Harry Nelson on 68 WRKO Boston | Summer 1979

680 Boston WRKO

Credit, once again, our good friend Matt over at Big Apple Airchecks for this look at Boston’s legendary 68 WRKO!

No I can’t give you an exact date on this aircheck but we’ll just narrow it down to sometime around August 1979, based on one news item about Windsor Locks (CT) recovering from a tornado. I recall that event and remember seeing the planes flipped over by one of the hangars on the way to Bradley International shortly thereafter. The music kinda gives it away too. One of our listeners will have a better idea (so be sure to post where it says ‘comments’ at the bottom of this post).

This is the same Harry Nelson as heard in our KFRC San Francisco Composite Part 3, but there is a bit of a difference in that Boston’s a bit more laid-back than the city-by-the-bay, and it shows here. This day, Harry’s filling in for Dennis John Bailey (and I suspect he’s programming WRKO at this point, too).

You’ll hear one liners from Harry Nelson, News from Carol Ann Murdoch, and a bunch of tunes from the new Fleetwood Mac album (intros only), since WRKO claims to be the only station in New England with a copy before it’s released…. and Harry Nelson says he locked the studio door to make sure he doesn’t get a cease and desist order from the record company for playing it!

This aircheck is definitely very close to the end of the top 40 era at WRKO… within a year (just a couple of months, actually) it would drop the hits and go soft AC in a downward spiral that would inevitably lead to TalkRadio 68 and a new era of talk legends like Jerry Williams and Gene Burns in the mid-80s… and the not-so-legendary Howie Carr today. But for now lets go back to a fun time – 1979 with Harry Nelson on 68 RKO!

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