A “Happy” Christmas Night, WTIC 1080 Hartford | December 25, 1985

Steve from Cape Cod has the knack of having his recorder on at *just* the right time. Here’s an aircheck that reminds us that sometimes automation isn’t ALWAYS bad… given the right circumstances.

Steve writes:

(Here is an) outtake of WTIC news reader Paul Reynolds, from Christmas night, 1985. It starts with the jingle intro to the news, followed by about 20 seconds of silence(apparently Reynolds was passed out in the newsroom). Then, talk host John Birchard scrambles to his mike, vamps for time, then hands it over to Paul…who does his thing.
About 30 seconds into the newscast the engineer realizes what’s happening and yanks Reynolds off the air.

…Christmas parties might have been scaled back a bit in 1986

“1972 – Big D: 50 Years of Broadcasting History”, WDRC Hartford | December 31, 1972

Contributor Steve from Cape Cod sent this in in time for our New Year’s update, 2009. Produced for it’s 50th anniversary of broadcasting, this off-air recording (with some additions by your friendly webmaster) starts in 1922 and records many important events, including the Hindenburg Disaster, the bombing of Manilla (WW2), programming highlights including Big Band music shows and radio operas like The Lone Ranger… then it’s on to WDRC’s years as a Top 40 station up to then-current 1972.

The final portion of this is a recording made with a mic at a radio speaker at the stroke of midnight as Big D welcomed in 1973. This is an authentic original recording and we thank Steve for his contribution!

Jack Miller, WDRC Hartford | June 17, 1972

…Sue, hello Sue – that was terrible!

Jack Miller did a weekly talent show on WDRC where listeners could call in and perform just about anything. It was, of course, all for entertainment, and some of the callers were truly awful. But, Jack Miller is the star of the show, and he DOES entertain. Shown here in this 14 minute original recording, Miller is a great host, who is much more than a disc jockey. His quick wit and ability to control this ‘talent’ show while playing along with the contestants, serves as a lesson to today’s radio people, that there’s far more to being a jock than playing non-stop music and talking like the kids in high school.

Courtesy of Steve from Cape Cod.

Ken Gilbert, 1360 WDRC Hartford | January 1983

I asked Mr. Gilbert what WDRC-AM sounded like before the flip to Oldies, and so here’s a 9 minute high-quality scope from 1983. While Ken didn’t say so, it sure seems like Buckley did more of a slow format turn towards oldies from Top 40 during ‘83. Listen to this, then the aircheck from later in 1983 to get a feel for where the station was going.

The Greaseman, WPOP Hartford | March, 1975

Thumbing through the vast unposted tape collection here at the Airchexx studios we stumbled upon this vintage scope of Doug Tract, AKA The Greaseman at WPOP Hartford toward the end of both his tenure and WPOP’s days as a music station before it became an all-news outlet. This is so rare, in fact, I think there is only one aircheck of Greaseman on WPOP on the web aside from this one.

This is a first generation tape which sounds very much like it came right out of the studio skimmer. The only editing done here is your webmaster took the silence out of where the skimmer stopped recording when the mic cut off and back on. The BAD part of this recording is that the first part of each word is cut off, probably due to a delay in the remote relay on the tape machine.

I will tell you that unless you were in Hartford and heard Greaseman in 1975 you will barely recognize him here, as this is not the irreverent guy one might remember from DC-101 or his syndicated program. Its very odd to hear him talking over intros, playing jingles or doing local radio… its really a WOW moment!