Minneapolis/St. Paul
KDWB Richfield/Minneapolis/St. Paul Sampler | 1980 or 81
Our Contributor sent in two short files, which we are posting in two separate posts. Donald Bohn remembers the details of his recording setup, and we hope he’ll write back and share his thoughts about KDWB, it’s format, jocks, and the signal. Meantime, our Contributor did indeed let us know about his setup: Description by Donald J. Bohn… KDWB FM Stereo Richfield / Mpls. / St. Paul, MN 1980 or 1981 (?) half hour non-stop music set (and still didn’t get the entire set!) + 2 good air checks Original tape deck: Pioneer RT-707 Reel-to-reel 1st generation tape: Memorex 120 tape @ 7.5 IPS (used half a 7″ spool for this set!) Tuner: Sanyo T-55 Plus Distance: 75 miles from transmitters
Johnny Uran & Ed Rivers , KCLD-FM 104 1/2 St. Cloud | June 30, 1979
As with many FM radio stations, KCLD-FM started out on the AM dial, duplicating the same programming as the AM station. The original station occupying 104.7 was KFAM-FM, sister station to KFAM (AM), launched in 1948. The KCLD-FM call letters were obtained in 1975. While KCLD-FM refers to itself as 104 and a half, it’s kind of misleading as to it’s exact dial position. However, it was very common by 1979 for radio stations to round up or down to the closest whole number, as digital receivers were virtually non-existent. What follows is very short, under three minutes long. Our Contributor describes this ‘check as follows: KCLD FM Stereo St. Cloud, MN Segments from an afternoon broadcast on Saturday, June 30, 1979 DJ’s: Johnny Uran (U-ran – spelling?) & Ed ...
Steve Shannon, 1500 KSTP Minneapolis St. Paul | September, 1977
Date of Recording: 09.xx.1977 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 1500 KSTP (AM) Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Format: Top 40 Featured Air Personality: Steve Shannon Contributor: Daniel Coulombe (CKTS/CJMQ) Airchexx Entry: 1,473 …Salvation does exist! Comments: Here’s the second old recording of KSTP from it’s Top 40 era. High powered AM radio that simply went by the slogan “The Music Station”.
Alan Kabel, 99.5 WLOL Minneapolis | November, 1990
Somewhere, there’s a composite of this station featuring current New York superstar Broadway Bill Lee. While you search for that, high energy and a Rap/Rhythmic lean highlight this incredible aircheck! Ice Ice Baby is #1 this particular week, although its not clear if the song is #1 Billboard or just #1 at the station. This is one way I narrowed the date down, but I couldn’t nail down the exact date. Our astute listeners usually get pretty close. This is so risque in places, the aircheck should carry a parental advisory! As with many of our airchecks this year, we’ll leave it to the audience to describe what they hear. They don’t do radio like this anymore! Aircheck #1,359 since May 2, 2002!
Bill Lee, 99 1/2 WLOL Minneapolis | 1985
Fresh from KFRC, Bill Lee (Lenke at WTIC-FM) is showcased here, with a lightning fast delivery just like the weather hammering the Twin Cities this particular evening. Tornado watches and warnings abound and Lee is as entertaining delivering the weather as he is the hits. This is an incredible airchceck, and its been re-mastered for better audio quality. This was originally billed as part of Minneapolis CHR WARS Distributed by Florida-based East Coast Airchecks, this was another great contribution from Robyn Watts! There were two parts consisting of various airchecks. We’ve split them up into their own presentations here.
Composite: 63 KDWB St. Paul (Minneapolis) | July, 1976
Courtesy of longtime Contributor Mike Donovan, here’s something we’ve verified as having come from a publication known as “American Air Chexx, an aircheck service from the 1970s and 80s which sold tapes to program directors and the general public – if the public even knew about such a service. This is a short station demo composite of the old 63 KDWB. The whole air staff is identified by the narrator, who sounds as if he is the Program Director or the Manager. Because the recording was cut off before he can identify himself, we’re left guessing, but someone out there knows this voice and can tell us exactly who this is presenting 63 KDWB! In order: Mike Butts Bob Lang Jeff McKee The True Don Blu Smokin’ Joe The Cosmic Phoenix Mark Reineer For 101.3 KDWB ...
Bob Lang & Charlie Fox on 63 KDWB St. Paul | December, 1974
We have a number of the 90s, 101.3 FM CHR version of this station, but this is the first of the original AM Top 40 recordings! What a great morning show. This is what they called “The new sound of KDWB”… and it was memorable! Here’s the “Q” format done in the Twin Cities and it’s just perfect timing that this posts now as this aircheck and the calendar say Christmas is coming soon! The Phrase that Pays contest is well underway. As a gag, these guys call midday guy John Sebastian at home just to wake him and say Bill Drake is calling. Here’s a hilarious morning show, done on AM. That’s AM, for you kiddies who just can’t believe anything interesting was ever broadcast on that band!
Composite: 15 KSTP St Paul – Part 1 | 1973/1974
On a cassette which has typed (not computer-pritned) ’15 KSTP, MINNEAPOLIS, 1973-1974 airchecks’ on it, here is what appears to be a ‘professional ‘edit, with each small clip fading in and out appropriately… through 45 minutes! If you can take the obvious ‘chops’ in this, it’s a really wonderful collection of disc jockeys and each daypart on the Twin Cities’ Top 40 giant! Among the great (and not so great) voices you’ll hear a GREAT Charlie Bush with news, Knapp in the Morning, M.G (Machine Gun) Kelly, and more. Beware, this doesn’t sound like what it is at first, because it starts with a sports report of the previous night’s fight between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier.
Minneapolis CHR WARS 2: Crash Davis on 101.3 KDWB
While boardering on overkill, here’s more from CHR WARS 2, this time featuring Crash Davis on KDWB. We can’t thank Robyn Watts enough for donating literally hundreds of tapes to our archives. We’ll be posting new RW material for years! THANKS, ROBYN!
Minneapolis CHR WARS 2: Bo Simpson on 99.5 WLOL
Now, more CHR WARS 2 from the Twin Cities! Bo Simpson is back (thanks to the miracle of tape), on 99.5 WLOL
Minneapolis CHR WARS 2: “Rude Dog” Kellogg on 101.3 KDWB
At QuickCheck status this is short, but well worth a listen… It’s Rude Dog Kellogg on KDWB!
Minneapolis CHR WARS 2: Pam Lewis on 99.5 WLOL
What was it that set WLOL apart from KDWB? First off, it was the fact that KDWB was your typical mainstream CHR. Musically right in the middle of the format, while WLOL was more dance oriented. In particular (and there’s more insight to this at the WLOL TRIBUTE SITE), WLOL did break a couple of national hits due to their custom song mixes. Airchexx.com tries to provide a history lesson in presenting all this great audio, so in addition to hearing Pam Lewis and some custom mixes that you unfortunately can’t hear in this scoped presentation at WLOL, you get 2.5 semester hours at airchexx.com university for absorbing some good info! Um, don’t let it go to your head (but you might do the tribute site webmaster a favor and visit his site)
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