Cleveland
John Lanagan, 1220 WGAR Cleveland | February 4, 1977
“What a pain in your assets!” Curator’s Notes: Every time I hear an aircheck of WGAR from the late seventies, it’s always tight, the jocks funny and the music is right on the mark. One would expect no less from the flagship station of Nationwide Communications – you know, the insurance company.. Now, for this one, we squeeze about 12 and a half minutes out of. The quality is so-so. This has a lot of white noise, which, despite my best efforts, I decided to keep in, instead of take the white noise out and have a recording that sounds like digital artifacts. So, its there. And realistically, one could be listening from Toledo and hear the same white noise. So it’s a throwback to yesteryear in many respects. Advertisements
Jackson Armstrong, WKYC Cleveland | March, 1967
Jackson Armstrong, WKYC Cleveland, 3/67
Bob James, 1220 WGAR Cleveland | February 3, 1978
Date of Recording: February 3, 1978 Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Station: 1220 WGAR Cleveland Featured Air Talent: “The Real” Bob James Aircheck Entry: 1,400 Comments: WGAR (AM) was the flagship station of Nationwide Communications. Like many of the national radio ownership groups at the time, Nationwide placed emphasis on high quality broadcasting, personality driven stations with a well processed audio chain. In the case of WGAR, there was ‘light’ reverb in the audio chain. It was highly compressed and the modulation was CRANKED… but it was very clean. Jingles were from JAM Creative Productions in Dallas. WGAR had a full news department and led the Cleveland market in all dayparts during this time period. There’s a full newscast here read by John C...
Imus in the Afternoon, 1420 WHK Cleveland | December 4, 1978
Date of Recording: December 4, 1978 Contributor: Big Apple Airchecks Station: 1420 WHK Cleveland Featured Air Talent: Don Imus Aircheck Entry: 1,399 Send me to Cleveland… have you lost your MIND? The infamous words of Don “Imus in the Morning” upon his return to New York’s WNBC about nine months after this particular recording. Got your attention! If you think the Top 40/Rock Jock Imus was any less boring or irreverent in Cleveland than at WNBC, you’re in for a surprise. Outside of the I-man being in Afternoon Drive and the music being Country, not much else changed! Along with Imus in the Afternoon, “J.R. Nelson in Chopper One” and the right reverend Billy Sol Hargus! WHK was apparently VERY sold out, as this 5pm hour is loaded with commercials (k...
Kim Monroe, 92.3 WXTM Cleveland | June 21, 2002
Date of Recording: June 21, 2002 Station: 92.3 WXTM branded “Extreme Radio” Format: Modern Rock Featured Jock: Kim Monroe Frequency Call Letter History: WXTM / WRQC / WJMO-FM / WZJM / WXRK / WKRI / WKRK-FM (Current) Aircheck Entry: #1,838 Comments: If you were into Grunge Alternative and any other kind of HARD Rock, this station was definitely for you! Formatically boring (from the perspective of an old Top 40 guy), this station had loud imaging elements placed in between every song. In one 45 minute recording (this is scoped down to about 10 minutes), we hear the jock, Kim Monroe, speak just twice. Which really boosts the arguement for going jockless… or, since this incarnation of 92.3 FM only lasted a few years, perhaps it was a side note saying put some PEOPLE on the a...
Pete Franklin, 1100 WWWE Cleveland | January 26, 1976
Contributor Steve Tefft added this scratchy recording of the late Sportscaster Pete Franklin at the place that made him famous. Steve writes: …{this} is from January 26th, 1976. The Cleveland Crusaders were the city’s World Hockey Association team. Its general manager, Jack Vivian, had just (that day) cut Gerry Cheevers, the team’s goalie and only real box office draw(Cheevers played for the Boston Bruins before jumping leagues). Franklin lays into Vivian on this check. Do what you can to clean the airchecks up; not sure what you can do to remove static. Remember, I recorded this at night in southern Connecticut, hundreds of miles away. 1100 AM Cleveland is now WTAM. Come visit my store on CafePress! Aircheck #1,235 since May 2, 2002!
The Top 8 at 8, 107.9 WPHR “Power 108” Cleveland | 1990
“Cat” is playing the hits, captured on tape for posterity on Cleveland’s “Power 108”. Unlike the other recording we have of this station (which appears to be jockless with just sweepers between songs), this is and exciting live show! Digital Underground has the #1 song of the night, but this sure isn’t all Hip Hop, there’s ballads and Heavy Metal represented in Power 108’s playlist! Is it just me or did virtually every CHR in America do the Top 8 at 8 every night, followed by all requests? It was a great formula, to be sure, but in many cases, by 1992 or 93, many of these hot CHR stations had either gone Alternative, Hip Hop or Country, so one has to wonder what went wrong? Some have speculated that the format simply burned out. In any case, ...
Steve Brown, 104.1 WQAL Cleveland | July 4, 1998
“Cleveland’s Q104, The Best Variety of the 80s, 90s and Today!” Really, we wish we could just exhibit this unscoped! The audio quality is stellar, the music is SO good (hey, remember, this is before American Idol made everything sound generic), and it’s totally live! Steve Brown is heard here in the Noon hour, on the Fourth of July, and while it’s definitely an AC, this is very uptempo and adult-Rock oriented. Reminds your webmaster of the sound of Fitchburg’s (Worcester) 104.5 WXLO. Same format, probably same consultant at that period in time. This is kind of a -wow- aircheck. We don’t post many this recent or this decent. If you call nearly 16 years ago recent. But, lets just say, we think you’ll like it!
QuickChexx: Jim Hart, Calvin Hicks; 107.9 WPHR Cleveland | April 10, 1987
A Program Director’s dream length aircheck coming in at about 3 and a half minutes, WPHR is the CHR station known as “Power 108”! Because this is short there is really not much we can say about this. Jim Hart is heard first, he says his goodbye and turns the station over to Calvin Hicks before going into a commercial break. The best part about this is the station imaging. Nice use of echo effects and almost overdone (some might say it IS overdone to the point of distortion), Power 108 is pounded into the heads of young listeners just like the CHR consultants say it should. While the station sounds Urban leaning, there’s still lots of mainstream Top 40 hits in the mix. Not that we can tell in a three minute scope, but we heard no Rock, but plenty of beats. Cleveland ...
Sample: “Power 108”, 107.9 WPHR Cleveland | January 7, 1988
Courtesy of Contributor Robyn Watts, this update includes this six minute air sample of a CHR station that was known as “Power 108”. Among the personalities that would make up this station’s talent roster was John Records Landecker, of WLS fame. This particular scope is completely jockless. Just liners and sweepers and songs. What was this? A soft-launch? There’s nothing on the source tape to indicate that the CHR format was launching or if the first few months or weeks were indeed, just automated gibberish. At any rate, we’ll archive this here at Airchexx for history’s sake.
“Power Radio” Demo – 1100 WKYC Cleveland | February 1, 1968
At 3:05 PM on Tuesday, February 1, 1968, WKYC debutes “Power Radio” to Cleveland listeners. This unabashed and bold announcement was broadcast to an unsuspecting audience. The announcement lasts about 1 1/2 minutes, then it goes right into the Chuck Dunaway show with a brand new “Power Radio” jingle. One has to wonder what WKYC did BEFORE this ‘Power Radio’ presentation. One doesn’t even know how long the station called itself that. Well, okay, someone out there does. But what was the reason for the ‘change’? Why POWER RADIO? Seems to me, this slogan was tried again in the 80s, as a number of CHR stations used it in their presentation. Whatever this was and how well it worked we don’t really know. All we can say is this runs about...
“The Smoker”, WZZP “Zip 106” Cleveland | September, 1978
Courtesy of Contributor Gus Gossert, Here’s this scope of Zip 106, playing the hits of 1978. You’ll enjoy listening to this and consider that this was another FM doing Top 40 in a time where most of the action was on AM.
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