Airchexx.com

Frank Holler, 1410 WPOP Hartford | May 18, 1969

Steve West — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:00:11 +0000

AM was still king in Hartford and all around the USA when this recording of WPOP was made. Now, unless you’re intimately familiar with the Bill Drake “Boss Radio” Top 40 format, you probably think this is his handiwork. Someone out there knows for sure, but it sure sounds like WPOP ran a Drake knock-off format right down to the jingles.

We know Bill Drake programmed KYNO Fresno, KGB San Diego, KHJ Los Angeles, KFRC San Francisco, WOR-FM New York (Pre 99X), WHBQ Memphis, WRKO Boston, CKLW Windsor, Ontario and KAKC Tulsa. There might be others… we know that when teamed up with Gene Chenault, Drake/Chenault programmed a number of radio stations, both automated and live with various music formats, most notably the Contempo 300 AC format. But we’re getting off track here and our friend calradiopd will surely check in to fact check.

Frank Holler is, on this 7 minute 40 second clip, upbeat and energetic. While its hard to discern because of the evident tape hiss, WPOP used reverb, albeit sparingly.

WPOP managed to rank #1 many times among Hartford stations during its top 40 years. The station dropped Top 40 and went All-News in 1975. As of this writing, WPOP is All-Sports, broadcasting syndicated programming from the Fox Sports Network.

Frank Holler, 1410 WPOP Hartford | May 18, 1969 is a post from: Airchexx.com

QuickChexx: Tracey, 1300 WAVZ New Haven | May 17, 1969

Steve West — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:21 +0000

We’re back into the 1960s for this short clip of WAVZ New Haven. This is the Tracey show, although we’re not sure who Tracey is or where he went after WAVZ.

One thing that sticks out on many of the WAVZ airchecks on this site is the frequency at which Railroad Salvage ads air. Many are :05 drops, some are live sponsorships, but it seems that Railroad Salvage was always heard on WAVZ. For those who don’t remember, Railroad Salvage was a bargain basement store, much like today’s Dollar General. There used to be many Railroad Salvage outlets all over New England. Today, there’s just the one in West Haven about a mile from the VA Medical Center. And one never hears them on the air anywhere.

Another, from longtime Contributor Andy Bologovsky.

QuickChexx: Tracey, 1300 WAVZ New Haven | May 17, 1969 is a post from: Airchexx.com

Legal ID's Volume 2: More 90s

Steve West — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:28 +0000

From Quebec & Nova Scotia to NJ, PA and even Turks and Cacos Islands, this seconf volume of assorted legal IDs will keep you riveted to the edge of your seat!

This covers mainly the northeast, but listen for an ID from KTNN Window Rock, AZ and some other faraway places in the mix. It covers just about every conceivable format on the air in the last 10 years, and much like Volume 1, this is all pre-9/11 stuff. So listen for your favorite station – yours is probably amongst the hundreds in this hour and a half collection!

Another, courtesy of Scott Fybush

Legal ID’s Volume 2: More 90s is a post from: Airchexx.com

Composite: 79 WQXI Atlanta | September 1966

Steve West — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:00:08 +0000

It’s old but it’s a great cross section of talent, some of whom include Dr. Don Rose (KFRC) and Tony Taylor (WOR-FM)!

This is mid-60s WQXI, with lots of reverb, cheesy pop tunes and tons of PAMS jingles! Since we’ve become the de-facto WQXI historical site (WQXI is our most popular station according to stats), this one is for the fans!

Composite: 79 WQXI Atlanta | September 1966 is a post from: Airchexx.com

Mort Crowley resigns on air from WKNR (Keener 13) Detroit | March, 1964

Steve West — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:00:38 +0000

“…Only a fool would work under these conditions”

Its a rainy, cold morning in the Motor City, and station management has left a memo to the morning guy … he can only use one phone line for his show because the phone company is concerned about too many listeners calling in. So what does he do? What any responsible air personality would do…

This is Mort Crowley, first aircheck of him for this website, so it’s really quite a catch!

This came to us on cassette from the ‘annonymous’ contributor (we know who he is but he made us promise to keep his name a secret). The audio quality is superb, considering the year of this broadcast!

Mort Crowley resigns on air from WKNR (Keener 13) Detroit | March, 1964 is a post from: Airchexx.com

Mike Erickson on 91.9 WSHR Lake Ronkonkoma NY | May 31, 2005

Steve West — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:52 +0000

And we thought nobody was doing radio like this anymore!

Contributor Mike Erickson sent this along on a CD with two home recorded WCBS-FM airchecks that we’ll be featuring starting June 3. This is real, honest-to-goodness Oldies radio done right! And, it’s not done by a station owned by some large corporation, no, this station is owned by Sachem Central School District Holbrook (according to Radio-Locator.com anyway) out on Long Island.

Mike didn’t say and we’re not sure if this is the regular station format or a specialty show, but it sure SOUNDS real. Somebody really remembers classic top 40 radio. And Mike’s a pretty good jock, too!

We included this on airchexx.com, among other things, to show how Oldies radio SHOULD sound (at least we think). Not that it matters much, with most Oldies stations going the way of the dinosaur. Still, for those who remember, this will sound good to your ears!

Thanks, Mike, for sharing!

Mike Erickson on 91.9 WSHR Lake Ronkonkoma NY | May 31, 2005 is a post from: Airchexx.com

Legal ID's volume 1: 1990s

Steve West — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:00:19 +0000

First off, lets give credit where credit is due. This collection of legal IDs comes to us courtesy of Scott Fybush. I got this collection of tapes (there were 3 in a series) back in the late 90s.

This is part one of what I *think* is the entire collection (maybe a few extras) which is/was featured at the Boston Radio Archives website run by Garrett Wollman, and at the time, Scott Fybush. I think Fybush is still involved with the site although there’s not nearly as much new and relevant information there as there was years ago. The main difference between this collection here and what is posted there, is that first off, the fidelity here is much better, since I encoded this via source tapes. Also, we’re presenting this in 3 parts, each one edited to sound like one long aircheck, wheras at bostonradio the clips are presented one at a time in a very low fidelity, but you have the choice of listening to one id at a time. I invite you to visit www.bostonradio.org and peruse the information on New England/New York and southern Canadian radio.

Most of these ID’s were recorded in the 1990s, some from the ’80s. Its an impressive collection, to say the least, especially when you realize how much time is involved in collecting top of hour IDs for so many stations. There are HUNDREDS in this 3 part series, literally.

Also of note, not all these IDs are from New England, some are from Nevada, Oregon (and here in part one, one of my all-time favorite IDs from WBSB (104.3) B-104 Baltimore) and elsewhere. These are clips of AM stations, FM stations and even nighttime DX from the midwest & Canada. Very interesting, to say the least.

Lastly, if you are really into Top of the hour legal IDs, I invite you to check out www.tophour.net. Brian has just about the largest collection of TOH IDs in the world. When you go, be sure to email him and say you heard about it from airchexx.com!

Now, enough talk, lets just listen to some old legal ID’s. Here’s volume 1. Volume’s 2 and 3 are coming soon.

Legal ID’s volume 1: 1990s is a post from: Airchexx.com

Mike Greene on WQIO Mt. Vernon Oh | 1988

Steve West — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:26 +0000

From new contributor Mike Greene comes this short but super hi-fi quickcheck from the Midwest. Mike emailed this one in from his personal collection. He writes:

WQIO was a creation of mine from the ground
up. We gutted the old studios, changed the call letters, increased the
power to 50,000 watts, hired a completely new staff, went live 24 hours,
targeted a young audience, “played the hits” and had a bunch of fun
doing it. I was the General Manager of the station and did Saturday mornings
to help keep the “overhead” low. We did well in Central Ohio covering the
Columbus, Newark & Mansfield markets.

Mike actually sent in two… but we’ll save the other one for another time. Thanks, Mike, for sharing!

Mike Greene on WQIO Mt. Vernon Oh | 1988 is a post from: Airchexx.com

Brett Summers on 97.5 WONE Akron | August 1986

Steve West — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:00:28 +0000

We don’t have much information on WONE, but we do have one aircheck from 1986. Here’s Brett Summers recorded in the month of August.

Anyone with memories of this station, or who knows anything about the jock, please comment below.

Brett Summers on 97.5 WONE Akron | August 1986 is a post from: Airchexx.com

Karl Phillips, 1530 WRAI San Juan | Undated

Steve West — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:12 +0000

Contributor Karl Phillips has sent in some wonderful goodies, including most of the WQXI airchecks here on the site. Its only appropriate, then, that we take the time to feature one of his own airchecks.

Our contributor describes this aircheck:

I was in line to be drafted when I worked at Quixie in 1969 so I joined the Navy and ended up at AFRTS in Keflavik doing all nights. Thom Whetston and I are acquaintances and he has posted my airchecks from AFRS 1484 Keflavik from 1971 on his site. I sucked but I guess most people who would listen to me from back then would just be listening for the music.

I then was stationed in San Juan and worked at Bob Hope’s station WBMJ 1190 going by the name Scott Brady….. doing fill in and weekends and sleepin on the couch at the radio station working 6 – midnight and then getting up at 6 am and signing it on and going till noon. They loved me there. I also worked at progressive rock WIAC-FM in San Juan. Then at WBMJ they wanted us to start calling it Radio Rock…then BAM they blew it up and changed to spanish jocks. I couldn’t speak Spanish so they got rid of all of us except Moonshadow who now works for a number 1 FM in NYC doing mornings. The WBMJ english management took us all and bought WRAI, and we went Top 40 English and did well replacing WBMJ….taking all of their English speaking listeners with us.

Karl Phillips, 1530 WRAI San Juan | Undated is a post from: Airchexx.com