A lively Chuck Leonard plays the Disco hits of ’79 on MusicRadio 77. This was one of our earliest airchecks, first posted in June of 2003. Only three years away from News/Talk, WABC is still a HOT station here, with all the energy fans remember.
We are re-posting this in honor of this year’s airing of WABC Rewound for the first time in 12 years, albeit with portions from old Rewound programs. This year (2019) WABC is airing the program on Labor Day Monday instead of Memorial Day
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Note the static crashes in this recording… obviously recorded from some distance from NYC. Believe it or not, listening even with the static from distant thunderstorms just added to the excitement of a Summertime of listening to AM radio. I could tell how bad the storms were going to be by the sheer number of crackles. Am I the only one who felt this way? Sheesh, radio really was an illness one should have been treated for haha!!
Credits:
Description by Founder Steve West
Audio courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks
Photo by NewsTalk Radio 77 WABC
CHUCK LEONARD WAS ONE OF THE BEST AIR JOCKS ALONG WITH JACK INGRAM, HARRY HARRISON, RON LUNDY, THE GREATEST DJ’S OF ALL TIME.
WABC’s signal flooded into Montreal after sunset … I was a teenager listening to Chuck Leonard every night from 10-midnight … he was an early influence … inspired me to pursue a career in radio …
Chuck was a great guy and a great friend. I was only sixteen when I met him. He lived in the apartment next to my girlfriend, Marlene, in Lefrak City, Queens. He would have us come up to the studio and pick out oldies to play. It was funny how the guard at WABC would stop us in the lobby and ask where we were going, being so young and dropping in at 11PM. He’d call Chuck in the studio and would get a surprised look on his face when Chuck would tell him, “Send them right up!” He also took us with his family to ‘The Big Break’ finals at Carnegie Hall.
When I went into the Marine Corps in 1969, I always dropped in to visit him and his family when home on leave. The night before I left for Viet Nam, Chuck took me out on the town and went to Maxwell Plum. What a decent, down to earth human being. He was a great friend. I loved him very much.
I meet him because i went to Jr high school with his daughter Dartanaya and my sister went out with his son Michael.We lived in Lefrak and were always at there apartment. Always wondered what happened to them.