at WEBE 108, here’s a really great look at what the radio dial looked like back in ’74.

This features, among others, Walt Baby Love on 99X, Imus in the Morning on WNBC, Johnny Donovan for Ron Lundy on WABC and more!

Kid Kelly these days is the host of nationally-syndicated “Backtracks USA”, where he produces both an 80s and a separate 90s version of the show, delivered on CD to Hot AC stations nationwide. Its cool. Even more cool, is this recording of Kelly on WHTZ New York!

Kid Kelly has so much energy here, and if you’re used to that geeky little voice (Ryan Seacrest wannabe?) voicing Backtracks USA on your favorite Hot AC, this will be an awesome aircheck. Not only does Kelly really COOK on this aircheck, but that scripted, syndicated approach is nowhere to be found and we hear all Kelly and his real talent!

This is why Kid Kelly got the host gig. In our opinion, while others may have a more, ahem, ‘professional’ approach, or more humor, none were more exciting and upbeat to listen to than Kelly. Listen now and find out why.

We just gotta throw this in from what we think is one of the most talented (and under appreciated) female jocks in NYC! Currently at Mix 102-7 WNEW, Here’s Sue O’Neil and a bit of her show on Hot 97.

Its another thing we didn’t realize about NYC radio during this era until now. A number of former WXLO 99X jocks that were there toward the end in ’79-’80 wound up at one of the three big CHRs in the city a decade later… including Al Bandiero right here on Hot 97!

We have one other clip of Gregg Thunder here on airchexx.com which you can listen to, but before you do, listen now to a recording of the end of Gregg Thunder’s show and then the first hour or so, scoped, of course, of Domino, both on MusicRadio, WPLJ “Power 95″!

We’ve been amazed at the marketing scheme of WPLJ during this era. Clearly, ABC corporate was torn as to whether to take 95.5 and turn it into a then-modern MusicRadio WABC (FM) or continue the way many FM CHRs were heading as this station tried desperately (and ultimately failed) to dethrone Z-100 from its perch as the number 1 hit music station in New York. One has to wonder… if the personality “MusicRadio” approach had been exploited fully instead of a sort of dual-identity CHR with “Power 95″ as the main monikker, could it have worked? Its a question for the ages now, with WPLJ long ago having given up and gone the Hot AC route.

Here’s a nice, long aircheck illustrating how hard WPLJ tried to win. It was a valliant effort, and the only thing we’re missing here are the previous generation jingles from a year or two earlier which were from one of JAM‘s WLS Chicago “Musicradio” packages… those woulda been perfect!

Here’s a jock who would be another staple of Z-100 throughout the 90s. Morales is another high-energy personality who would be a ratings leader on this mainstream CHR powerhouse!

More from ECA and Robyn Watts!

Here’s another jock we can’t get enough of. Recently unemployed (not for long, we susupect) Broadway Bill Lee (WTIC-FM, KFRC, WLOL) holds down the afternoon drive on Hot 97, sometime around 1989.

More from ECA and Robyn Watts!

After WPLJ’s transition to CHR from AOR and prior to flipping to Hot AC, WPLJ was in direct CHR compeition with both WQHT and WHTZ, although the “Power 95″ version of WPLJ was mixed a bit more hard-edged as the former two competitors, in the respect that on this aircheck in particular, there’s more hard rock than Z-100. Still, here is a station that STILL sounded great and very much in the game in the late 80s and early 90s.

Listen now to Skyy Walker and Domino on Power 95

Another CHR WARS presentation from East Coast Airchecks courtesy of Robyn Watts!

The late 80s and early 90s saw one of the hottest competitions among the hit music stations in New York City history. The last time there were this many stations locked in battle for the top 40 audience was the early 1960s when it was on the AM band between WMGM, WMCA and WABC. But, this was a different era which, from many perspecitves was even more exciting than the first.

Enter WHTZ. Licensed to Newark, NJ, this station proudly announces broadcasting from the TOP of the Empire State Building (both then and now), where the actual transmitting antenna is located. Regardless of where the signal eminates from, Z-100 has been the Big Apple’s preeminent contemporary music station since its sign on in 1983.

Profiled here by the trademarked East Coast Airchecks service and graciously donated to our collection by Robyn Watts, here’s a great 6 minute glimpse of the Bill O’Brien show on Z-100. We’re guessing the year on this aircheck (and this whole series) to be approximately 1989.

During this era, Z-100 had two main competitors: 95.5 WPLJ “Power 95″ and 97.1 WQHT “Hot 97″. There were other stations of other formats which had higher ratings but different demographics, but this was the exciting CHR war which these three stations were waging. The war was waged over the airwaves and the weapon of choice was the incredible personalities heard on all three stations. This war was great for listeners, and for the quality of radio heard in New York in general. Its a period of time that is now just a part of history, but you can relive that history right now!

“…It’s time to play with the monkey!”

Here’s your webmaster’s favorite jock (the one who inspired me to do radio in the first place), kicking off another incredible edition of East Coast Airchecks’ CHR WARS, courtesy of Robyn Watts!

Bandiero was and is no stranger to bigtime markets, in fact we have him featured elsewhere here on airchexx.com at WIFI 92 Philadelphia, WKBW Buffalo and WXLO 99X (on our 99xnewyork.com tribute site)! Here’s Al, in a three-aircheck composite on Hot 97 from the early 90s. After listening to him at these other stations, we think you’ll agree that Al Bandiero is absolutely at the TOP of his game on this WQHT aircheck. This really is one of his best and we hope you’ll take a listen as we head back to the 90s and another installation of CHR WARS!

Jeff Smulyan had an idea. What if you could recreate barroom discussion of sports on a 24 hour radio station. Lucky for Jeff, he happened to be the President of Emmis Broadcasting, which happened to have an AM outlet in New York that would be a perfect testing ground for the format. WHN had become a legend in the previous 15 years it had with the Country format, with many New York DJ’s that will go into any New York Radio Hall of Fame: Del Demontreaux, Lee Arnold, Dan Daniel, and Dan Taylor to name a few. Equipped with rights to the defending World Champion New York Mets, WFAN signed-on and without making much of a dent in the ratings it did make a name for itself locally and nationally.

At the risk of overkill on Dan Ingram material, here’s more, apparently from the same weekend as part 1. More funny one-liners to make you laugh, more great jingles and everything that made WCBS-FM the best Oldies station, from probably the BEST era of that station, the early 1990s.

Want a really good laugh? I thought I’d heard almost every one-liner out there but this one aircheck from Big Dan tops anything I’ve heard from him, even better than anything I heard him do at WABC! There’s a joke for every song, live commercial or tidbit Dan talks about, and every one is FUNNY!

There’s a good reason why then WCBS-FM PD Joe McCoy hired Dan Ingram… and listen to this 30 minutes of pure gold to find out what it was. Not only is this a great aircheck to help us commemorate the greatest Oldies station ever, its also one of the very best airchecks we’ve posted here in a very long time.

Mega thanks to former New Yorker Steve Green, who now lives in Texas for sending this and a few other CBS-FM airchecks along!

Courtesy of Steve Green, here’s The Maxman on CBS-FM! Notice how much Kinkel does with sports! This aircheck features a great caller bit at about :35 minutes in.

Here’s a first…. An exclusive interview with former CBS-FM jock Steve O’Brien! Steve’s been in New York Radio for a long time on such stations as WABC, WYNY and of course CBS-FM! He’s been heard on Sirius Satellite Radio and seen on the TV game show, the $25,000 Pyramid!

This is a real interview! Steve and I have been in contact for awhile now, ever since he did our 3rd segment of Musicradio 77 Recreated for New Years Eve 2005, and he graciously donated a bit of his time to give all of us a bit of insight into his career and what it was like to be a jock at the Golden 101!

Did you know SOB was at CBS-FM for 15 years! It might not be as long as Don K. Reed but 15 years is a long time for a dj to be at any station anywhere. And, as Steve says, the longevity of the personalities on CBS-FM was a big factor in the station’s success.

So… listen now as we chat with one true radio great – Steve O’Brien from 101 CBS-FM!

Here’s part two of Steve O’Brien on CBS-FM!

Here’s our good site friend Steve O’Brien, your friendly SOB, doing his thing on CBS-FM. Steve is very funny and entertaining here, so kick back and enjoy!

……”Here’s Michael Jackson. Perhaps he shoulda stopped…”

Not quite 7 months before the format change, Bill Rock was heard filling in for Cousin Bruce Morrow. Rock is topical, funny and in so many ways a perfect choice to fill in for Brucie. Lots of requests, mentions of Wolfman Jack and a large variety of music, which at this point is NOT loaded with a lot of 50s and 60s.

You’ll hear the final set of WCBS-FM jingles played in a modernized Oldies format which included lots of 70s disco, as Infinity broadcasting rushed to push the older music and its aging demos into the background, as advertisers made it known that they didn’t want to buy airtime on stations catering to those over 55 years old. Folly? That’s up for discussion!

Here’s a generous portion of Bobby Jay. In hi-fi quicktime stereo! This was recorded back in June of ’96 around the same time as the Max Kinkel aircheck we’re posting this week.

Not all jocks are smooth, but some have a very distinctive style. And NOBODY sounds like Bobby Jay!

More, from the 90s when WCBS-FM was just enormous!

Here’s part two of the Dan Ingram aircheck from 3/9/96. About 16 minutes in, you’ll hear Dan’s trademarked signoff featuring “Tri-Fi Drums”, a cut Ingram began using some 35 years prior at 77 WABC. Then the clip moves into Bob Shannon, who mentions that he will be filling in for Norm N. Nite that evening.

Often, if not most times in radio, when a DJ disappears either because he quit or was fired, most people never know why until they read about it in the paper. Or hear it through the grapevine. Once in a while, however, there is mention of it on the air.

In one of the most classy turnovers I’ve ever heard, “Dandy” Dan Daniel signs off and hands his afternoon show to Dan Taylor. Both men were friends who had worked together in Country radio, at WHN (1050) and at WYNY (103.5), and there was a deep admiration and respect for one another… and it shows in this 5 minute clip of Daniel’s last full time appearance on WCBS-FM.

…“It’s COOLD outside, so layer up… or layer down!”

Best known for his irreverent one-liners, Dan Ingram was one of the most popular and best loved DJ’s in New York history! Here’s Big Dan on his Saturday show on CBS-FM, from one very cold March afternoon in 1996 – still on top of his game!

Listen now as we commemorate the end of an era at 101.1 CBS-FM – one year ago this week!

If you didn’t find out by listening to 101.1 FM or by having a friend tell you, you might have heard this story air on sister station All-News 1010 WINS. The anchor is longtime WINS anchor Doug O’Brien (formerly of WNBC).

What was perhaps the world’s best known Oldies station disappeared forever from the radio landscape, as then Infinity Broadcasting (Now CBS, Inc.) changed formats to Variety Hits as 101.1 Jack-FM “Playing What We Want”.

The day started out on a very positive note, with CBS-FM Morning personality, Former Monkee Micky Dolenz was celebrating his 100th show on 101.1 with a special live broadcast from B.B. King’s Blues Club. From the morning show, it seemed as if all was looking good at the Golden 101.

Listeners may have figured something was up when afternoon drive started and there was no DJ. No Bob Shannon… Brucie, not anyone. Just wall to wall music and jingles. Then, it happened. At 5:00 PM, there was a short pause, and….

You’ll just have to listen for yourself. A very sad moment in the history of New York radio. And unlike WABC’s departure from Musicradio 23 years earlier, there was no aura of dignity here.

In the early 90′s, Hit Radio was struggling with what direction to take. Many flipped formats completely, while some went in a Rhythmic direction, and the rest leaned on the surging product of Alternative Rock to fill their playlists.

Z100 was one of the leaders of the Alternative leaning CHR movement. But that didn’t mean that they weren’t playing all the hits. In this aircheck, you’ll hear artists as diverse as Guns N Roses, Salt N Pepa, Alice In Chains, Madonna, AC/DC, and David Bowie. You can almost trace the roots of the Jack/Bob Variety Hits format here.

Nowadays, Elvis Duran is coming up on a decade as leader of the “Z Morning Zoo”, which is now syndicated to Miami. Here, he was still in his afternoon slot, while promoting the fact that he was going to fill in on the morning show later that week for the first time.

Note the pop-culture references here: Joey Buttafuoco getting out of jail; Whitewater; 900 numbers; and the top hit from Ace of Base.

In the waning days of Country music at WHN, here’s a look at how mornings sounded just before the end.

By 1987, WHN would be gone, having flipped to All-Sports as 1050 WFAN, which would move the next year in what was known as the big switch, down to 660 upon the expiration of WNBC. But before the end came… listening to this aircheck, you’ll hear a who’s who of legendary deejays in New York radio (well, at least mentioned by morning guru Del Demontreau)! Some of these went on to be a part of WYNY, others to WCBS-FM and elsewhere.

Notables on this aircheck… breaking news about a partial nuclear meltdown in the (former) Soviet Union. This would be the Chernobyl nuclear power plant but back at this time details were still sketchy

1050 WHN… the last truly succesful Country station in NYC. Thanks to Matt for sharing this with us!

Big thanks to “Magic” Matt at Big Apple Airchecks for some pristine audio of 99X!

This is from the end of the best era (IMHO) of WXLO in the days of Disco music and a very heated competition between 99X and crosstown, cross-band 77 WABC. Glenn Morgan Is certainly one of the more subdued jocks on staff.

Listen for a break from Al Bandiero at the end of this aircheck!

Thanks to this late submission from our good friend “Magic” Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks, we can bring you a really GOOD, high quality recording of the late WNBC.

1978… probably the biggest year for Disco music, before the days of disco destruction… and here’s WNBC doing it’s best to compete with crosstown WABC. Good as it was, success was never achieved in this too-little-too-late attempt to gain the top 40 music crown, what, with WXLO and other FM stations swiftly coming up to oppose the few remaining music AM’s in the Big Apple. However, despite that background, listen to this aircheck! I think you’ll find the presentation better than most stations today… and even better than most Oldies stations. It sure was a different world in 1978!

New Yorkers who pine for Country music usually remember the legendary WHN… for decades the home for Country music in the city! This was before WYNY’s various country incarnations, before Garth Brooks, Shania or Kenny Chesney!

With decent ratings and a killer signal (at least during the day), WHN served a niche audience, all ending one fateful day in 1987 when then owner Emmis changed formats to Sports, and the now-familiar WFAN station was born.

But, this is 1975 and WHN is in it’s prime. CW McCall is a ‘guest DJ’ on this day. Listen. It’s great!

Click Here to Listen!

Total Time: 61 Minutes | Format: Real Audio G2 | Monaural

Another one courtesy of Matt at Big Apple Airchecks is this rather short look at what was a modified easy listening station. This wasn’t a string music station, it did have jocks at this point… and IIRC was shortly before going AOR as WAPP. This could easily have developed into a major Soft AC station, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Total Time: 12 Minutes | Format: Real Audio G2 | 56kbps Stereo

In conjunction with the occasion of our Steve O’Brien-on-MusicRadio 77 Recreated special, now might be a good time to debut Steve’s command performance on 101.1 WCBS-FM. From 2004, this is a contribution from Steve’s personal collection.

New Yorkers continue to lament the loss of Oldies radio. The format may never return to analog radio but apparently CBS, Inc (Which WAS Infinity Broadcasting but now resurrected thanks to parent Viacom) has launched it’s Oldies HD stream – for those of you who have one of those pricey HD receivers. The format is online, of course, at www.wcbsfm.com, and, unfortunately, is jockless. We’ll see if disc jockeys ever return to the station as popularity slowly grows.

Thanks to Steve O’Brien’s generocity we have a ton of material which we’ll share a bit at a time in 2006 only here on airchexx.com!

And now, courtesy of Matt @ Big Apple Airchecks, Here’s a bit of Big Dan like we haven’t heard in a while. 92 KTU was, of course, New York’s first Disco station – in 1979. It morphed into an excellent CHR station, but just couldn’t hold up against Z-100 when it launched in 1983.

By 1985, WKTU was in real trouble and eventually flipped to Rock and changed call letters to the current WXRK – “K-Rock”.

So now, with K-Rock about to disappear forever with the impending flip to talk when Howard Stern leaves, lets go back to an era just before 92.3 flipped back in 1985 – with the King of all disc jockey’s, Dan Ingram!

* Click HERE to Listen!

It may only be one day a week, but MusicRadio 77 is BACK! Saturday nights from 6 to 10pm, WABC is now back to its roots as MusicRadio 77.

Saturday night, December 3 2005 was the beginning. After 23 years, the format is back, and gang, it’s like WABC picked up where they left off in May 1982.

Courtesy of Matt at Big Apple Airchecks, we have audio of all four hours! Due to copyright restrictions, we had to edit out the music and commercials, but everything else is there! The jingles, airchecks from Dan Ingram & Cousin Bruce, an interview with the Beach Boys, lots of phone calls and that great ECHO! All done by Mark Simone, a legendary New York area DJ, and for the last 6 years, a weekend talk show host on WABC.

This was a great show! Brought back so many memories! While we don’t plan on posting future shows, at least not unless there’s something really special, this first one is of historic purportions, so here it is!

Click here for Part 1

Click here for Part 2

Click here for Part 3

Click here for Part 4

Visitors, if you heard the show (and even if you just wished you heard it) we’d love to read your comments!

Digging out the old archives as we get organized in New England, I ran across this from the 2004 edition of Rewound which didn’t get posted the first time around.

Les Marshack took over for Roby Younge in the overnight slot some time before this aircheck was recorded. Marshack is still holding down the overnight slot in 1970 and sounds great here.

It’s a bit early to be thinking of Rewound, but it’s a nice way to go into Thanksgiving week!

The end of 92/KTU… Here’s part one of a recording made as the station that knocked out WABC was tossed to the dustbin of radio history.

Yes, the logo says “Disco 92″. KTU wasn’t, not at the time of this aircheck, but it was a hot CHR station with a large audience. Not large enough, unfortunately… Creamed in the ratings by then two year old Z-100 (WHTZ), KTU was destined to rock, so it was that on this date in 1985, the station breathed it’s last before returning as WXRK and it’s destiny with Rock and one Howard Stern.

Here’s Part 1.

As we kick off the month of November and your webmaster says goodbye to Memphis, here’s a ‘goodbye’ of a different kind. Al Bandiero handed off his weekly ‘classics’ show on Hot 97 – kinda low key but very nicely done, Bandiero passes the baton to Paco – a one-of-a-kind sounding jock who does a great job mixing the dance hits.

Remember, emailed contributions are fine as long as you’re sending a ‘virgin’ recording. Accountability is essential in this age where digital transmission is more efficient than traditional snail mail… but remember we prefer tape. See our contact link for more information about audio contributions.

Here’s another great contribution from Karl Phillips. I don’t know if Karl recorded this himself or if it was given to him but it’s an original reel recording of various stations in New York City, circa 1973. This starts out a bit slow… with a parody of President Nixon giving a speech right around the time of the Watergate Scandal. It’s a creative piece of audio manipulation worthy of something you might hear on Air America Radio or something. No matter. After the parody, this moves on to some great audio from WXLO, WPIX, WWDJ, WCBS-FM, WABC and more!

This tape didn’t come with any background information, but ‘Jocko’ sounds suspiciously like the late Rosko Mercer, before moving on to WOR-FM. There are a LOT of 50s and early 60s tunes on this tape which was sent to us unscoped (so legally, I had to scope this down – kinda too bad though).

Really, if you listen to the jock patter this is SO much the same style as Rosko that I’m convinced he is one and the same person in this presentation. The nice thing is, while there’s really not much audio from those days, and ‘Jocko’ / Rosko airchecks are HARD to find, we have a complete cassette side to present here.

Listen now to WADO. The station would have been being creamed by WABC and WMCA in 1964, but they tried, eh? No jingles and very little in the way of programming elements to identify the station on this – so enjoy what appears to be a minor station playing in the big leagues.

Here’s yet another reason Z-100 has the reputation of being the mother of all modern-day CHR stations! Great talent exhibited here, from the Z Morning Zoo to Elvis Duran, fabulous imaging & great production.

This is from a time period when CHR and Z-100 were playing this trainwreck mix of pop from Michael Bolton and Grunge from Pearl Jam… some would say this wasn’t CHR, but Z-100 is definitely playing all the hits.

Another great scoped presentation from Robyn Watts, which is actually side two of an original, first generation tape from “Hecht Enterprises”. Glad they were around to chronicle this one!

Click HERE to Listen!

July… Heat, Humidity, Hot Dogs… you know the drill. Often, especially in the Northeast, one of those cool fronts brings relief but they also bring trouble. This particular night in 1977 is remembered by nearly every New Yorker around back then. It started off as a miserably hot day, then a BIG storm front blew in… but it was only one of a chain of events that would leave Big Apple residents in the dark.

Radio covered it well. Lots of audio from WABC, WCBS, WINS & others. 28 years ago this year!

Click HERE to Listen!

Most people would agree – Z-100 was and is the biggest & best Top 40 station ever in the Big Apple, next to WABC. And, considering that WABC was only Top 40 for 22 years (only?), Z has been doing CHR just as long – 22 years, starting in 1983, and thus has created it’s own New York City heritage.

Here’s a guy who sounds strangely like another CHR jock from the 80s, M.J. Kelli – who did his thing nights on WGH-FM Newport News, VA earlier, in 1987. Or, more accurately, Kelli (aka Todd Schnitt) sounded like Bonilla – no matter, this aircheck is so hot you can burn up your computer!

Bonilla opens his first break by rapping– apparently his own NYC rap about Z-100 and things heat up from there. He’s really got two identities for his listeners: Chio “The Hitman” and Chio “The Freakin’ Puerto Rican”. Check out Ernie Anderson’s Top of the Hour custom ID for Bonilla – it’s a hoot!

This one’s in lowband stereo, so turn your PC speakers up LOUD!

Another, from the fabulous Robyn Watts Collection!

Click HERE to Listen!

Here’s one of the late Chuck