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.
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I can vouch for this one. It’s authentic alright and was recorded on large reel directly from the console hence the lack of processing. The original aircheck ran about an hour in length. This is not a recreation but Bartel’s WOKY as it sounded in the day. Oh, and although it may have sounded small to a degree WOKY was a top 5 performing radio station at the time. This tape was originally rolled for Tom Konard as a favor for his Aircheck Factory.
I was morning newscaster and the news director that hired Debbie Young (the first voice on the tape).
Makes me proud to hear the Mighty 92 again. We were a kick ass radio station!
I was looking for my assistant news director Steve Silverman. He became a lawyer in Chicago and I haven’t heard from him in 20 years.
Wonder what happened to him.
We didn’t use turntables there on Sherman Street in Milwaukee at that time. The djs used cart machines. There was a turntable but I don’t remember ever seeing a dj use it on the air.
Like many old time radio stations in 76, all the equipment was OLD but still worked and management was not about to cut into the profits and buy new stuff. WOKY, a real money machine for Bartell Broadcasters (and us too).
I remember steve he was a great guy. I was bob barrys producer haven’t talked to him in almost thirty years I hope he is doing ok. If you know how to get ahold of bob pls give him my email
Do you still wear those wierd yellow glasses? I see that George Wilson gave our Lord Bob Barry a compliment saying that BB was the most prepared jock who ever went on the air each morning.
Steve, if you run across this stuff again, can you send me another email. I was at Oxford studying law (reading law) when you sent me the email and I’ve lost your email address and might come to Chicago to finish up with the english bar exam stuff.
dan abernathy
No Dan, I don’t wear glasses anymore. I had eye surgery.