Courtesy of George, a trader who provided this via our sister site Radioinsight.com, here is a PERFECT recording of Ken Lock on KLIF, back in the very early days of Top 40 radio!
KLIF, of course, was the Gordon McLendon station in Dallas, at this point competing with crosstown KBOX for the Top 40 crown. But listen, this is *not* all Rock & Roll! The first song you’ll hear is from Lawrence Welk! The music is all over the place, which is what you’d expect from a genuine Top 40 station (not the pre-programmed and preformatted crap that passes for Top 40 today), and from a programming standpoint its a breath of fresh air.
What really stands out in this short aircheck is KLIF news. Sure, this is packaged with the usual beeps and other sound effects you’d hear in the 50s and early 60s, but KLIF did an outstanding job of reporting news, and given that this is 1961, its an amazing glimpse into what was deemed important in terms of serving a station’s City of Licence.
Listen to these ancient commercials. This is the perfect recording for an aircheck museum such as Airchexx!
Great aircheck! By the way, the jock’s name is Ken KNOX.
WHERE’S THE LINK!! to this darn aircheck!?!
Thanks for mentioning that. Fixed.
Making news exciting was Gordon McLendon’s specialty. He came from a background of re-creating baseball games where he evoked theater-of-the-mind techniques to make the experience visible in the listener’s mind. He loved breaking into a song for an “important news bulletin”. It was exciting! You just had to listen. Also, his news cruisers were on the case, with dispatches from “newscruiser 5” or “newscruiser 4”. I believe those were the two they had so as to sound like they had 4 or 5. Theater of the mind!
I was raised in Dallas and this brings back fond memories from my childhood!Thanks!
Cannot get it to play. He was my Father-in-law. I’d love to hear his voice agsin.
What is the issue? Why won’t it play?