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.
I WAS THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF ’15 KSTP’ AT THIS TIME–WE WENT FROM 13TH TO 2ND IN 105 DAYS..GOT MAJOR WRITE UP’S IN ‘THE BOB HAMILTON RADIO REPORT’…’GAVIN’..ETC.
BY THE WAY…THE KELLY IS NOT SHOTGUN….BUT RATHER ‘MACHINE GUN KELLY’….I HIRED HIM FROM GENERAL CINEMA’S STATION IN CLEVELAND…HE DID A GREAT JOB AND THEN GOT HIS OFFER FROM KHJ..WE WERE GREAT FRIENDS AND WOULD PLAY ELECTRIC ‘PONG’ AT LUNCH……WHEN THE GUNNER WENT TO KHJ–I HIRED ANDY BARBER FROM ‘KING-IN SEATTLE’ AND AFTER A RUN WITH MANAGEMENT–I WENT TO CHICAGO AND BECAME ‘CAPT. WHAMMO’ AT WDHF/WMET!!!!!!!
Wow! Capt. Whammo! Which reminds me that I have to find the two airchecks I have of you on MET! They were posted on an earlier version of this site years ago but never got re-posted.
Thanks so much for coming and commenting on this aircheck. I didn’t know you programmed this station at all. Welcome aboard, Captain!
I have listened to Chuck Knapp airchecks not only to hear a slice of history, but to hear Charlie Bush and how he creatively rewrote the newscasts. In the words of Arte Johnson, “Veddy interesting!”
As a young DJ working in Manitoba, I used to listen and a/c 15 KSTP with envy.
37 years later, I can still occasionally be heard in the car, running up to the post on some classic track with “15 KSTP – 75 degrees in the Twin Towns…58 minutes of music this hour…” much to the chagrin (and confusion) of my teenage boys.
A great sound, a great station, and great memories.
robert ouimet in Vancouver
How fun to go back to where it all began for me. A midget surrounded by giants!
if you haven’t noticed, that is Jim Channell doing middays as BOTH Tom Jones (9-noon) AND Steve Hanley (noon-3). He just loosened up and had more fun as Hanley. The 3-6pm slot sounds very amateur compared to the rest-possibly a fill-in until Channell could flesh out the air staff. And “The Gunner” sounds awesome as usual!
Dave, no disrespect meant by my earlier post, it just sounds like you are hung out there by yourself-doing your own news, etc. I have sometimes felt, as you put it, like a “midget surrounded by giants”, but who better to learn from. This sounds like a composite tape, with the Gunner running a contest with a different name, and his times overlapping with Dave’s-could Dave’s shift have been a weekend slot?
I have no idea how my show wound up on this tape. Other than when I was running the Captain Beefheart contest, I don’t remember any daytime shifts. Maybe someone got sick. I sounded shaky and inexperienced, but this was my first gig.
No, Dan. the late Steve Hatley was a different DJ and a friend and mentor to me. Jim Channell was the Program DIrector.
When conditions were right, I could pick up KSTP in SE Colorado during my high school years 1970-1974. I really enjoyed listening at night to a jock that went by the name of the Cosmic Cowboy. Can anyone give me any information on him? Real name or other air names…other stations worked, etc. I have not been able to find any airchecks of him.
Try this: //www.live365.com/stations/c_bar_dick
Dan Fox: Steve Hatley died in 1981….Jim Channell is alive and well. The pic next to the link for Andy Barber’s KSTP aircheck at //reelradio.com/js/index.html shows both Channell *and* Hatley.