Recorded right after the MLB All-Star break in July 1988, this is what the Imus in the Morning show sounded like in the final months of WNBC Radio. At the time, nobody knew that the station was being sold to Emmis and would go away later in the year.
Listen for a ton of great Imus characters, including “Mr. T” & Howard Cosell (I believe these were done by newsman & sidekick Charles McCord). There are some great Imus rants here! About halfway into this aircheck, Imus goes on a tirade against former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis – this was because Dukakis chose Lloyd Bentson of Texas to be his running mate instead of, as Imus puts it, “my good friend Jesse Jackson”.
All the WNBC format elements are there. Reports from WNBC “Traffic & Transit” with Roz Frank, Don Criqui on Sports and WNBC News with longtime, legendary newsman Charles McCord.
Notice how in this 45-minute cassette side, there was just ONE song played! Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love”, which, once again, we had to tightly telescope out… but the intro/outro is there.
The quality of this aircheck is very good. The only thing that keeps it from being outstanding is the slight amount of background electronic noise present on the WNBC signal that day, recorded from Shelton CT. There are no audio dropouts and it appears that this was recorded on a typical, wideband AM radio. All the commercials have been left intact for historical purposes.
View this from our official Airchexx Classic Radio YouTube Channel
About the Contributor:
Bob Gilmore is a long time contributor to Airchexx.com. He is a radio engineer, carpenter, and avid aircheck collector, with thousands of cataloged cassette tapes at his home studio. Bob Gilmore is a broadcaster (currently heard weekends on our official Classic Hits station, HitOldies) and a licensed Amateur Radio Operator, WD1M.
Bob lives with his wife, his son, and two cats in Shelton, Connecticut.
This was recorded the morning of Thursday, July 14, 1988.