St. Louis
Chuck Buell, HitRadio 103.3 KHTR St. Louis | March 24, 1988
If you enjoy this aircheck, please consider a donation. Please use the PayPal link below this exhibit. Thank you. “I got a special Chuck Buell 100 dollar bill that’s worth $103… Curator’s Notes: For anyone who ever heard Chuck Buell on WLS, or maybe up in Canada… Chuck sounds GREAT in the morning! In fact, after hearing this aircheck for myself I wondered how come there’s not much information at all about his time on this legendary station. Well, fear not, fellow airchexx fans! I’ve got a bit of info about Chuck. First, here’s who you hear as part of the morning show: Roger Brand Kay Quinn (the news person) Ben Able (Meteorologist) Don Miller (Traffic Helicopter) This was soon to be the end of an era, as far as morning shows go. This was a Mo...
Bill Bailey, 98.1 KSLQ St. Louis | May 13, 1977
Date of Recording: 05.13.1977 Station: 98.1 KSLQ St. Louis (KSTL-FM/KRCH-FM/KSLQ/KYKY) Format: Top 40 Slogan: “KSLQ” Featured Air Personality: Bill Bailey (WWDJ/WLS/WDRQ/KSLQ/WLHT) Contributor: Sandy Bailey Total Time: 12:46 (Telescoped) Airchexx Entry: 1,536 If your sock or stocking falls today, someone is thinking of you… Curator’s Notes: Without much to go on, it took a bit of work to look up the history of this long-gone Bartell-owned Top 40 station. Today’s KYKY “Y98” was the original KSLQ. Originally taking to the air under those call letters in 1972, the station lasted just 10 years, then changed to Adult Contemporary in 1981 and the call letters changed to the current KYKY in 1982. The late Bill Bailey (of WLS fame) is heard here doing morn...
The Foxman, HitRadio 103 KHTR St. Louis | 1985
Out of the Robyn Watts collection comes this larger than life listen to KHTR (now Classic Hits KLOU). Talk about tight! As was typical of the power presentation on many of these CBS O&O early CHR stations, KHTR moves along at lightning speed. Jingles are used somewhat infrequently by this time, as opposed to earlier in the decade, and listen to the live legal ID – NOT the jingle sing! KHTR was similar in format and presentation to sister stations like WHTT (now WODS) Boston and KKHR Los Angeles. UPDATE 4/28/16 – WODS is now CHR Formatted, Branded “103.3 Amp Radio” 103.3 St. Louis is now Classic Hits formatted KLOU.
Ron Lundy, 1430 WIL St. Louis | January 4, 1963
Date of Recording: January 4, 1963 Station: 1430 WIL St. Louis Featured Air Talent: Ron Lundy (WABC, WIL, WCBS-FM) Comments: Most remember Ron Lundy as the midday personality for most of the top 40 era at New York’s 77 WABC. As the story goes, Dan Ingram worked with Lundy in St. Louis at this very radio station prior to going to WABC, and convinced his program director to hire Lundy. If you’ve never heard Ron Lundy before, here’s a YOUNG Lundy doing what he does best at WIL. Who ever woulda thought you’d hear callers ON THE AIR in 1983 – WABC almost never aired callers, until the late 70s, and in the early days of Top 40 radio it was literally unheard of to air a phone conversation with a listener. But that’s what you’ll hear on this recording.
Composite: 93.7 KCFM St. Louis | 1979
You’ll really love the laid back style of these Soft Rock jocks heard on the not-long-for-this-world ‘CFM FM 94. Reminiscent of both WEEI-FM 103 Boston and KNX-FM Los Angeles around the same time period, this is Mellow Rock – a format that was soft AC before the format existed. Actually, this format was soft Album Cuts, kinda the direct opposite of Album Oriented Rock (AOR) – similar in presentation, but featuring the soft cuts from non hard rock artists. The format was changed and new Call Letters (KSD-FM) were assigned on 7/10/80. Today, 93.7 KSD is a Country station, “The Bull” Relatable: There is a radio station broadcsting on 99.8 FM in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England using the name KCFM. In the United States, the KCFM call letters belong to...
Composite: WIL-FM St. Louis | 1979
Courtesy of Contributor Bob Buchhauser. Bob Writes: WIL-FM – The only FM Country outlet in the market at the time. 92.3 pulled great ratings with adults 25-54. Consistently in the top 5. Webmaster’s comment: Current Program Director Greg Mozingo was my PD at WGKX – the one who hired me, in fact. Great guy, legendary station!
Composite #2: 1380 KWK St. Louis, 106.5 WWWK Granite City | 1979
As confusing as it is listening to this aircheck next to the ‘standalone’ KWK aircheck recently posted, here’s a good example of how the migration of music stations from AM to FM began. In this case, later in 1979, KWK began simulcasting its format on 106.5 WWWK from suburban Granite City. They called it simply, “Stereo KWK”. Amazingly, and likely somewhat confusing to some listeners, the next break after the live Legal ID, the other slogan from 1979, Thirteen Point Eight, KWK is spoken. I love it, and it always seemed a great move to me to highlight the AM frequency and position on the FM signal. Perhaps the best example of how things moved to FM that’s similar to this that your webmaster can remember is when WZYQ Frederick moved to FM. It was a simulca...
Composite: 1600 KATZ St. Louis | 1979
Despite being a R&B station going back to the late 1950s, there’s really not much written history for this 5,000 watt AM station. We do know that the station was known in the 1960s and 70s as “Soul 16”, as evidenced by the header on a scanned top 20 playlist sheet posted below. Contributor Bob Buchhauser did send along his liner notes: KATZ – an urban mainstay in St. Louis flirts with disco on this air check. As you can tell, AM1600 is heavily day parted. Bennie & the Jets? Great jingles. TM Shotguns if I remember correctly. This aircheck is from sometime in 1979. Today, KATZ airs an Urban Gospel format and calls itself The New 1600 Hallelujah AM. KATZ is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications.
Composite: 1380 KWK St. Louis | 1979
1979 was the last year that AM stations thrived on music formats. Especially Top 40. Here’s a station that obviously knew that FM was going to be king and tried to market itself accordingly. It’s on-air monniker at the time was “KWK 13 Point 8 on AM”, obviously trying to sound like it had an FM frequency. Contributor Bob Buchhauer describes this station at the time he recorded it: Doubleday Broadcasting won 1380AM out of receivership after the previous KWK owners lost their license several years earlier for staging a bogus treasure hunt where the prize was never hidden. This air check was prior to Doubleday purchasing WGNU-FM. You’ll hear Bruce Vidal who later moved up to Los Angeles and KIIS, “KISS FM”. Dick Ervasti (Dick Hughes) does midmornings. Dick was the voic...
Day Composite: KMOX 1120 St. Louis | 1979
Contributor Bob Buchhauer writes: This legendary CBS O&O, clear channel (1120AM) pulled 20+ shares back in the day. The late Robert Hyland (V.P. & G.M.) assembled a top notch list of talent including Jack Carney, Jack Buck (Joe Buck’s father), and Jim White. You’ll hear Jack Buck hosting an afternoon segment of “At Your Service”, and yes, Bob Costas who covered nighttime sports for Jim White.
Composite: 63 KXOK St. Louis | January, 1979
Description by Contributor John Buchhauer: After years as THE Top-40 station in St. Louis, KXOK continued their decline and at the time of this air check recently switched to a more adult approach. The New KXOK billed itself as “AM means Adult Music on AM 63”. The majority of the jocks stayed on, although a couple found it difficult to turn down their energy levels. At 5 PM you can hear KXOK switch from their daytime to nighttime pattern. Chicken Man is even back for an encore run. This seems to be a full-day composite. Among the voices you’ll hear, Phil Duncan. If I recall my radio history, Phil was the last Rock DJ on 89 WLS Chicago. As the late Paul Harvey used to say, …”and now you know the rest of the story”.
Winter Composite: 55 KSD St. Louis | January, 1979
Introducing new Contributor Bob Buchhauer, and the first of many original airchecks! Bob says he’s not very tech-saavy, but he decided to scope these down for us, and judging by his first attempt, we’re not complaining! Here’s what appears to be a full-day composite of 55 KSD (Now News/Talk KTRS), beginning with Ron Morgan’s morning show. All the elements of full-service AM radio are present in this recording… lots of time and temperature checks – and, boy, it’s cold in the nation’s mid-section this particular morning… at 10 below zero (F) even the dogs won’t go outside! Listen as this recording moves through it’s 11 minutes, and hear all about 55 KSD’s Disney Dream Vacation contest… Sports from Jim Holder, Barba...
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