Airchexx.com

We don’t as a rule post Satellite Radio airchecks, mainly because we’re interested in the authentic broadcasts of classic AM and FM radio. Sent in by new contributor Brett Provo (current Production Director for WMAS-FM Springfield MA), this is an exception to our rule.

Magic Matt Allen is genuinely FUNNY. As the morning man on the now-defunct Totally 70s channel on Sirius before the merger with XM, Matt had a unique sense of timing and his one liners remind us of Dan Ingram and his ability to quip a one liner over a song intro. That’s a talent which is truly a GIFT, not acquired. Really, gang, you can’t make this stuff up.

Yes, some of Satellite radio is voice tracked, some channels are lame, and others not, but every now and then some fantastic talent is found there. Your webmaster thinks its worth the subscription fee, if for no other reason than because it’s more entertaining than Over-The-Air radio is these days.

Totally 70s on Sirius Satellite Radio before the XM Merger

High altitude airchecks? Pretty rare, given that you’re not supposed to use portable radios on commercial aircraft… but some of us did back in the day and it was truly great fun!

Marc Viquez sent this in and, well… he can describe it better than your webmaster:

Here is a collection from February 15, 1992 from various cities from thousands of feet in the air. I was traveling from New Jersey to Los Angeles by plane and recorded whatever I could on my AIWA portable stereo recorder; what I was able to record was priceless, crystal clear sweepers, airchecks and bumpers from Syracuse, NY; Youngstown, Ohio; Ft. Wayne, Ind; and Lincoln, Neb. Syracuse and Lincoln are prominent on the collection, but it is amazing what you can pick up from close to 30,000 feet in the air. Here are the stations that were recorded that night:
Philadelphia Q102
Syracuse 93Q
Youngstown Hot 101 WHOT
Ft. Wayne 97.3 WMEE
Quad Cities Power 98.9 WPXR
Lincoln Q102 102.7 KFRX
Unknown Q102 KRMQ

This aircheck is unedited except I boosted the volume a bit.

From Contributor Daniel Coloumbe comes this four and a half minute, tightly scoped promotional demo of the new “Hit Oldies” format.

Programmers, if you’re looking for a cost-effective means to program your Classic Hits or Oldies station, listen to this fresh approach to Oldies, as demonstrated here programmed on CJMQ 88.9 FM Sherbrooke, Quebec. Then, click here to send an email for more information.

Produced by Steve West in August, 2002 for the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, this is an Airchexx.com Special Presentation!

Now, listen to the events as heard on radio and a somber tribute to a day which nobody the world over will ever forget! As heard on America’s Trucking Network (formerly the Truckin’ Bozo Show) on 700 WLW & XM Satellite Radio, stations of the Information Radio Network and hundreds of other stations nationwide.

Here’s a tape that Rich Brother Robin gave to me when we worked together at Citadel Memphis Radio Group. It shows him doing some of his best work out on the west coast.

I knew very little about WNMB-FM other than that I had a cassette of a Hot AC station called B-94 from 2000. Wikipedia says there was the Bob and Sheri show mornings in 2000, but mentions no other jocks. Perhaps that explains this format of adult hit music, with nothing but liners between the songs for the entire 45 minutes of this recording.

In all, this is a very unimpressive and rather disappointing aircheck. Its a good example of where radio was headed, just four years after Telcom ’96. Still, if you remember this station, you might have heard it in this incarnation, just before it switched to easy listening. Perhaps there are some fond memories of Myrtle Beach in this

Here’s a station that’s apparently been gone for some time now. WYAK was a country station licensed to Surfside Beach, but serving the Myrtle Beach area. Sounds like a good, but typical Country station from 9 1/2 years ago.

Going way back to the Fall of 2002, this has been sitting in our archived collection waiting for a time when we had a tape player that would actually play it.

In what should have been part of our “Old Gold” series (this would be tape #8), this contains clips of Detroit area radio. It was tempting to edit this and post each aircheck separately, but given the way this tape was put together, it seemed like a better idea to simply present this as heard on the tape, Side 1.

Where did this come from? Some collector, no doubt put it all together, as the Old Gold tape series we’ve had online since our first year on the web. The whole collection came to us from an annonymous source (his choice). What you hear is stored on the cassette pictured above.

Included on this (not necessarilly in order):

WHFI “Honey” “Nostalgia 95″ (94.7) Birmingham, MI
CKLW Windsor, ONT
WNRS “FM Nine Four Country” Windsor, ONT
WXYZ Detroit
WDRQ Detroit
WPAG Detroit

Here is one of the most interesting airchecks I’ve heard in a long time. Dr. O.C. White and Jim Frazier talk about the history of Black radio from the days of 1590 WAWA about a year before the station went dark. The old jocks… where are they now and what stations were they heard? How did Black radio start? These questions are answered on this one hour recording.

it’s a MUST LISTEN for anyone who wishes to know about Milwaukee area Black radio!

* Information corrected as of 6/22/09

“… I’m gonna count the rockets for ya. I’ll give the final count on the hour.”

Truly unique in it’s presentation, AFVN (Armed Forces Vietnam Network), “The Big 54″ really tried to bring American Top 40 radio to the troops. After listening to this, you’d think this was recorded in the states, except for the public service (okay, military service) announcements.

Listen for LOTS of PAMS jingles, reverb (at times)… and notable, Gears mentions toward the end of this recording that he could swear he just heard missiles go off outside.

While much of the nation watched the inauguration ceremony of the 44th President of the United States on television (and much of that in High-Definition), being that this is a website dedicated to RADIO, we thought it would be good to record for all of history, the radio broadcast of the proceedings of this turning point in American history.

This recording actually begins with about 30 minutes of WABC 77 talking about the upcoming inauguration starting at about 10:00 AM, then moves on to news coverage on WCBS 880. It includes normal business, traffic and weather reports, but most of the news centers around the inauguration later in the morning.

In Segment 2, ceremonies leading up to the inauguartion of Vice President Joe Biden. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney (in a wheelchair) exit. Much of this segment features commentary from the CBS radio network.

Radio coverage as heard on WCBS NewsRadio 880, in this segment, the swearing in of President Obama, and the President’s first Speech to the Nation.



/

Well now, honestly folks, there are a few of these miscellaneous tapes sitting around with a label and no credits in this ‘miscellaneous’ bin. If you donated it, fess up in the comments section. It probably got stuck in the box during one of my moves.

This is a short scope of WKNZ 101.7 Hattiesburg MS from 1982. The station long ago ceased to exist in this form, is now listed as off the air, last affiliated with the Educational Media Foundation (Christian music formatted “K-Love”)with the calls on 88.7 in Harrington Delaware. There is an internet station “Zoo 107″ WKNZ out there that I think you can check out on live 365 but I don’t have the link.

Funny how some stations disappear into the ether.

You know you’re a monster talent when creative folks come out of the woodwork from seemingly everywhere to pay tribute. In so many ways, Jack Armstrong, whose real name is John Larsh, was one of the pioneering voices in the history of Top 40 radio. In a career that spanned over 50 years on air at dozens of stations, many of them legendary, Armstrong paved the way for other fast talking on air lunatics (we say that in a complimentary way) to captivate massive audiences on both coasts, and the hinterlands in between. From legendary status at WKBW Buffalo, to KFI in Los Angeles and KKHR Los Angeles to morning drive at an Oldies station back home in North Carolina concurrent with a voicetracked appearance on the short lived KB Klassic format at WWKB Buffalo, Armstrong set the standard for quick witted one liners. Fact is, Armstrong graced so many stations from Boston’s WMEX to little stations in the midwest among his large market appearances, it could almost be argued that he worked at more stations in more markets than Joey Reynolds – a jock who once quipped “I’ve worked at so many radio stations they call me the Voice of America”.

This tribute, by our friendliest and certainly most generous contributor, Matt Seinberg over at Big Apple Airchecks, is one of the best, most insightful and respectful I’ve heard anywhere. It deserves airplay, and since no radio stations seem to have any interest, we proudly present this tribute to one of the truely great radio legends, Jack Armstrong!

Don’t be ashamed to shed a tear – this one’s that good.

Thanks to a Philly resident who recorded this and posted it on our sister forum, Radioinsight.com’s Aircheck Traders Board, we have this HD quality aircheck of All News 1060 KYW’s reporting of the passing of Philly legend Hy Lit. A staple from the great 99 WIBG, Lit went into the hospital for knee surgery, and never came out.

Another one sent in from Big Apple Airchecks is this very short demo of Dave Lyons on Power 96. We don’t have much information on this station but the ‘check is HOT, moving right along with the hits of the late 80s.

Looking at one of the smaller markets now, Texarkana sits pretty much in the middle of truckers’ commute between Dallas and Little Rock… not much interesting radio for someone just driving through, but if you were to have been tuning around back in the early 80s, you might have stumbled upon KOSY. This AM / FM simulcast took on the FM personna of Y102.

It’s not bad, some interesting bits here and there. We like the fact that the jocks actually had something to say. No liner card reading here!

Sounding more like this was a demo than an actual broadcast, here’s Lou Roberts playing Milwaukee’s hits one Winter day back in 1976. I swear, you can hear a turntable rumble on this recording. This was definitely not recorded off the air. It could have been a skimmer reel pulling the audio right off the main console, or it might be something which was recorded in a production room. If it’s the latter, then much care was taken to make it sound authentic. Roberts includes a short phone bit with a caller at the end of this aircheck.

Another thing worth noting, this recording comes to us unscoped, and in excellent condition considering the age of this aircheck of an AM station. Unfortunately for you, this had to be telescoped before posting for copyright reasons.

Listen for commercials for Ford Pintos, banks and grocery stores. All very representative of what a small station would have sounded like in the mid-70s, certainly not a station in a large market like Milwaukee… this certainly is an eye-opener.

I’ve been looking for an aircheck from this era for years, and now we have one! Today’s 100.3 WHEB is an FM-only Classic Rocker, just your average run-of-the-mill rock oldies station with the same boring titles played over and over. But, back in ’79, it was THE station to listen to while tanning at Hampton Beach during the Summer.

Known as “The Star Station”, this was a not-quite top 40 station with a generous dose of Oldies. From what I remember this was an AM/FM simulcast with AM 750 leaving the air at night (or dropping to some rediculously low power) to protect WSB Atlanta. This aircheck was apparently recorded at night because it’s the FM side (with it’s own jingles). Back in the day, we all listened to the AM side of this simulcast on the beach, flipping back and forth between WHEB and WRKO Boston.

The AM side went dark sometime in the 80s – surely there’s someone out there who knows the exact history of this station. Seems to me the FM flipped to AOR about the time they turned in the AM license.

The radio landscape at the NH coastline has changed substantially since this aircheck was recorded, but if you wanna go back to before it all went to FM, listen to this… it’s sure to bring back some good memories, even if this is a WINTER aircheck!

If you liked TK on WLS’ Big 89 Rewind, you’ll love hearing him today as he hosts “Classic Top 40 with Tom Kent”, “Hall of Fame Coast To Coast” and “Into the 70s with Tom Kent”! Tom’s syndicated material is airing on hundreds of stations across America and now, Tom Kent has personally provided us with airchecks of these fantastic shows!

Want more information on how your station can feature Tom Kent? Simply CLICK HERE to head to TKO Radio Network.

You can also find TK on WLS, G-98 and WAVA, right here on Airchexx.com!

Used as a sales tool, this demo for WBUX 1570 AM, Bucks County, PA is well produced and does get right to the point, using a few air samples and a description of the station’s live, full service features.

The format seems to be Top 40, and if so, would have been one of the last holdouts on the AM band. There was hardly any music on AM in 1990, but you have to give this station credit for trying.

Does anyone do station demos like this anymore?

…”Yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa, and his name is Greater Media!”

Now on to part two of this simultaneous aircheck. Just for fun I thought it would be cool to put the 99.5 frequency on the right, and the 102.5 frequency on the left and hear it that way… but, well.. not. Way too confusing hahaha!

Here’s the recording of 102.5 for your listening pleasure. And, yes. We are going to make you listen to 20 minutes of classical music going into the arrival of WKLB Country 102.5! It only helps to build excitement… plus, Classical is certainly in the public domain so we’re quite sure we’re safe on this one.

This is exactly how it sounded at noon Friday December 1!

Please, LISTEN to this entire aircheck. WKLB arrives right on time after the National Anthem, and Carolyn Cruze (a fixture on WKLB for so many years) does a fantastic job moving and serving up songs on the Country Cafe with LOTS of calls. This part has to be scoped, but it moves along quickly. It’s GREAT radio. And… you’ll LOVE the kickoff at noon!

Writeup forthcoming -

While I usually try to have a comment to go along with things we post here, the explanation of the WKLB/WCRB frequency swap is far too involved for me to finish writing at the moment. It will come, and we invite visitors to leave their own comments below. This is a major event in Boston, one that has taken over a year to accomplish.

Our thanks to contributor Bob Nelson for this BREAKING aircheck!

Here’s the first part, monitoring of 99.5

Here’s a short look at the AM side of WWDC from approximately the mid-1970s. While the exact date is unknown (we’ve had good luck with listeners doing research of their own for us – so have at it and post it in the ‘comments’ section below, if you wish), we think this is from a time when there were just two Top 40 AM stations in the nation’s Capitol. The other was the more recognizable WPGC.

This was apparently an ABC O&O station, featuring news from the “American Contemporary Radio” network, and jocks like Lou Katz and Jack Casey. You’ll hear a promotion for the WWDC ‘Something Special’ contest, a few full length commercials and part of a network newscast.

Included on another tape in the ‘annonymous’ donation from Christmas ’04, this is part of the sign off of WPIK Alexandria VA. It invites listeners to tune to their FM station for more Country music all night.

A bit of research turns up that WPIK was on 730 in Alexandria VA, the Washington DC market. Signed on in 1945 and changed call letters to WPKX in 1980 (and those calls have been on 97.9 in Springfield Mass since 1989). You can research the entire AM band history in Washington by going to this website.. Thanks to Thomas A. White for the information.

Very few stations sign off at midnight anymore, but years ago, it was common practice for class C AMs to go off the air at midnight, or at dusk, if they had to protect a clear channel (FCC Designation, not the company) AM station’s night contour. Even some FM stations would sign off at Midnight thinking there wasn’t enough audience to support the light bill during the overnight. So, we bring you a signoff as a part of radio history not often repeated anymore.

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!)

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!

Old Gold Volume 7 is actually side two of a tape, side one of which we posted as Volume 6. Plenty of Midwest area radio including WCAR, WAAM and CKLW.

Both Volumes 6 and 7 contain some FM stations. It’s interesting to notice how much FM is beginning to evolve from our first Old Gold post – just five more years and AM stations would be dumping music for talk and nostalgia in response to FM competition. Nothin’ doin’ here- AM radio in Volume 7 is alive and well!

Click HERE to Listen!

Our “Old Gold” series continues with Volume 6. Fast Forward to 1975. This is mainly full of AM music stations – and you’ll really enjoy hearing the few spritzes of CKLW!

Click HERE to Listen!

From contributor Tony Impieri comes this incredible montage of east coast radio stations! Tony worked as the on-air production director of WSUL-FM Monticello NY from 1985-1995. He also worked at WFAS-FM in White Plains NY. He’s currently doing freelance voiceovers and copywriting – if you’re interested in contacting Tony for some audio work, email us.

Recorded over 19 years ago, here’s a great representation of East Coast FM at the end of the 80s.

Tony writes:

“Back in February of 1989 I took a road trip from New York to Florida. My only companion was a small boom box which rode shotgun all the way. I recorded everything my radio could pick up along the way.

I filled up about 30 90 minute cassettes. When I got back to the studio and in my spare time I edited and scoped about 10 of the tapes. This was no easy task as I had been scanning the dial all along as I drove. I had to edit all of the breaks in a non linear fashion using linear means (an Otari deck).

Anyway… the result is a somewhat comprehensive representation of the FM dial from the Hagerstown MD/Chambersburg PA, Knoxville TN, and Atlanta/Macon GA areas and in between from late afternoon Sunday 2/12 through Monday 2/13, 1989.

Between this aircheck and it’s follow up (to post at a later date), you’ll hear these fine stations:

Z95, WARX, Q107, WFQX, K92, WYYD, Q99, WQUT, WTFM, KQ95, WIMZ, 99.9 KISS-FM, WIKQ, WOKI I100, KISS-FM 93, MAGIC 94, WEZK Easy 97, WIVK, KZ106, U102, WALV, TC105, WDOD, WDEF, Lite Mix 105, US 101, WQMT, WSKZ, Fox 97, WKHK, Power 99, 94Q, B98.5, Z93, Y106, 96 Rock, V103, WAYS, WFYM, WDEZ, WDEN, Magic 101, WMKS, WPPR, WCEH, WQBZ, WFAV, WSGY, WAAC, WJYF, Z97, WMTM, WQPW

Whew! What a list!

Original Post Date: May 2003

Another twist on Oldies was tried around 1995 or so, when Infinity flipped a few of its stations around the country to a Rock based (Classic Hits would be more like it) Oldies format which they called “Arrow” – All Rock-n-Roll Oldies. It sounded goood and us baby boomers should have eaten it up. Unfortunately, just like the Eagles, the Stars and other Classic-Hits based formats, it just never took off, and most of these stations have moved on.

Honestly, I can’t remember who gave me this tape back in ’93, but it was short. At just over two minutes you get to hear what was really, the ENTIRE on air presentation in an hour of this format. The slogan, the same jingle whether on Arrow 93 in Los Angeles or Arrow 94.7 Bethesda/Washington… and the same playlist.

I liked it for the music when I lived in the Baltimore/Washington area in ’95. But… it wasn’t exactly exciting radio.

Click HERE to Listen!

Original Post Date: April 2003

Our military personnel are stretched mighty thin these days. With war in Iraq, duty in Afghanistan and now a humanitarian relief effort in South Asia, these men and women need a break.

For many years, the Armed Forces Radio & Television Service (AFRTS) broadcast from transmitters all over Europe and parts of Asia to troops stationed in the region during the Cold War going back to just after WWII. Several years ago, most of the transmitters and local programming went away in favor of AFRTS’ satellite service based in CONUS.

From 1987, here’s (Army) Specialist Leonard Buchannan with “The Beat in the Heartland”, a program of popular music broadcast from the Hamburg, Germany AFRTS studios. I have no idea where this soldier may be today (probably retired or getting close), but he did a great job.

This aircheck is dedicated to all our men and women in uniform. Thank you for your service!

Click HERE to Listen!

On a visit to North Central Massachusetts for Christmas ’03, your webmaster had the opportunity to do a bit of airchecking. Topography has a lot to do with reception in this hilly, somewhat remote listening post that was my home growing up.

I parked my truck at the top of a few hills, and didn’t have much luck with the cheap boombox I had – so, setting up the old roof TV/FM antenna I used when I was a teen in the attic of mom & dad’s house, I attached a decent radio/cassette recorder and, voila!

Aren’t we all radio geeks down deep?

You’ll hear: WJDF Orange, WTSA-FM Brattleboro, WKVT-FM Brattleboro, WPVQ Greenfield, WGIR-FM Manchester, WAQY Springfield… more.

Click HERE to Listen!

Post Date: December 19, 2004

Here’s another in our series of Old Gold airchecks. These are all various scoped clips of midwest area stations. Volume 5 is from the early seventies, most from around 1971.

Our listeners are warned, the audio quality is somewhat poor. Sounds as if the person who recorded it had a cheap mic placed in front of an AM radio speaker… but it’s good enough to bring back some memories, thus it’s included despite not being quite up to audio standards here at airchexx-central.

Stations included in this exhibit: WLS, WCAR, WGAR, WNRS, WCFL, WKNR, CKLW… more

Click HERE to Listen!

Post Date: November 10, 2004

Listening to this I thought I woke up on a different planet! This is the same Dan Ingram we know and love from WABC, 92-KTU and WCBS-FM (not to mention a short lived morning show on KRTH Los Angeles while the late Robert W. Morgan was sick). But, it’s NOT WABC!

As the story goes, Ingram, Ron Lundy and some other well known WABC jocks were going to join former MusicRadio 77 PD Rick Sklar in a new satellite radio service called SuperRadio. It was supposed to launch around June of ’82, after WABC flipped to talk. In fact, Big Dan alluded to that fact during his final show on WABC with Ron Lundy in May of 1982. Inevitably, the network never got off the ground. Frankly, I never heard any of the promotional material for it, until I got this in a package of hundreds of airchecks from (literally) an unknown contributor.

Why the network didn’t launch is somewhat of a mystery to me, since it’s now apparent that much preparation went into it. As you listen to this demo, you’ll figure out that the jingles are for ficticious radio stations… there isn’t and never was a WJCT FM 101 in Boston, and WSPR isn’t in St. Louis. Never was, it’s in Springfield Massachusetts… an AM station airing hispanic programming. (I shoulda just said the names have been changed to protect the innocent… )

I can’t say much else about this aircheck aside from the fact it’ll blow your mind when you realize this was only a demo – I could swear this was just Big Dan Ingram on WABC. Oh, what could have been if this network had gotten off the ground!

It’s a World Premier aircheck on the site where Classic Radio Lives!

Click HERE to Listen!

Just as Volume 3 was formerly AM/FM Snippets part 1, this was part two of that presentation. Included here, WABC, WALL, WSEN, more.

Click HERE to Listen!

This was added to the archives in the Summer of 2003. It now becomes part of our Old Gold series. Enjoy!

This originally posted under the title “AM/FM Snippets”, but I think it is best categorized as part of our “Old Gold” series that started this weekend. It’s a composite of various stations like WABC New York and WDRC Hartford.

Click HERE to Listen!

This is truly a fabulous group of airchecks all nicely scoped down. It all starts with George Michael on New Years’ Eve, 1976! It then moves on to WDRC Hartford from ’76, then to Bruce Bradley on WYNY New York from 1981. The rest, you can discover for yourself

Old Gold Volume 2 features more of the same stations as in Volume 1, plus a few extras.

Click HERE to Listen!

Note the amount of music stations on AM. So much better than things are today where AM is a virtual vast wasteland of useless chatter.

Our first bit of NEW material in quite a while!
This is the first in a series of assorted airchecks that I’d like to simply call “Old Gold”. One listen and you’ll know why. This is volume 1. It features airchecks of various upper midwest stations from 1971.

Click HERE to Listen!

Among the stations you’ll hear in Volume 1:
WDRQ, WAAM Ann Arbor, WCAR Detroit, WLYT Cleveland Heights Ohio and CKLW Windsor. There’s plenty more in this series so come back often!