Here is WLAC heard at almost the dawn of the Rock & Roll era. Contributor John Harrison sent this in, along with a bunch of WLAC airchecks that we’ll get to this Summer.
This begins with the end of Hoss Allen’s show, then into a very long, dry commercial read by the legendary John R. Most of this recording features “Randy’s Record Highlight Show”. This is very unique, and today might even be considered an infomercial for the record company selling the six-pack of records! Notice the few late 1950s-era commercials. Very few pre-recorded commercials are heard on this recording. Most of the commercials are read live by the jocks. Also, WLAC had no jingles at this point in time, or the jocks just weren’t using them.
This is all R&B, and you’ll hear things that you never heard before and a few very obscure cuts that you might remember IF you are old enough! There are surprises on this recording!
About the aircheck itself. This sounds like it was made with a small table mic placed in front of a radio speaker. It was most likely a home recording made with a small reel-to-reel machine. I seriously doubt that this was an attempt to save these shows for posterity some 60 years in the future. It’s more likely this was just made so that the person recording it could listen to his or her favorite show. Yet some tapes survive to tell a story, as this one does!
As a high school youngster back in 1963, I began to stay awake late at night once I discovered there was an intersting signal booming on 1510 of our old Philco Tropic in COSTA RICA. Well this was taken so serioulsy that I could flatter myself for being the first tico to hear Otis Redding debut with “These Arms Of Mine”. As a one time client of Buckleys Record Shop, I ordered their 1964 “Fall Time Special” package of 6 singles priced at some $3.50. Fondest memories that still lingers in my internal HD.
Someway, as a tico air personality for half century, I’m paying homage to Classic Soul R&B music in my web caster ZORROUNDSYSTEM.COM