Original notes:
A $20 jackpot!!! Wow! 1976 really WAS a long time ago! Now, courtesy of BigAppleAirchecks.com, here’s ‘Wes in the Morning’ on a very MOR-ish WHLI. It’s the Bicentennial year of 1976 and it’s certainly cold out on Long Island (It’s cold in HERE as we post this!) on this particular morning. Mr. Wes, is quite a personality. You’ll like this very live and local station, featuring all the elements you’d expect from a Middle-of-the-Road station of the time, plus (infrequently used) JAM jingle cuts! (You hear ONE) VERY nice!
We’ll just look to our visitors for more information on this wonderful aircheck!
The gentleman on this aircheck is not “West” but rather Wes as in Wes Richards. Mr. Richards did mornings for a while on WHLI before taking on am drive at EZ WRFM in the city. I believe he also did news on Bloomberg. Wes mentions his engineer Alan Boritz. Alan and I worked together many years ago at WCWP. Anyway, Wes always posts on the New York Radio Message Board, so I’m sure if you have any further questions you could probably find him there.
This aircheck is not MOR in the traditional sense; it is Middle of the Road in that it is an early Adult Contemporary format, as WHLI’s playlist had become more contemporary and while still soft, had become skewed toward a younger audience. Judging by the songs heard late in this aircheck, this was a gold-based AC at that point.
I loved listening to that WHLI aircheck from the day after the 1975 season NFL conference title games. And that JAM jingle cut on the aircheck sounded quite a bit like another jingle from that series that I heard on WHLI as late as the 1990s!
One thing I remember about the WHLI of 1975/76 was that it came closer musically to the WCBS-FM of that time (i.e. quite a few late-50s/early-60s doowops) than any other area station, but played more currents.
I hope you’ll find and post some more WHLI airchecks from the mid-to-late-1970s, including that aircheck I’ve read about from the last day before the switch to the “Music of Your Life” standards format.
Anybody have any airchecks from another great suburban-New York City station–the late WERA Plainfield, NJ, particularly during its AC, oldies/AC, and oldies formats? Or WERA airchecks from its AC/triple-A (at least that’s how *I* describe its mixed playlist of soft rock, smooth jazz and contemporary country) era(1994-97, when the station was nicknamed “A-1590”? Or WCTC New Brunswick, NJ airchecks from its MOR era and/or AC era?
The date of this aircheck was Monday, January 5, 1976.
BTW, Wes was right about Younger Girl.