Here’s another Tom Kent aircheck that’ll send us down to sunny, warm Miami and a station that was hot enough to give Y-100 a serious run for it’s money. Had not bad business practices brought down the heavy hand of the FCC (which actually gave a damn in 1981). 96X might still be around playing the hits of South Florida. But alas, it’s another station left only to our imagination of what might have been. Tom Kent is also available here on Airchecks, with his segment of WLS’ Rewind program from 2007, G98 in Cleveland, 89 WLS and samples of his syndicated programs. Just do a google search here on airchexx to find his material. And now, from March 24, 1978, heres TK on 96X!

From the station that brought in major recording acts to be DJ for a day, comes this recording of Meat Loaf and Bobby Rich on 99X. Later in the year, Ace Frehley of Kiss fame would come in with his dog, referring to Mr. Loaf as his friend ‘Pot Roast’. Ya gotta love these 99X airchecks, and we sure wish this station were still around today!

From the ashes of what was WDHF came WMET, and the world’s worst jingles! That’s what sticks out in my mind, not the excellent personalities that played the FM hits in a vain attempt to dethrone WLS. It didn’t work and we never did figure out what happened to MET… whatever, this is a fun aircheck so check it out! From March, 1977

Wow, a new Ron Lundy aircheck! From December 1987 comes this glimpse into the station everybody loves!

Jeff Moulton sent us this one quite a while ago and we’re just now putting up this QuickCheck of Utica’s WRUN… another great sounding AM top 40 long relegated to the dustbin of history. But it was great while it lasted!

It’s only four years old, but this is an AWESOME, absolutely fantastic taste of TK Tom Truckin’ Kent doing his syndicated “Hall of Fame Coast to Coast” on WODS... even the jingles will remind you of the old days, and yes, there’s some local stuff, promos for Dale Dorman’s morning show and great high-energy jingles for Oldies 103.3. Don’t think WCBS-FM is the only great Oldies station in the country… yea, they’ve all moved their playlists into the 70s & 80s, but the personality aspect is still there. There’s still reverb here and if you don’t listen to TK on Oldies 103.3, you really miss out on one hell of a good aircheck!

More to come shortly

We’re looking for ORIGINAL recordings - if you have something of interest you’d like to share with the world, please email the webmaster. Our target years are 1975-1986, although we’ll be happy to post anything you’d like to send!

On October 1, 1975, 96X (WMJX) in Miami was born out of WMYQ an AOR station that faced stiff competition from two other AOR stations in the market. 96X entered as a top 40 station that played some soon to be classic rock along with the top 40 hits. Top 40 in those days was much different than today, and 96X thrived becoming a model for large market top 40 stations. The on-air personalities were colorful and a good part of the reason why the station was so successful. They obviously were having fun, and you did too if you listened.

Due to FCC legal troubles, billing irregularities, we think, 96X was forced off the air. Subsequent to the station’s demise, the former WBZ-FM 106.7 in Boston was sold and the new owners picked up the WMJX call letters in 1981 - where they reside along with it’s Adult Contemporary format today.

Tom Kent is really hot on this particular aircheck. Tom’s one of our favorites, and for good reason… with a resume that includes G98 Cleveland, WAVA Arlington and WLS Chicago, not to mention syndication, TK has enough talent to fill an encyclopedia. You’ll really enjoy this fast-paced historic broadcast of Miami’s own 96X!

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.

Come to think of it, the jingles and top 40 approach seems similar to the John Long sound at X-Rock 80 down in Juarez, Mexico… minus the cutsey Mexican female voice

This composite runs approximately 46 minutes scoped. Its in mono, but pretty clean sounding considering it’s now 31 years old as of this writing. 31 years! wow, was high school that long ago?

While this is NOT a local WODS guy, Tom Kent’s syndicated “Hall of Fame Coast to Coast” show is a perfect fit for a station that, even in ‘04, still unabashedly touted the fact that they played the music of the 50s, 60s and 70s. It’s different now in ‘08, with the playlist now skewed more toward a target of music from ‘75-’85, but the personalities remain true.

This aircheck is a scoped 50 minutes of an original 3 hour program, the audio quality is absolutely PERFECT, recorded off the air close to the transmitter. TK is simply AWESOME, with an intensity level and set of jingles that’ll make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. This is really, a MUST LISTEN!

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’…

That said, I’m trying to come up with the right words for how I feel about a guy who later would push Rick Dees out of his chair at KIIS-FM, Kasey Casem right off of AT40, and become so visible on telvision so as to seemingly own pop culture among young adults. Good, yes. THAT good? I’ll leave that judgement up to you.

This website has chronicled so many great talents which graced the airwaves over the last 50 years or so that when one matches up the pm drivers from the various stations and markets, its really hard to find the absolute champ. I will tell you from MY perspective - perhaps I’m too old to understand why there’s much ‘entertainment’ on this particular afternoon show. Sure, Seacrest can hit the post and has some creative elements to his show, but comapre that with John Landecker doing PM drive on WLS back in ‘81, Don Geronimo afternoons on WAVA, or… well, never mind - no comparison to the legendary Dan Ingram on WABC!!!

No, Seacrest isn’t the best, but he’s competent, major market material… and merely a guy who simply found a way with a boyish face to market himself properly to those with the money and position to place himself in the public’s eye. And in the end, aren’t we who do and love radio just a wee bit jealous that we didn’t know how to market ourselves like Seacrest. Just listen to him, just over nine years ago, when he was still just a live, local afternoon jock in Los Angeles, on the eve of de-throning a few legends…

Before anyone gets too excited, this is a short and rather difficult aircheck to listen to, as it was obviously recorded from a great distance from Los Angeles. Certainly, Terry Nelson sounded great on KFI and this would be an awesome aircheck, except for the fact that this is a DX catch and there’s just not quite enough carrier wave to give this the punch needed. But… for all you folks who sat through minutes, or sometimes HOURS of fading, just to hear your favorite station come in at night… this will bring back memories of a time so long forgotten now.

You know, the kids of today will barely sit through 30 seconds of non music programming on an FM station, never mind a signal that fades away in the middle of their favorite song. That’s the big difference between my generation, and today’s CHR consumer of 16 years old. I’d sit all night and put up with the fading because I loved the STATION more than the music. Oh… for the old days.