Contributor Karl Phillips has sent in some wonderful goodies, including most of the WQXI airchecks here on the site. Its only appropriate, then, that we take the time to feature one of his own airchecks.
Our contributor describes this aircheck:
I was in line to be drafted when I worked at Quixie in 1969 so I joined the Navy and ended up at AFRTS in Keflavik doing all nights. Thom Whetston and I are acquaintances and he has posted my airchecks from AFRS 1484 Keflavik from 1971 on his site. I sucked but I guess most people who would listen to me from back then would just be listening for the music.
I then was stationed in San Juan and worked at Bob Hope’s station WBMJ 1190 going by the name Scott Brady….. doing fill in and weekends and sleepin on the couch at the radio station working 6 – midnight and then getting up at 6 am and signing it on and going till noon. They loved me there. I also worked at progressive rock WIAC-FM in San Juan. Then at WBMJ they wanted us to start calling it Radio Rock…then BAM they blew it up and changed to spanish jocks. I couldn’t speak Spanish so they got rid of all of us except Moonshadow who now works for a number 1 FM in NYC doing mornings. The WBMJ english management took us all and bought WRAI, and we went Top 40 English and did well replacing WBMJ….taking all of their English speaking listeners with us.
This aircheck is probably the only other time I’ve heard Pink Floyd’s “Us and Them” on AM radio… than when I played it on 1570 WYHI Fernandina Beach, FL. Cool…
I can date this aircheck.
This is April 14th, 1974.
I noticed there are no commercials here. Is this because of the hour, or was the station mainly non-commercial?
The station was brand new…probably only a couple of days old so it was the time of day, and the fact the we we’re brand new.
Thanks Karl
Phil in PHX. I don’t know how you dated that but sounds good and accurate to me. Thanks.
Karl Phillips
Karl- I did it in a few simple steps.
First, you announced on this check that you were playing the “brand new Chicago album…Chicago 7”. A simple google check shows this album was released in 1974.
To get the exact date, I just googled a few of the baseball scores that were announced as “yesterday’s scores”, and I got April 13th…and since that was “yesterday”, the date of this aircheck would therefore be April 14th, 1974.
Great aircheck, btw!
Paul in PHX – Nice of you to complement my aircheck. Great work pinpointing the date. I was stationed in the Navy in PR. and was soon discharged after this aircheck and chose to return to Atlanta rather than stay at WRAI.
Karl
I actually flew down there looking for work in the summer of ’75…I met Radio Man, the GM, but by this time the station didn’t sound as together as on this aircheck. The jocks included Dave White and Phil Baker. RadioRock was the hottest sounding station in town at the time. The only other english language station was an MOR station, WHOA. Fun aircheck!
Radio Man was the GM when I was there and I worked with Dave White. I worked with Phil Baker at WBMJ before the language change and Moniker change to Radio Rock. They did sound good using the “shotgun” jingle Bill Drake format. Wish I knew where Phil Baker was now. To my knowledge there are no English Top 40’s there in Puerto Rico any more.