Jim O’Brien, Dan Donovan, 56 WFIL Philadelphia | January 24, 1977

Big Apple Airchecks Matt Seinberg New York TradersStill technically a Top 40 station, WFIL has a one man morning show and plays everything – Some golden oldies thrown in which go back to the 60s, and lots of current hits, disco included. This is a wonderful glimpse of how WFIL sounded just before throwing in the towel and moving to an Adult Contemporary format later in 1977.

Can you identify the jingle package in use? There’s a generous amount on the air at this point in time, even a cut for the Philadelphia Flyers NHL team!

Glenn Barton is the newsman and Jim O’Brien is the lone morning guy, in the days before two or more people were common in morning drive. O’Brien does weather breaks, sports updates… just about everything. AM Top 40 fans will liken this to Harry Harrison’s morning show on WABC just up the NJ Turnpike… and speaking of, you’ll hear Dan Ingram voice a spot at about 6:30 into this aircheck.

Don’t forget to get your copy of WFIL “Killer Gold”. On sale at a store near you. Or at least it WAS, in 1977. Presumably, this was a K-Tel release, but perhaps someone knows.

At 9 minutes in, you’ll hear the great Dan Donovan, who was legendary at WFIL! This jumps from morning drive to the 5pm hour for some odd reason. The afternoon Newsguy is Jim Walsh. Unfortunately, the news is scoped out, but you hear the news sounder

There is a hint of reverb, which may have been more pronounced heard live instead of a worn out tape as we have here. This is a FUN aircheck, that you don’t want to miss hearing.

Courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks!