Hartford
Ken Gilbert, 102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford | June 17, 1989
Courtesy of Contributor “Mr. 70s“, Paul DiMarco, here’s a pristine quality recording of my friend Ken Gilbert on the old “Big-D 103” oldies station. The recording is so good, in fact, you’ll swear this is being broadcast live as you stream it! Hey Chris, I think there’s a price check at register two… Highlights of this aircheck include tons of phone call requests aired live, classic PAMS WDRC jingles, originally sung for the AM side 1360 WDRC, and a contest where the winner is invited to the “Oldies but Goodies” cruise on the Connecticut River. Listen for the contest tease and the winner’s phone call included in this aircheck. The commercials have been left intact for historical purposes. This aircheck was tightly scoped by ...
Ron Sedaille, 102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford | July 21, 2007
As posted here on Airchexx, WDRC-FM’s “All Request Saturday Night” had a long run. From its humble beginnings during the station’s Top 40 incarnation in 1984, through the mainly 50’s and 60’s format to the Classic Hits incarnation in the days just before the format change in 2014, Ron Sedaille is well known in Connecticut and did a show that’s quite reminiscent of 1960s radio. He even has his own jingles! The WDRC tribute site WDRCOBG.com says this about Ron Sedaille: A native of Bangor, Maine, Ron moved to Connecticut at the age of 1. He was hired by Frank Holler to do weekends and fill-in shifts, (and) after Frank’s departure he took over “Jukebox Saturday Night” and transformed it into “All Request Saturday Night,”...
An Evening with Frank Holler, Part 2: 102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford
Part 2 of this scoped hour features more Frank Holler, more PAMS original jingle sings, re-sung for Big D 103, and because of the way this tape was recorded, includes an undated couple of breaks from our Contributor, Ken Gilbert! What apparently happened, is this was originally one of Ken’s skimmer tapes, left in the studio skimmer machine so that the night this was recorded, it taped over most of Ken’s previously latest show. Still… Both of these gentlemen are great talents and it is only fitting that both get featured in Part 2.
An Evening with Frank Holler, 102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford
All new from Contributor Ken Gilbert is this RARE recording of WDRC AM 1360) original OBG jock, and then Program Director Frank Holler, hosting “Jukebox Saturday Night”. Straight from the source, Ken Gilbert was proud to tell us that he began and founded “Jukebox Saturday Night”, while DRC-FM was still a Top 40 station in 1983! But this is one time that Frank Holler was doing the show and he picks out some incredibly rare Oldies for his show this particular night. Listen for the old WDRC PAMS cuts!
Jerry Kristafer, 88.9 WJMJ Bloomfield (Hartford) CT | June 4, 2018
Station: 88.9 WJMJ Hartford (Wikipedia) (Website) Format: Catholic Radio, Full-Service Oldies Branded: “Where Faith Meets Life” Ownership: St. Thomas Seminary Bloomfield, CT Featured Air Personality: Jerry Kristafer Contributor: Steve West Aircheck #1604 Voluntary Subscription Options Yearly Subscription : $80.00 USD – yearlyMonthly : $10.00 USD – monthlyWeekly : $3.00 USD – weekly Oh, clues views from my “Game with No Name” coming up at 8:20 Curator’s Notes: The first thing you notice about this before listening is probably, “oh great, another religious station”. Not. This is a unique and somewhat historic radio station in that “WJMJ claims to be the first archdiocesan-operated radio station in the United States”. (...
Mike Raub, 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford | Undated
Recording Date: Unknown Station: 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford (Wikipedia) (Website) Format: Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) Branded: 96 TIC-FM Featured Air Personality: Mike Raub (WTIC-FM/WELI/WKCI/WSTC/WNLK/WCTZ/HitOldies/The Pop Culture Channel/PC Upload) Contributor: Daniel Coulombe Curator’s Notes: Sent in by our good friend Daniel Coloumbe in Canada, here’s Mike Raub (HitOldies) on 96 TIC-FM. This sounds like it was from sometime in the early to mid 90s. Raub was the former Program Director of 96.7 The Coast (Gold Based AC) and 95.9 The Fox (Classic Rock) in Stamford CT, along with the WSTC/WNLK News Talk simulcast which ended in 2013 when then-owner Cox Communications donated the two AM stations to Sacred Heart University.
“1972 – Big D: 50 Years of Broadcasting History”, WDRC Hartford | December 31, 1972
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!
A “Happy” Christmas Night, WTIC 1080 Hartford | December 25, 1985
First time I heard this I nearly fell off my chair! Digressing for a moment, most of us on air people have heard or have access to a station blooper tape that got played at various occasions… Station Christmas parties being the usual place for such hilarity. Not this time. This one is NOT from a station in house recording, it was made by the contributor. Steve Tefft 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 newsro...
Ken Gilbert, 102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford | 1982 – Part 2
Date of Recording: 1982 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford, Connecticut, USA Format: CHR (Oldies; Classic Hits; Classic Rock) Featured Air Personality: Ken Gilbert (WAQY; WTIC-FM; WDRC-FM; WKNE-FM; WZRT; WVTK) Contributor: Paul DiMarco Airchexx Entry: 1,520 Curator’s Notes: And the Hits just keep comin’! Contributor Paul DiMarco apparently has most of the master reels from our friend Ken Gilbert and we’re slowly getting them archived for the ages. Here’s another recording from the master reel. From apparently spring or autumn of 1982 when WDRC-FM was in the middle of its attempt at pure CHR, here’s Ken sounding really fantastic, albeit doing the overnight gig preparing for morning drive. It’s labelled Part 2, because this comes in four ...
Chuck Wagner, 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford | 1981
Date of Recording: 1981 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford, Connecticut, USA Format: CHR Station Slogan: “96 TIC FM“; “Your Music Connection” Featured Air Personality: Chuck Wagner (WWCO/WTIC-FM) Contributor: Paul DiMarco Total Time: 4:19 Airchexx Entry: 1,519 Mike West is gonna be back from vacation… He’s been doing his exercises, speaking with a rubber band attached to his chin Curator’s Notes: Sometimes there are interesting coincidences in this world of radio history. Here’s a couple. Chuck Wagner, heard here, is Charlie Wagner from 1240 WWCO Waterbury. Click “WWCO” in the description above. The voice is exactly the same. 96-TIC-FM, by the time of this aircheck, had stopped using the “Hot Hits ™...
Jack Miller, WDRC Hartford | June 17, 1972
Date of Recording: 06.17.1972 Station: 1360 WDRC (AM) Hartford, Connecticut, USA Format: Top 40 Featured Air Personality: Jack Miller (WARE / WEIM / WFEA / WBBQ / AKFN / WSPR / WWLP-TV / WBZ / WCBS-FM / WWYZ / WPIX-FM / WKZE-FM) Contributor: Steve Tefft …Sue, hello Sue – that was terrible! Curator’s Notes: 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 contestant...
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 unl...
