Jim Conley on 105.7 WKOX-FM Framingham | January, 1969 (6:20) Scoped
I’ll just bet this is the very first aircheck posted online for WKOX. Everyone knows that Fairbanks owned WKOX AM and WVBF - in fact, he named the FM side for his wife Virginia Brown Fairbanks… its kind of a legendary story. What almost nobody (including me) knows is what was this station before Fairbanks bought it? Well, this aircheck may give you some insight.
Frankly, I’m not sure when Fairbanks purchased 105.7… could have been long before 1971. I’m sure someone out there remembers. What you’ll here on this six-minute scope is a really good attempt at a Drake format. A small amount of reverb, concise positioners (the 105 Sound - wasn’t that a rip off of WRKO’s “the NOW sound?) and a W I D E playlist, much wider than the average AM Top 40 station of the day.
I thought that prior to WVBF on 105.7, this was like the former WNAC AM 68 & FM 98.5… just some sleepy network operation. Listening to this - well… yeah I was wrong, wasn’t I?
It’s really hard to envision this kind of format on FM - in 1969! but hey, I was in the first grade back then, so it’s hard for me to figure out much of anything relating to pre-1970’s FM. I’m sure many of you listeners will REALLY enjoy this!
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What a transformation that station had when it switched to stereo 105, WVBF, “The Wrath Of The Buzzard!” I don’t think the WKOX version was even in stereo…
Is this the same Jim Conley that later worked at WGH in Norfolk, Va.? Does anyone know where Jim is now? I enjoyed this aircheck. bblocalnotes@yahoo.com Bill Bass Norfolk, Va.
Is this the same Jim Conley who later went to WGH in Norfolk, Va.?
This is awesome to hear FM-105 WKOX-FM once again! They were one of my primary stations that I listened to
in those days. I still have a copy of their Top 100 list of 1970, the last full year that they were in operation. I discovered them, in January 1969, and I don’t believe they were around much, if at all, before that month. Prior to that they were an MOR type of station. I listened to them right through the transformation to WVBF, and listened to WVBF through about 1974, until Top 40 deteriorated to disco and A/C
crap. To answer one of the other comments, this would have been the same Jim Conlee who was on WGH, around 1972. He had been the afternoon guy on 1280-WEIM, a very good small market Top 40 station, in Fitchburg, Ma from later on, in 1969, after leaving KOX, through much of 1970. I was traveling through Norfolk, in 1972, and immediately recognized his name and voice on WGH. This is a rare archive of WKOX-FM, to be sure.
WKOX-FM became WVBF in July, 1971. Th final week of WKOX-FM, they kept running an announcement that stated,
“This Saturday, FM-105 becomes a thing of the past”.
Fairbanks did acquire WKOX-FM in 1971….
It is a great to hear a rare aircheck of the Boston area’s first live FM Top 40 station. WKOX-FM flipped to Top 40, right around January 1, 1969. Initally they did broadcast in mono, but it went stereo by August, 1969. This is the same Jim Conlee that was on WGH in the 70s. After leaving WKOX-FM, later in 1969, he did afternoons at Top 40 WEIM, Fitchburg, Ma for a little over a year. Fairbanks purchased WKOX-FM in 1971, and changed the call letters to WVBF….
Hey! Jim Conlee here! I “found” this discussion about the very roots of my career. Thise EARLY days at WKOX, WEIM (what a blast), WGH were just the beginning of a career that took me all the way to Los Angeles as PD oh KHTZ - now - I’m in San Antonio, mornings at KHTZ.
- uh, mornings at KQXT, that is - -
What I remember about WKOX-FM waht that when they still had the transmitter in Framingham, you’d also get some two-way chatter on 10.5.7 as well. When they became WVBF, they moved to the 128 antenna farm and no more two-way chatter.
Anybidy else remember this on WKOX-FM
Jim Conlee taught me how to slip-cue 45s when I was 7! Early on in my 30 year broadcast career (prior to digital music systems) every time I slip-cued I always thought back to when Jim Conlee showed me how it’s done. Jim if you’re reading this, I hit the big time in 1988 when I broke into the Boston market on 105.7-WVBF. Two years later I was solicited by WODS-Oldies 103.3’s (then) Program Director, Tommy Edwards (now at K-Earth-L.A.) to join the Oldies 103 airstaff; where I remained until 2000. In my 10 year stay at WODS, I had consistent top-3 ratings, never falling below #3, and that’s when ratings still mattered, coupled with the title of Production Director. I had the priviledge (during my 10 years at Oldies 103.3) of working with 2 of the nicest guys anyone could meet; (in this verklempt business of ours) that being Frank Kingston Smith and Mike Addams. Both are class-acts, indeed. In retrospect; were it not for Jim Conlee and Larry Glick, I don’t think I would have had the slightest notion of working in radio.
Best Regards, “The Ayatollah of Rock ‘n Rollah,” Jason Wright. More on that later; film at 11!
Jason,
It’s great to hear of your success in this biz! You’re once again proof that hard work really does pay-off. Exactly where was it that I taought you the lost talent of slip-cueing? These days, we still joke about how we had to do that back in the “day” - in this day of digital systems and voice-tracking. The young people I work with now here in San Antonio have no idea what I’m talking about when I mention the whole concept of a tight segue from a jingle into music with a turntable spinning under a record your’re holding at just the right point.
Well - Jason - I’m in my 40th year in radio - it’s 4:52am - and I have to get on the air. Best to you!
Jim Conlee
streaming at http://www.q1019.com