J.J. Jeffrey/Chuck Knapp and the “Top 300 Best of All Time”, 68 WRKO Boston | October 20, 1967

Our good friend Bob Gilmore returns with another fantastic aircheck of old!

It seems kind of odd that WRKO, a new station at this point, having flipped to Top 40 from the former WNAC earlier in the year, would be counting down the Top 300 Best of All Time – I mean, the Rock & Roll era only began 12 years prior… but I digress. J.J. Jeffrey starts out counting down the hits from #232 to #230 before handing the reigns to Chuck Knapp. Chuck continues with songs #229 – #220. The recording ends in the middle of a commercial break with Knapp doing a live read for Surf Music.

This is CLASSIC Drake Top 40! Cue the Johnny Mann Singers, and the original WRKO Jingles. All the formatics are in place, Jeffrey and Knapp are puking (not in a literal sense, puking in this vernacular, describes a way of speaking on the radio… a throaty, high pitched inflective voice that frankly, irritates like fingers on a blackboard.), which drives me crazy!, and the commercial breaks are filled with businesses that no longer exist, or are memorable for many reasons. And, speaking of live commercial reads, there are LOTS of them, and lots of live “tags” – live reads that the deejay would say at the end of a recorded commercial which was part of the spot.

For those of you wondering what radio really sounded like; what the roots of Top 40/CHR radio are, this is a history lesson you won’t learn in school. WRKO today might irritate its listeners with it’s uber-conservative talk shows (and Howie Carr ain’t no Top 40 jock, that’s for sure)… but this is what “The Big 68″ was in it’s glory years, at the very beginning. And there’s just no comparison to now from then. We hope you enjoy!

WLS Chicago: Big 89 Rewind ‘08 | May 26, 2008: 8-9:30 AM CST Chuck Knapp / Larry Lujack & Tommy Edwards

Its the last hour of the Chuck Knapp show featuring a touching tribute to fallen soldiers in Iraq, and out-of-format songs by Toby Keith & Carrie Underwood. Reading about this on the ‘chicagolandradioandmedia.com message board, there were many complaints from listeners who, apparently didn’t understand that, while this is a tribute to WLS’s musicradio legacy, its just as much a tribute to the PEOPLE who were on the air, and their skill as communicators. The Knapper did just as a WLS jock would have done in the Musicradio years, buck the format and communicate a relevant topic to his audience. After all, Memorial day IS the day we remember those who served and still serve our great nation.

It’s on to news, traffic and weather, then Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards’ first half hour – and they’re “just as lousy as the last time they were on the air”, at least jokingly according to one caller. Remember, after all those years (okay, ONE year since they returned in 07 for the first BIG 89 REWIND), these two were ‘Back in the Saddle Again…”.