680 AM WRKO
World Exclusive! Ron O’Brien, 68 WRKO Boston | September 17, 1978
Recording Date: 09.17.1978 Station: 680 WRKO (WNAC) Boston Format: Top 40 Branded: 68 WRKO – Boston’s Concert Station; Boston’s Super Star Station Featured Air Personality: Ron O’Brien (Real Name: Richard Walls; October 24, 1951 – April 27, 2008) Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Total Time: 22:39 Aircheck #1,580 WRKO.. Yes, if I had to pick between loving and fist fights, I’d pick love every time!!… Curator’s Notes: There’s not much I can say to describe this aircheck. You really must listen for yourself. This is probably the best that WRKO ever sounded as a Top 40 station. (All you current WRKO Talk listeners never heard what this station REALLY was like) WRKO simply COOKS! RKO General really knew how to program a tight radio station. And th...
Johnny Dark, 68 WRKO Boston | 1975
Recording Date: Summer, 1975 Station: 680 WRKO (WNAC) Boston Format: Top 40 Branded: “Sixty-Eight R K O” Ownership: RKO General Contributor: Steve Bleecker Featured Air Personality: Johnny Dark Thank you all for your nice comments. It was a great thrill to work at both WRKO and WNNNNBC. I never worked at WCAO. That IS a different JD. I also worked at WYND..WSRF… WSHE..WMYQ..WOKY..WHTT..WMRQ..WFLC..and WKIS. Thank you all again, Johnny Dark (now in Florida) Curator’s Notes: With the benefit of time passing between the original posting of this aircheck and now, a few things can be said. First, the date can be narrowed down to 1975, not 1976. A few people have commented about this recording to help make that determination. Johnny Dark himself found this airchec...
New England Sampler #2 – Composite: 68 WRKO Boston | March 31, 1980
Date of Recording: 03.31.1980 Station: 680 WRKO Boston Format: Top 40 Featured Air Talent: Various. See Description below. Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Total Time: 6:06 Post Date: 11.30.2017 Airchexx Entry: 1,528 … Presenting Elton John at the Music Hall… This has not been posted elsewhere so THANKS to our contributor! Curator’s Notes: Audio: This came in with very poor audio consistent with a cassette tape that’s had much of it’s oxide coating worn off. Muddy and bottom-heavy (sound wise), I had to do a lot of digital doctoring to make this listenable. It is now, but it’s not quite WRKO… It’s a bit muddy, even after my cleanup efforts. Other than that, this is a GREAT representation of RKO General’s flagship radio station.
Charlie Van Dyke & Company, 68 WRKO Boston | April 6, 1979
Date of Recording: 04.06.1979 Station: 68 WRKO (WNAC) Boston, Massachusetts, USA Format :Top 40 (News/Talk) Featured Air Personality: Charlie Van Dyke (KHJ/WLS) Contributor: Bob Gilmore (bobgilmore.com) Original Post Date: 02.01.2010 Airchexx Entry: 985 Curator’s Notes: This is posted today as part of an overall facelift. Charlie Van Dyke is currently retired and living in Arizona, where he still records occasional voiceovers. Original Comments: Charlie Van Dyke is one of America’s foremost voices, heard on TV, Radio and even in Movie Trailers… but for most of the 70s and 80s, his career was spent behind the mic of some of the best Top 40 stations ever heard. WRKO, by 1979 is feeling the pressure from FM – WVBF, in particular, and unbeknownst to most people, is in i...
Charlie Van Dyke, WRKO Boston | April 6, 1979
Date of Recording: 04.06.1979 Station: 680 WRKO (WNAC) Boston, Massachusetts, USA Format: Top 40 Featured Air Talent: Charlie Van Dyke (jock), Ed Walsh (News), Bill Rossi (Sports), Jordan Rich (Weather) Contributor: Bob Gilmore Date of Posting: 09.18.2017 Total Time: 28:24 (Telescoped) Airchexx Entry: 1,511 … WRKO at Seven Forty-Two. Got Tom Kasano on the phone… thanks for listening and try to stay awake! Curator’s Notes: One of the big movies featured during this time is The Deer Hunter. It’s uncharacteristicly cold for April 6th, temperatures dropping into the 30s, and WRKO is still doing a traditional Top 40 format. That would change in about a year. Who in the world would figure that this cast of misfit radio pros would all go on to legendary status? One could a...
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, and the commercial breaks are filled with businesses that no longer exist, or ar...
Mike Addams, 68 WRKO Boston | December 25, 1978
Yes, the disco era is in full swing, and WRKO is doing its part to burn a hole through the genre… but there’s plenty of Rock to be found on this Christmas day 1978. True ’nuff, this is a scoped presentation but you will hear the artist titles, and promotions for picture disk giveaways, concerts and more, with Mike Addams. Notice, there’s no Christmas music? Interesting. It’s just a typical day at the legendary 68 WRKO – this aircheck very representative of the late 70s when we all were in a different state of mind. This ‘check includes a ’60 second news update’ – that’s the way they used to present news from about 1976-1978.
Joel Cash, 68 WRKO Boston | August, 1972
Date of Recording: August, 1972 (Exact date unknown) Station: 680 WRKO Boston, Massachusetts Featured Air Talent: Joel Cash Contributor: Robyn Watts – 114 Unique Additions as of this aircheck! Aircheck Entry: 1,419 Comments: Four minutes, 16 seconds is all we get of Joel Cash, sitting in on the Dale Dorman show. Joel only says his name once, which, considering this is probably a half hour unscoped recording, is pretty remarkable! Plenty of those early accapella jingles! Also take note, the music in this era was rather subdued. Part of it was likely this being the morning show. The other factor was the music itself. Lots of ballads in ’72, like Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, lots of songs in rotation by Bread and The Carpenters. What, yo...
Old Gold 1971 Remastered, Part 1 of 4
Going WAY back to the beginning of this website – well, okay, WAY back to the days when the radio industry trade circulated audio specials on vynl, here’s a completely re-mastered copy of one of the very first exhibits we had on airchexx way back in 2002! Old Gold was actually a vynl print – well, one could find it on vynl and on cassette in later years. The original copy we had obtained was on a worn out cassette and very muffled, but back then we were happy to post anything. Now, taken right from the record itself, a copy of Old Gold 1971. I’m posting this in four parts for easier listening. Beware, the vynl skips about 3 minutes in, during the WWDJ aircheck.. but not badly. Contained in this segment, in this order: WFIL Philadelphia – Dan Donovan KTSA San A...
Al Gates, Morning Drive, WRKO AM/FM Boston | June 19, 1967
Al Gates is featured in this excellent copy of then-new Bill Drake WRKO. Interesting items on this recording are reverb, which sounds fantastic and not overdone and a simulcast with its FM sister station on 98.5. Historic mentions (Bostonians will especially remember) Curt Gowdy doing sports… although he’s not heard, just announced during news. Gates announces song positions in the Now 30. WRKO is a HOT station at this point in it’s history, having launched earlier that year and you can feel the excitement in the air.
Composite: 68 WRKO Boston | January, 1979
Date of Recording: January, 1979 (exact date unknown) Station: 680 WRKO Boston, Massachusetts Featured Air Talent: Charlie Van Dyke, Jordan Rich, Sandy Weaver, Eric Cheney, others. Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Comments: WRKO Boston, it’s eight o’clock with Eric Cheney playing the best music for America’s Greatest City! This aircheck courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks!” title=”This aircheck courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks!” align=”left” width=”220″ height=”340″ border=”0″ />Here’s probably the best overall composite of 70’s WRKO featured on this site. From January ’79, it starts with Sandy Weaver and continues on through this cold Winter day, where a major winter storm is brewing. Noteable...
Every Station has one (or used to) – 68 WRKO “Blooper Tape, circa 1968-73
For you radio people, how many of you remember sitting down at a staff meeting or a holiday party at some restaurant, and the GM or PD pulled out this tape of things nobody was EVER supposed to hear? How many of you can relate to someone producing the master production reel with 500 pieces of splice tape on it and a recording or two of one of the airstaff trying to get a production piece right while a little frustrated… or in the case of after hours production, a little inebriated? Well, there’s nothing quite THAT shocking on this tape, but to hear well known WRKO jocks making ANY mistakes is shocking in itself. Hand here it is, thanks to Contributor Steve Bleecker, the unofficial bloopers tape from WRKO, from sometime around 1968 or so, up to perhaps, 1974? Someone out there r...
