Ken Gilbert, 97.1 WZRT Rutland, VT | June, 1993

97.1 Rutland WZRT Z97
Ken Gilbert promotional from WAQY “Wacky 102”

Recording Date: June, 1993 (Exact Date Unknown)
Station: 97.1 WZRT Rutland VT (Wikipedia) (Website)
Format: Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR)
Branded: Z-97
Featured Air Personalities: Ken Gilbert (Jock), Bob Bascomb (News)
Contributor: Ken Gilbert
#1,578

 

I’m all set today, I’ve got my gun cleaning kit and my bag of trail mix…

Curator’s Notes:

This begins with the news. Bob Bascomb may be remembered from his network anchor position, ABC, if memory serves, but here doing the local news. The main stories being, Plattsburgh (NY) Air Force Base is recommended for closure, and president Clinton praises Congress for passing a massive debt reduction package.

While this is a CHR station, there are two things that stick out to me. First, knowing Ken Gilbert’s work over the years, he sounds very subdued here. It could be that this is the morning show and they are used to sleepy here in northern Vermont. Second, the music stands out as being very AC. Again, likely because this is the morning show and it used to go without saying that if you didn’t have shock jocks or a funny morning show, then it should be laid back and informative. This is the latter. Notice the amount of “Oldies” being played along with the hits. Interesting, to say the least.

This was provided on cassette. The raw playback was a rather muffled, low fidelity recording which I had to clean up and post produce along with scoping the music out. I think you’ll be pleased with the results. Overall, I’d give this morning show a 4 out of 5 due to it’s hyper local, full service to it’s community approach. It is refreshing to listen to, here in this day of satellite morning shows, over the top humor and overly political comments. To think, this was 23 years ago as of this writing! Much has changed, that’s for sure.

Here are some other Ken Gilbert airchecks you may enjoy:

Ken Gilbert, WAQY Springfield Mass | Summer, 1981
Ken Gilbert, 102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford | December 27, 1987
Ken Gilbert, 103.7 WKNE-FM Keene NH | February 19, 1994