Airchexx.com

Hey!
I just heard me on KD! Pretty cool….. I didn’t say much though.
Here’s something from KS95 when I was over there for a couple of years.
Feels good to contribute.

Ok Jon! We don’t know the exact date of your aircheck but we’re guessing 2004.

Mid Summer in the mid-90s – It’s a hot time in the Twin Cities and the upper Midwest is listening to a great radio station – 101.3 KDWB! We’ve got a few other airchecks from this station, which started out as a legendary AM Top 40 in the 60s. Here’s an original recording from the year of deregulation – and KDWB is really a tight CHR station. The only thing that bothers your webmaster is that there are too many songs and elements in between jock breaks. John London sounds great, when we hear him.

You’ll hear a lot of 1996 commercials (check out some of the car prices!) and a moderate use of the KDWB jingles. Here’s 47 minutes of great radio listening for your enjoyment!

101.3 KDWB Twin Cities

We have a number of the 90s, 101.3 FM CHR version of this station, but this is the first of the original AM Top 40 recordings!

What a great morning show. This is what they called “The new sound of KDWB”… and it was memorable! Here’s the “Q” format done in the Twin Cities and it’s just perfect timing that this posts now as this aircheck and the calendar say Christmas is coming soon!

The Phrase that Pays contest is well underway. As a gag, these guys call midday guy John Sebastian at home just to wake him and say Bill Drake is calling. Here’s a hilarious morning show, done on AM. That’s AM, for you kiddies who just can’t believe anything interesting was ever broadcast on that band!

On a cassette which has typed (not computer-pritned) ’15 KSTP, MINNEAPOLIS, 1973-1974 airchecks’ on it, here is what appears to be a ‘professional ‘edit, with each small clip fading in and out appropriately… through 45 minutes!

If you can take the obvious ‘chops’ in this, it’s a really wonderful collection of disc jockeys and each daypart on the Twin Cities’ Top 40 giant! Among the great (and not so great) voices you’ll hear a GREAT Charlie Bush with news, Knapp in the Morning, M.G (Machine Gun) Kelly, and more. Beware, this doesn’t sound like what it is at first, because it starts with a sports report of the previous night’s fight between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier.

While boardering on overkill, here’s more from CHR WARS 2, this time featuring Crash Davis on KDWB. We can’t thank Robyn Watts enough for donating literally hundreds of tapes to our archives. We’ll be posting new RW material for years! THANKS, ROBYN!

Now, more CHR WARS 2 from the Twin Cities! Bo Simpson is back (thanks to the miracle of tape), on 99.5 WLOL

At QuickCheck status this is short, but well worth a listen… It’s Rude Dog Kellogg on KDWB!

What was it that set WLOL apart from KDWB? First off, it was the fact that KDWB was your typical mainstream CHR. Musically right in the middle of the format, while WLOL was more dance oriented. In particular (and there’s more insight to this at the WLOL TRIBUTE SITE), WLOL did break a couple of national hits due to their custom song mixes.

Airchexx.com tries to provide a history lesson in presenting all this great audio, so in addition to hearing Pam Lewis and some custom mixes that you unfortunately can’t hear in this scoped presentation at WLOL, you get 2.5 semester hours at airchexx.com university for absorbing some good info! Um, don’t let it go to your head (but you might do the tribute site webmaster a favor and visit his site)

Remembering for a moment that KDWB won the CHR wars (WLOL was replaced by a Classical station in 1991 on 99.5), the jock known simply as Mr. Ed. No, not the horse…

More great 80s CHR right in the middle of CHR WARS 2, a tape from East Coast Airchecks courtesy of Robyn Watts!

In our first WLOL glimpse of this CHR WARS presentation, we heard Bill Lee from 1985. Now, fast forward a couple of years to about 1988. WLOL is now 99 POINT 5, instead of 99 and a half. Whoopee, I know that makes so little sense, but what does in the world of radio? Never mind that if someone was on the ball today, WLOL, the LOL part being a cyber-acronym for LAUGH OUT LOUD, or LOTS OF LAUGHS…well, you get the picture.

This is Kelly Foxx on WLOL – maybe not a ton of laughs but certainly lots of fun and great music from the decade of greed and excess (talk about mis-labelled…. nobody had a crystal ball to see the greed of the 2000s, now, did they?), as we continue our trip back to the 1980s and two very LARGE CHR stations, very much at war!

Maybe this should be called morning CHR Wars! Steve Cochran is heard sounding great here. Get some coffee, sit down and listen to about 17 minutes of KDWB as we continue with the second edition of Minneapolis CHR WARS from Robyn Watts!

This entire CHR WARS presentation in its many parts is all recordings from the 1980s. Here’s Bobby Wilde on KDWB!

Fresh from KFRC, Bill Lee (Lenke at WTIC-FM) is showcased here, a bit less rhythmic than at both the aforementioned stations. Still, one of the most talented and lightning fast thinkers (either that or one hell of a lot of show prep notes) is Lee, who is rapidly becoming of airchexx.com’s most popular jocks!

This is part one of another star-studded edition of CHR WARS… Distributed by Florida-based East Coast Airchecks, this was another great contribution from Robyn Watts! Where’s Minneapolis CHR WARS 1? Probably still among the 300 or so tapes we still haven’t gone through!

Another from the Robyn Watts Collection – More 90′s fun! Here’s the first of three great 90s CHR goodies. Up to Minneapolis/St. Paul where the FM side of KDWB was (and still is, by all accounts) the Twin Cities’ hit music leader. This one’s hot!

Click HERE to Listen!

This ‘check starts with the “Heinz in the Morning” show, with Charlie Bush news. Northern Minnesota had a great sounding AM station years ago, although 1979 just isn’t that long ago.

No station jingles, but good, contemporary music with a good mix of new and old gold. Not sure what 1500 AM is up there now, but it’s probably some sort of talk (I could look it up, but I’d rather have some listener leave comments )

Click HERE to Listen!

Another from the archives. 103 FM WCCO FM – this is a very laid-back aircheck, reminiscent of the old Soft Rock 103 WEEI-FM in Boston. If anyone knows the history behind this station, leave a comment below.

Click HERE to Listen!

Another from the archives as we head north to Minnesota and a legendary station in those parts – KDWB.

Click HERE to Listen!