*Featured Jocks
Al Bandiero, 92.5 WIFI Philadelphia | June, 1977
“WIFI 92 WITH THE SUMMER OF FM” Courtesy of Contributor Ellis B. Feaster! Some time ago, we were told that Al Bandiero was concentrating on his television career these days. Under what name, we aren’t sure but we do know that his radio career was very successful, having worked under this name in the top markets in America. Truth be known, your webmaster’s career was first influenced by Al Bandiero’s work. Similar WIFI 92 / Al Bandiero airchecks that you may enjoy: Composite: 92.5 WIFI Philadelphia | January 24, 1977 Bill O’Brien, 92.5 WIFI Philadelphia | November 24, 1981 Al Bandiero on WKBW 1520 Buffalo | January 28, 1979 NYC 80’s CHR Wars: Al Bandiero on WQHT
The Curtis J. Morning Show, 92.7 WKRA Holly Springs, MS– Date Unknown
It’s early in the morning!… Indeed it is! Here’s the first in a series of airchexx which I think will either open some eyes or create applause. “From the PD’s Box” is, LITERALLY, a box of aircheck tapes given to me by a former program director who, upon hearing of my work at this website, gave it to me and basically said, “go ahead and see if there’s anything you can use”. It goes without saying that these jocks didn’t get the job they were looking for at the former Citadel Memphis Radio Group… but that doesn’t stop us from giving them a chance, some 15 years later, right? Ok. Now you’ve seen the FIRST “From the PD’s Box” post. Now, how about YOU? Send me your tape (CD, mp3, whatever) and I&#...
Chuck Leonard, 77 WABC New York | November 2, 1975
“WABC New York, All you Need to Win! Curator’s Notes: You’ll note right off that election day is coming up. Even if there wasn’t a label on the source recording, we would have known that the date of this broadcast was 11/2/75. Chuck Leonard did Sundays, along with his night shift in 1975 and he clearly says it’s morning. Further, what you don’t hear is the part of this aircheck which aired during Rewound 2005, where Johnny Donovan actually announces the date of Chuck’s broadcast. A few other ‘notables’… The WABC game is in full swing and we hear a few liners and promos for it voiced by Dan Ingram. Chuck Leonard even takes a winner over the phone for all to hear about mid-way through this. There’s an interesting network promo...
Composite, 62 WJDX Jackson MS | Early 1970s
“I’d like to play this song for Henry Kissinger… he’s having some trouble getting his act together“ Curator’s Notes: Hot off the presses from Contributor Rob Grayson is this clean and mostly high quality recording of 62 JDX back in the early 70s. My guess without asking would be around 1973 or so, as the reference to Henry Kissinger points to Watergate being underway. No matter. This aircheck moves along very quickly. The jocks featured here are listed in order: Dave Donoway Rodney W. Randall Kramer Hash (not quite sure if this is his name or not) Brian Harrigan Bill Cruz Jim Chic Sounds like a Drake station to me! Listen for the RKO TOH midway through voiced (it sure sounds like) by Bill Drake!
Dan Ingram, 77 WABC New York | June, 1980
The Honored Group of the Day is folks who cry at weddings… Curator’s Notes: At this point in the evolution of MusicRadio 77 WABC, Dan Ingram had been doing mornings for about a year. He’s quite comfortable here in June, 1980, although not quite as good as his former afternoon show was. Here at this point in the year, the format is still straight up Top 40. Lots of disco music was still being played and the station is still very upbeat. A few months later… boring AC would arrive, along with the ultimate demise of the station just under two years from this recording. You’ll like this. Promise!
MG Kelly, 94.3 KMXN Garden Grove (Los Angeles) | September 5, 2001
Lemme give you my private line… Please do not give this out to anyone!!” Curator’s Notes: Finding this aircheck was a shock! Shocking, because this is not a format or station I would have expected to hear MG Kelly on. No, really. The format is called “Modern AC” and was popular around the time of the early 2000s. In fact, this station existed from 2000 to 2003 before finally flipping to Spanish. This is scoped, but Kelly is heard after a couple of sweepers. His personality shines here, just as it does everywhere he has been heard. Commercials have been left intact for historical purposes.
Don Kelly, 101.3 KIOI San Francisco | December, 1972
The Image at left is from an old TV ad, yet, there’s no date stamp available to prove it’s from a particular time frame. 1980s, perhaps? Here’s an aircheck donated by Ellis B. Feaster. It’s, perhaps, one of the most eclectic radio stations ever posted here. The format, as heard here, is essentially everything. In fact, the show which Don Kelly is hosting is called, “All About Everything”! Indeed, you’ll hear Barbara Streisand, elevator music, comedy and even “Drive My Car” from The Beatles! It appears that the normal ‘format’ of this radio station wasn’t much different, in terms of musical variety. KIOI was known for some FM technical innovations in terms of it’s Stereophonic transmission system. There are some e...
Bill Rock, 1300 WAVZ New Haven | July, 1974
Lucky 13, supplying the boogie for Summertime ’74 Curator’s Notes: If the voice sounds familiar to you non-radio people, that’s because he’s been heard on television ads, NBC television specials and more. And yeah. He’s also a radio guy who started in the fun years of the 1970s playing records on AM radio! His radio credits include WNBC, WYNY and even WCBS-FM! Before he went to New York to launch his very successful career, he spent some time in New Haven, Connecticut at WAVZ. The station itself was very successful here in it’s prime and Rock is working the format, tweaking it, winding it around his voice and personality! What I think you’ll notice about this aircheck is how tight the format and commercial breaks were. In order for a jock to let hi...
Mike Dean, 1300 WAVZ “Lucky 13” New Haven | July, 1974
The WAVZ Summer Fun Patrol will be at the beaches and in the parks soon, all you have to do is just watch for us… Curator’s Notes: I received this on an audio CD featuring a somewhat muddy tape digitized by Contributor Andy Bologovsky. Imagine my surprise finding nearly 60 minutes of the work of Bill Rock, Brian Phoenix and this guy, Mike Dean! Simply priceless. It’s a “Solid Gold Weekend”, which means in real terms, lots of songs just 5 or more years old… imagine that today… how could a station brand that? This was posted much earlier in our site’s evolution, as part of a compilation and the audio was presented as-is – partly scoped and pretty muddy audio. In this NEW version, each jock gets featured as a separate entity (and in the pr...
Art Roberts, 101.1 WKQX Chicago | 1979
Lets see what mischief we can find to get you into… Curator’s Notes: First off, I hope you enjoy the new format. Less clutter, more airchexx!! Just the way we like em. Second, who doesn’t think Art Roberts possesses the voice of GOD on this aircheck? Without a doubt, Art sounds perfect for this NBC O%O Adult Contemporary station. You gotta go WAY back now, to 1979. Was it really THAT long ago? The hits of the day include “So Into You”, “Love Is Fine”, “Angel Baby”, “After the Love is Gone” and more. Telescoped out for legal reasons, of course. But this surely WILL bring back some wonderful memories! Contributor: Tom Lacko (from a LONG time ago!) #1615
Ellis B. Feaster, 104.5 WNVZ Norfolk | 1990
Is that a Radio in your pocket or do you just wanna play?… Curator’s Notes: This is the closest aircheck I’ve ever heard that compares to MJ Kelli (Todd Schnitt) when he did nights on crosstown 97.3 WGH-FM 97-Star back in it’s CHR incarnation. Ellis and I shared a fun two-hour phone conversation. I’ll try to paraphrase how he described his time at Z-104: Ellis: – I took over the night show FROM MJ Kelli back in the 1980s and tried to beat him using the same approach. High energy, lots of listener interaction – meaning lots of phone calls. It worked! We did it and basically put WGH-FM out of the CHR business! Indeed! Shortly after this aircheck was recorded, WGH-FM 97.3 flipped to Country as “Eagle 97”. It remains Country to this d...
Robin Young, WBZ AM 1030 Boston | December, 1975
I just can’t imagine a Christmas season anywhere else but here Audio player below description Curator’s Notes: Often, I don’t quite know where to begin, in describing a particular aircheck, this being one of them. This one has historical significance for several reasons. First, this is quite possibly the only aircheck of Robin Young’s early radio career, and certainly the only one that I am aware of from her time at WBZ Radio. Second, this is possibly one of the only airchecks of WBZ, captured playing music during overnight hours. For as far back as most anyone can remember, WBZ aired talk programming during evening and overnights, most notably, the Larry Glick show which began sometime in the mid-1970s and continued for the rest of the past century. You’l...
