Courtesy of Webmaster Steve West.
Here’s the only known recording of the final show, 7-12 Midnight, on the old CHR formatted “Wacky 102” WAQY Springfield Massachusetts. My good friend Jim Kaye was known as the “Big Tuna“, and says on this recording that he had been with the station for seven years, which would place him there back at a time when WAQY was automated Top 40, and most of the audience was listening to AM. But, at this point in time, while ratings were down, ‘The Whack’, as the slogan had morphed into, was still enjoying enormous popularity 12+
This was such a hugely popular station among high schoolers. It seemed everyone was listening. Maybe that was the trouble, everyone under the age of 18 WAS listening. But they don’t buy cars and big-ticket items. And adult at-work listeners didn’t care for 16 commercials an hour and hard rock. And so it was that my absolute favorite radio station in 1981, my junior year, dumped what was arguably the most popular format among people my age in favor of then-AOR (it wasn’t a complete loss… I was a big fan of all the Rock that the new Rock 102 would play so then THAT turned into my favorite station as I matured). I digress.
What you hear on this aircheck is night guy Jim Kaye doing his last show before the format change – at midnight. Tell me, just how many stations do you know of that allow the jock to do a ‘last show’? This one belongs in a museum… and to the best of my knowledge, I am the only one who had the foresight to pop a tape into my cheap recorder. To think, I never expected to keep it this long. In fact, the tape did self-destruct sometime in the last year, so this digital copy is all that’s left… and this, again, is apparently the ONLY copy of Tuna’s last show. Enjoy it!
This is a classic Thanks for bringing me on a trip back to my childhood. By the way do you know where i can find air checks of Rich Roy and Tommy Macks Shows on WHYN?
I taped about an hour of this show, including an archive of a “J and K” show. I have no idea what happened to the tape, but I think it’s possible that I still have it packed away somewhere….
Hi Steve! I did NOT realize it was YOU who ran this EXCELLENT WEB SITE!!!! (I have visited many times before!!!) Just wanted to say THANKS SO MUCH for preserving my LAST SHOW at WACKY 102..!!! THOSE WERE the DAYS!!!! I went BACK to WAQY-FM in 1984, Part time doing the GOLDRUSH OLDIES SHOW Sunday Mornings until 1988 (Had a disagreement about the playlist with the P.D.) So I MOVED the show to WHMP-FM in Northampton, Mass in 1988 until 1995… I MISSED RADIO SO MUCH, that in June 2008, THANKS TO THE INTERNET, the GOLDRUSH was RESURRECTED! (A WEBCAST with VIDEO and AUDIO on 5150fm.com) Then in January, 2009 Moved the webcast to //smashfm.biz – where I am having TOO MUCH FUN playing a mix of 50 years of Rock, R&B., Pop and Soul… Sunday Nights… PLUS! My Good Friends, Former WACKY jocks GLEN FM STEVENS and KEN ‘SQUIRT BABY SHOOT’ GILBERT are on smashfm, too! We are all BACK TOGETHER on WACKY SUNDAYS at smashfm! – ALL OF US HAVING FUN DOING RADIO THE WAY IT USED TO BE!! (and YOU CAN WATCH US!)
UDATE… Since 2011, The GOLDRUSH can now be heard (and seen via webcam) Sunday Nights around 8pm EST, ON //www.atomicradio.us and, be sure to check out the WAQY Staff past & present website: //www.facebook.com/groups/51548769650/
IF you are an old or current WAQY employee and have not joined the website, PLEASE DO… WOULD LOVE to hear from you!!!
ANOTHER UPDATE… The GoldRush oldies show “lives on” only on the internet at yet ANOTHER website as of 2016… //vaughnlive.tv/retroradiooldies (but possibly not for long, as we are STILL having technical problems!) -Big Tuna Jim Kaye (now an OLD Tuna! – still playing 50+ years of Rock and Roll, Pop, R&B and Soul!)
Hi Jim !
Hey Rick! Sent you a facebook message… did you receive it? Thanks… JIM K.
Alas, this aircheck has suffered the ill fate of the omnipresent
error 404. Perhaps someday it will be resurrected.
Bob, you’re the winner of the “find a bug” contest. we moved Airchexx to a new, larger server over the weekend and were trying to find bugs. You found the first. So, THANK YOU!.
That said, the Tuna Last Show aircheck now works. Enjoy
No more Real Audio! I dug up the master, doctored it up real nice and we have a nearly broadcast quality recording to listen to now. Sometimes Adobe Audition is the most wonderful piece of software on the planet! Well worth what I paid for it!
Jim, trying to get a hold of you.
Rick Kominsky (the ex WHYN/WAQY/WTCC engineer guy)
rick_kay@hotmail.com
Ah the old wacky 102 remember It fondly growing up in the 70’s. I thought and my memory isn’t what It used to be but thought the last dj before the format change was Ken Barlow but I must be mistaken.Any one know what has become of him these days? Thanks for the memorys love the fb page too.
Ahh the Big Tuna. It was a shame that the format change lost him at 45 Fisher Ave. Guess it was the right format though since it’s still on the air there after 34 years. I believe Tuna was replaced by Fred Norris who soon after ditched us for a guy named Howard.